Data fields on instance object

Configuration of data fields for app.

It is useful to add extra information to instance objects in some cases. For example allowing routing the instance to the correct system in a service owners backend.

This can be done in two ways, by configuration or manually. Using configuration, the system will extract data from the form fields and add these to the instance object. This method is limited to form fields, but avoids programming it by yourself. If you choose to do it manually you have the freedom to add data you might want from for example external APIs, calculations, string constants, etc.

It is also possible to make use of both methods as long as you use different ids on the data fields. The configured values will then be collected together with the manual ones in the instance.

Data fields are in many ways similar to presentation fields. But where the use of presentation fields is predefined, the use of data fields is completely up to the individual application owner.

Configuration

Configuration of data fields is done in applicationmetadata.json which is located in the folder App/config.

Add a new object with the key dataFields, using the following properties

The configuration for an app with two defined data fields will look like this:

"dataFields": [
  {
  "id": "AnsettelseAntAar",
  "path": "OpplysningerOmArbeidstakeren-grp-8819.Arbeidsforhold-grp-8856.AnsattAar-datadef-33267.value",
  "dataTypeId": "default"
  },
  {
  "id": "Navn",
  "path": "OpplysningerOmArbeidstakeren-grp-8819.OpplysningerOmArbeidstakeren-grp-8855.AnsattNavn-datadef-1223.value",
  "dataTypeId": "default"
  }]

The result will be a list in the instance object with values from the configured fields:

"dataValues": {
    "AnsettelseAntAar": 10,
    "Navn": "Ola Nordmann"
}

Notice that the instance object is named dataValues even when the configured is named dataFields, this is because dataValues is the result of the configuration which is done in dataFields.

Manually

To manually add data values the method UpdateDataValuesfrom the IInstance interface is used. It is the same method which is called when the fields in dataValues are populated from configuration and it will merge all values into a list.

The example below displays how to set data values manually. In this case it is done by adding code within RunProcessTaskEnd in App.cs, which is run when a task is completed.

public override async Task RunProcessTaskEnd(string taskId, Instance instance)
{
    var customDataValues = new DataValues() { Values = new Dictionary<string, string>() { { "customKey", "customValue" } } };
    var (instanceOwnerPartyId, instanceGuid) = InstanceHelper.DeconstructInstanceIdFromUrl(_httpContextAccessor.HttpContext.Request.Path.Value);

    await _instanceService.UpdateDataValues(instanceOwnerPartyId, instanceGuid, customDataValues);

    await Task.CompletedTask;
}