Issues when upploading a document to a datasource/Environment with required attributes

Question

Hi! 
 I&rsquo;m trying to add a document to a datasource, but when I try and add it using aaApi_CreateDocument () it fails&hellip; 
 The reason is that there are some attributes are required or requires a value != null and I guess they don&rsquo;t have a default value set. 
 Is there a way to upload a new document and set required attributes simultainously? 
 
 If I try and add a document manually without using a wizard I get the same issue, &ldquo;Last Error [ 58116 ] Error creating new document. Required field has no value.&rdquo; so the user is forced to use the wizard. 
 
 Any help would be greatly appreciated! 
 /Per

Dan Williams · Accepted Answer

It would really be helpful if you posted a code snippet to show how you are using the function. I would encourage anyone with "problems" with code, to post code snippets to help others help you as it really doesn't help to say "something doesn't work, why is that?" Please don't take this personally, as it is very common, and we all do it at some point and to some degree. I suspect that the environment for the folder where you are trying to create a document is configured to create an attribute row when a document is created and that you are not accounting for that in your code. What are you are specifying the value for the parameter "ulFlags"? If you haven't already done so, try setting this parameter to AADMSDOCCREF_NO_ATTR_RECORD and see if that "fixes" your problem. As the developer, you need to make sure that you follow the intention of the various datasource and user settings as not all of them (most are not) enforced at the API level as that is what makes using the API functions so powerful as you can "override" default behavior (but not security and some datasource or user settings). 
 To answer your question about "is it possible", no, but you can make it look like it is as that is what the Wizard is doing. It creates the document first, but has the information that it needs to create the attribute row, so after creating the document without an attribute row, it then creates the attribute row using the values that the user specified in the wizard (and it probably first validated that those values would work). You probably should do the same in your code. Make sure that you have (or know) any required attribute values before creating the document so that you (the developer) don't break the intention of the PW Administrator of not having documents created without an attribute row.

Dan Williams · Answer

Darius, "Words are getting in the way" again. I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish since you can't update attribute values if they don't exist, and you say "I have tried this method and it works fine to create a new document", i.e., you create a document without attributes, etc. I think you mean that you want to create the attributes after the document has been created without any attributes, and that some attributes are required, and there is a document code involved. The "good news" is that you can create document codes with the API. Look under Modules -> ProjectWise DMS API -> Document Code... The "not so good news" is that you will need to follow whatever the rules are for the document coding for the document's environment and that probably requires you (the developer) to understand what the contraints are for providing any parts of the code for the context. If this is done as an extenion to ProjectWise Explorer, then you can always prompt the user for the details. If this is a "background" tool, then you will need to determine what the rules are for creating the document code for a document and then implement those rules. I've done such a thing, but as most things goes, the 80/20 rule comes into play, i.e. you get the requirements and implement them, and then "discover" that you only implemented 80% of what the user needed because you didn't know all the exceptions to the rules... As for "writing" attribute values, i.e. creating attribute, there are three steps: 1. Initialize the INSERT buffer 2 .Populate the INSERT buffer 3. Write the buffer to the database. The actual process to do this is a bit involved. You need information about the table behind the environment, as well as other information. Updating attributes is similar: 1. Initialize the UPDATE buffer 2. Populate the UPDATE buffer 3. Write the buffer to the database. Here's the code I provide for the solution to the related lecture and exercies in the PW SDK class I teach: /**************************************************************************** * * ProjectWise(TM) CONNECT Edition Software Development Kit * Sample Application * Copyright (C) 2018 Bentley Systems, Incorporated * All Rights Reserved * ****************************************************************************/ // Solution for exercise "Working with Attributes" // MyAttributes01.cpp : Defines the initialization routines for the DLL. // #include "stdafx.h" #include "MyAttributes01.h" #ifdef _DEBUG #define new DEBUG_NEW #endif // //TODO: If this DLL is dynamically linked against the MFC DLLs, // any functions exported from this DLL which call into // MFC must have the AFX_MANAGE_STATE macro added at the // very beginning of the function. // // For example: // // extern "C" BOOL PASCAL EXPORT ExportedFunction() // { // AFX_MANAGE_STATE(AfxGetStaticModuleState()); // // normal function body here // } // // It is very important that this macro appear in each // function, prior to any calls into MFC. This means that // it must appear as the first statement within the // function, even before any object variable declarations // as their constructors may generate calls into the MFC // DLL. // // Please see MFC Technical Notes 33 and 58 for additional // details. // // CMyAttributes01App BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP(CMyAttributes01App, CWinApp) END_MESSAGE_MAP() // CMyAttributes01App construction CMyAttributes01App::CMyAttributes01App() { // TODO: add construction code here, // Place all significant initialization in InitInstance } // The one and only CMyAttributes01App object CMyAttributes01App theApp; // CMyAttributes01App initialization BOOL CMyAttributes01App::InitInstance() { CWinApp::InitInstance(); return TRUE; } int CMyAttributes01App::ExitInstance() { // TODO: Add your specialized code here and/or call the base class return CWinApp::ExitInstance(); } /****************************************************************************** Exercise 1, Step 4 Set a breakpoint at the beginning of this function. *******************************************************************************/ extern "C" int WINAPI DocCmd_CreateNewSheet ( unsigned int count, long* pProjects, long* pDocuments ) { AFX_MANAGE_STATE(AfxGetStaticModuleState()); /****************************************************************************** Exercise 2, Step 1 Create a loop to process each document. In the real world, you would want to give the user a way to cancel the loop if you show each error, or a way to process all of the documents and review the errors later. We won't do that in this exercise. Just show errors as you go and don't worry about giving the user a way to cancel the processing, just stop on the first error. Hints: Use aaApi_SetLastError() and aaApi_ShowLastError() for custom error messages. To make your error codes unique from ProjectWise, you should use AAERR_USERERROR_FIRST as your starting point for your custom error codes. ******************************************************************************/ for (LONG i=0; i<(LONG)count; i++) { /****************************************************************************** Exercise 2, Step 2 We need some information about the environment. Hint: We can get two key items that we need from the document's folder by using aaApi_GetEnvTableinfoByProject(). ******************************************************************************/ LONG lEnvId = 0L; LONG lTableId = 0L; LONG lAttrColId = 0L; // the column id that holds the attribute id's value if (!aaApi_GetEnvTableInfoByProject (*(pProjects+i), &lEnvId, &lTableId, &lAttrColId)) { aaApi_SetLastError (AAERR_USERERROR_FIRST+1, L"Could not get environment info.", L"Problem with selecting environment info using project id."); aaApi_ShowLastError (); return AAERR_USERERROR_FIRST+1; } /************************************************************************** Exercise 2, Step 3 We need to determine the column ids that we will need for our values. Since the documents passed to use could be from different folders with different environments, we will look these up for each document to keep things simple. Hints: Use aaApi_SelectColumnsByTable(), then get the names of each using aaApi_GetColumnStringProperty() and when you find a match, use aaApi_GetColumnNumericProperty() and save that column id to a local variable with a meaninful name like LONG lo_string10ColId. We will need it later. Make sure you add error handling, but keep it simple by displaying your own error message and then returning from the function. ***************************************************************************/ LONG lo_string10ColId = 0L; LONG lo_string40ColId = 0L; LONG lo_string80ColId = 0L; LONG lColCount = aaApi_SelectColumnsByTable( lTableId ); if (lColCount==0) { aaApi_SetLastError (AAERR_USERERROR_FIRST+2, L"Could not get column info.", L"Table appears to have no columns!"); aaApi_ShowLastError (); return AAERR_USERERROR_FIRST+2; } else if (lColCount==-1) { aaApi_SetLastError (AAERR_USERERROR_FIRST+3, L"Could not get column info.", L"Problem with selecting column info using table id."); aaApi_ShowLastError (); return AAERR_USERERROR_FIRST+3; } // sentinal value of zero... lo_string10ColId = 0L; lo_string40ColId = 0L; lo_string80ColId = 0L; for (LONG j=0; j

Dan Williams · Answer

Darius, 
 The documentation doesn't always SHOUT OUT the limitations clearly. If you look at the documentation for aaApi_CreateLinkDataAndLink(), it does mention that it is for "...provided for the legacy code sake..." (grammar could be better!). 
 Try using aaApi_CreateEnvAttr() instead as it will use the next available "code" automatically.

Dan Williams · Answer

Darius, 
 My apologizes, when I teach the ProjectWise SDK class, C++ is used and aaApi_CreateEnvAttr() is used in the exercises. 
 I see that aaApi_CreateEnvAttr() isn't in MostOfDavesClasses, and that he does use aaApi_CreateLinkDataAndLink(). 
 Here's some C# code that I have used to create attribute rows using aaApi_CreateLinkDataAndLink(): 
 // create the new link row
 int iLinkColId = 0;
 StringBuilder sbVal = new StringBuilder(30);

 if (!PWWrapper.aaApi_CreateLinkDataAndLink(iTableId, 1, curDoc.ProjectId, curDoc.DocumentId, ref iLinkColId, sbVal, sbVal.Capacity))
 {
 LogIt.WriteLogError("Could not create attributes for {0}", curDoc.Name);
 LogIt.WriteLogOnlyPwError();
 return false;
 }
 
 I don't really see any difference in how you are calling that method, so please post your code for your class.method that creates the attribute rows and perhaps someone might be able to spot the issue you are having. 
 And re-reading your post, I'm wondering if the ProjectWise Environment has Document Coding enabled? Does it?

Dan Williams · Answer

I'm happy to hear that you have your code working. 
 I'm wondering how you are determining the serial number, assuming that this serial number is part of a ProjectWise Document Code. Hopefully, you took a look at using aaApi_CodeSerialGenerate(). 
 I suppose that you could "manually" determine the "next" or "first available" serial number yourself, but that sounds like more effort than necessary and probably generates more "over the wire" traffic. Keep in mind that users can reserve Document Codes in advance, so if you are trying to determine the "next" or "first available" via your own code, you may overlook what's been reserved and those values won't work until they are released by the user, leaving your code to possibly fail and the reason not entirely clear. 
 If you aren't familiar with ProjectWise Document Coding, I would recommend reading up on it in all of the various help files (Admin, Explorer and SDK), as well as experimenting with reserving documents codes.