Trouble with SDK flat set and attributes

Question

( Google translation, sorry ) 
 Hello 
 I have a problem with the flat set . 
 
 By creating them, by hand or with 
 
 aaApi_CreateFlatSet(lngProjectId, lngDocumentCreeId, 0, 0, ptrStrNomJeu, ptrStrDescription, 
 lngChildProjectId, lngChildDocumentId, 0) 
 the link request to the environment attributes table record does not return a record : 
 NbValues = aaApi_SelectLinkDataByObject(lngTablePropID, AADMSLDT_DOCUMENT, lngProjectId, lngDocumentID, 0, 0, 0, 0) 
 NbValue is null.

In the user interface, simply filling in an attribute creates the link that becomes visible to aaApi_SelectLinkDataByObject 
 
 NbValue equal 1 
 
 This problem does not occur with a normal document. 
 
 My program must inform the attributes of the newly created flat set, I search how to create this link to the table, but I cannot find. 
 I tried various things, but without success. 
 
 Does anyone have ideas or tracks? 
 Thank you !

Didier POUZET · Accepted Answer

Thank you for the code. it's a bit complicated 
 I translated it into VBA for MS-Office: 
 ' S&#233;lectionne les enregistrements dans le tampon statique
 NbLignes = aaApi_SelectLinkDataByObject(lngTableAttributs, AADMSLDT_DOCUMENT, lngProjectId, lngDocumentCreeId, 0, 0, 0, 0)
 Select Case NbLignes
 Case Is = ID_ABORT ' -1
 lOK = aaApi_ShowLastErrorMessageBox
 Stop

 Case Is = ID_NONE ' 0 : il faut cr&#233;er l'enregitrement
 lColCount = aaApi_SelectColumnsByTable(lngTableAttributs)
 Select Case lColCount
 Case Is = ID_ABORT ' -1
 lOK = aaApi_ShowLastErrorMessageBox ' renvoie un strptr sur le message de l'erreur
 Stop
 Case Is = ID_NONE ' 0 : table vide ?
 Stop
 End Select
 ' Nettoyer le descripteur d'insertion (?)
 aaApi_FreeLinkDataInsertDesc
 ' Remplir une colonne
 strText = "Via API"
 ptrstrText = StrPtr(strText)
 lColumnId = 1
 lOK = aaApi_SetLinkDataColumnValue(lngTableAttributs, lColumnId, ptrstrText)
 If lOK = 0 Then
 lOK = aaApi_ShowLastErrorMessageBox
 MsgBox aapi
 Stop
 End If
 ' Cr&#233;er l'enregistrement dans PW
 ptrrecAttribute = 0
 Linkage.lLinkageType = AADMS_EALNK_DOCUMENT
 Linkage.DocumentID.lProjectId = lngProjectId
 Linkage.DocumentID.lDocumentId = lngDocumentCreeId
 Linkage.lEnvironmentId = 0
 ptrLinkage = VarPtr(Linkage)
 lOK = aaApi_CreateEnvAttr(lngTableAttributs, ptrLinkage, ptrrecAttribute)
 If lOK = 0 Then
 lOK = aaApi_ShowLastErrorMessageBox
 Stop
 End If


 
 Everything works up to aaApi_CreateEnvAttr, and then I have the error: 
 "Error while creating link data. S ome parts of the mandatory code are empty" 
 What did I forget?

Dan Williams · Answer

Take a look at this post: https://communities.bentley.com/products/programming/projectwise_programming/f/projectwise-programming---forum/158362/how-to-create-update-attributes-for-a-document-using-c 
 Creating/updating/deleting attributes (or "sheets") use the same process for flat sets as for documents. You need to determine the ProjectId and DocumentId for the flat set and use those values in your calls to the functions to create/update/delete the attributes. 
 HTHs

Dan Williams · Answer

I would have to see all of your code in order to walk through it, but if you are trying to create rows in the attribute table (the environment), and there are no existing rows, then there's no point in trying to select the existing links and I would use aaApi_SelectLinks() instead of aaApi_SelectLinkDataByObject() to do that as it is more efficient as the point of the ByObject function is being able to pass a WHERE clause which will bypass any cached data and force a "over the wire" database select and return of data. 
 To create a new row, you just need to determine the tableId and the column id for the AttributeId column, then you can initialize the buffer, set the properties of the attributes you want to fill in, and the create the row. 
 Take another look at the sample I posted, specifically the function DocCmd_CreateNewSheet(). The key steps are: 
 
 Use aaApiGetEnvTableinfoByProject()
 
 To get the keys to tableId, AttrColId

Use aaApi_SelectColumnsByTable()
 
 To get the ids to the columns you want to populate

Use aaApi_FreeLinkDataInsertDesc()
 
 To initialize the buffer

Use aaApi_SetLinkDataColumnValue()
 
 To set the value for the columns you want to populate

Use aaApi_CreateEnvAtt()
 
 To write the data

And of course, keep checking for errors as you go.

Dan Williams · Answer

Didier, 
 To answer your question "what is the use of lplldColumnId from aaApi_GetEnvTableInfoByProject?" 
 It's a bit complicated... In the ProjectWise SDK class that I teach, I spend about 1/2 day on the topic of how to create, update and delete user attributes. The underlying problem is that the API functions involved were written early in the product's history and don't really abstract these processes. The API functions involved pretty much mimic what is happening, or needs to happen, at the database level. Another confusing thing is that there is a table (dms_link) between the document table (dms_doc) and the environment table (table name is what you named it when you created it). This many-to-many table, dms_link, from a database perspective, isn't really needed for how user attributes could be implemented, but it is a legacy from when ProjectWise allowed you to create "external" database tables and link rows from the external table to rows in the document table. This is still supported in the API, but not used by the product. 
 Also, as I try to emphasize in the training, "words get in the way", and I don't mean any problems between languages (Finish to English, etc.), but subtle differences in function/struct/variable names. If you see the word, and only the word, "link" in an API function, it has to do with the table dms_link. If you see the word, and the full word, "linkdata" in an API function, then it has to do with the environment table, i.e. the values of the user attributes. 
 There are several columns added to your environment table when it is created that ProjectWise uses for variable purposes, one of them is essentially a "primary key", i.e. the column named o_attrno (dww - typo, actually named a_attrno). This is the column that the API needs in order to create, insert, or delete rows in the environment table. This column's location (column id) in an environment table is not always in the same position, but the position is noted in the dms_link table. If you look at dms_link, you can see that it stores the table id (o_tabno) and the column id (o_colno) and the value (o_colvalue). These are the three things you need to know in order to use the API functions that manipulate user attributes. Why o_colvalue is stored as a string when o_attrno (dww - typo, actually named a_attrno) is always an integer? Well, because that's the way it was implemented! 
 So, lplldColumnId is the column number of the environment table that is the "primary key", at least from ProjectWise's perspective. 
 There is more than one way to get the information you need, i.e. the table no and environment id of the environment, and the column no of the o_attrno (dww - typo, actually named a_attrno) column, but the most direct way, because you already know the project id (folder no) is a call to aaApi_GetEnvTableInfoByProject(). 
 The point of calling aaApi_SelectColumnsByTable() is for you to determine the column id(s) of the columns that you want to provide values for. If you hard code the column ids, you risk being wrong if you use the code on a different environment or another datasource, or if for one reason or another, the column id changes (because of third party tools, etc.) A common technique is to look these values up once per session and save them for future use. However, these values are already cached by ProjectWise, so looking them up each time doesn't really take much overhead, probably the same amount that you would need to create your own cached values. 
 As for why your code isn't working, or not giving you the results you expect, well I'm not really sure because I haven't run a debugger against it, etc. However, I suspect that the problem may be how VB is implementing AAEALINKAGE as that is a C struct with a union. 
 When you run a debugger against your code, does the call to aaApi_GetEvnTableInfoByProject() return the correct values for the environment id, table no and column no? From what I gather from your code, it looks like you are checking the values, and I assume that they are OK and your code then selects all the columns from the environment table, but it looks like you don't do anything with that and hard code filling the buffer after you initialize it. And then you setup the values in the AAEALINKAGE structure and call aaApi_CreateEnvAttr() which fails complaining " Error while creating link data. S ome parts of the mandatory code are empty". 
 Again, my guess is that the pointer to the structure AAEALINKAGE is not what the API function is expecting. All I see in your code is: 
 Dim Linkage As AAEALINKAGE 
 How does VB know what AAELINKAGE is?

Dan Williams · Answer

Didier, 
 Sorry about the typo. So many of the column names in the dms* tables start with "o_", I just forgot that the columns added by ProjectWise in environment tables tend to start with "a_". 
 There are some "requirements" for formatting your data as a string when calling aaApi_SetLinkDataColumnValue(), specifically, how you format a date. Also, you should not (cannot) set the values for any of the ProjectWise added columns, especially the one named a_attrno. I'm not sure (yet) from your code if that is happening or not. 
 Can you please log into the ProjectWise Administrator client and the export the environment that you are using and post the .aam file somewhere I can download it from? I want to take a look at how your environment table is structured. .aam files are text files, so if you prefer, you can just email it to me at Dan.Williams@Bentley.com. 
 A few more pieces of information would be helpful. 
 
 What version of ProjectWise Explorer are you running on your client? 
 What version of ProjectWise SDK are you using? 
 What version of ProjectWise is in use on the Server where the datasource is located? 
 What vendor and version is the underlying database for the datasource? 
 What specific version of "VB" are you using as well as your development environment (Visual Studio I assume, but which version/edition)? 
 
 Once I get the .aam file and additional information, I'll try to look into what is likely to be the problem and see if I can "fix" it.

Trouble with SDK flat set and attributes

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