Attachment preview on the form

Applies to version: 2020.3.x and above; author: Jarosława Markopolska

Introduction

The MODERN form allows users to view attachments without having to download them. You can preview an attachment in two ways – in the preview window and on the form. This option is available in the most popular web browsers such as Google Chrome, Opera and Firefox, and can be supported by various file formats (e.g. .xlsx, .docx, .pdf, .png).

This article describes the functionality of the attachment preview directly on the form.

Business case

A simple invoice processing workflow has been created:

Fig. 1. Invoice processing workflow

On the “Registration” step enter the invoice details and add the attachment. Then go through the “Register” path to the “Invoice description” step and describe the invoice by entering the invoice data in the form fields.

To effectively complete the task on the step, it may be useful to preview the attached invoice on the form (the preview window may cover the form).

Configuration of the attachment preview in the form

You can change the method of displaying the attachment on the form in WEBCON BPS Designer Studio:

Fig. 2. The configuration of the form in WEBCON BPS Designer Studio

The configuration consists of two steps:

1. On the global form template click the “Attachment preview“ option
2. In the “Properties“ tab uncheck the “Open in popup“ option

In the “Attachment preview panel” field you can preview the attachment – on the form it is the area under the transition paths panel. It can be changed by dragging this file with a mouse to the selected place on the form.

In the described example, the preview of the attachment was placed in the right panel – after clicking on the attachment, the preview will appear directly under the attachment.

Fig. 3. The preview of the attachment in the form

If you want to speed up the work of users, the preview of the attachment may be displayed immediately after loading the page. In the step edit window select the “Show first attachment on page load” option. This solution can be used if you want to always have the preview open then the option to hide the preview will be disabled.

Fig. 4. Step edition - properties

Comparison

For comparison, a window preview of the attachment is presented in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5. The attachment preview

The differences between viewing an attachment on the form and in the window are presented in the following table:

Summary

WEBCON BPS allows you to view the attachment in the form. Thanks to this there is the option to work on the form simultaneously with an open preview of the attachment.