AEM Workflow custom input data - aem

Question

I need to create a workflow in AEM that for a page (specified as payload) finds all the assets used on the page and uploads a list of them to an external service. So far I have most of the code ready, but business process requires me to use a special code for each of the pages (different for each run of the workflow), so that the list is uploaded to correct place.
That is when I have a question - Can you somehow add more input values for an AEM workflow? Maybe by extending the starting dialog, or adding some special step that takes user input? I need to be able to somehow specify the code when launching the workflow or during its runtime.
I have read a lot of documentation but as this is my first time using workflows, I might be missing something really obvious. I will be grateful for any piece of advice, including a link to a relevant piece of docs.

Answer 1

Yes, that is possible. You need to implement a dialog step in your workflow: https://docs.adobe.com/content/help/en/experience-manager-64/developing/extending-aem/extending-workflows/workflows-step-ref.html#dialog-participant-step

Answer 2

You could:
Create a custom menu entry somewhere in AEM (e.g. Page Editor, /apps/wcm/core/content/editor/_jcr_content/content/items/content/header/items/headerbar/items/pageinfopopover/items/list/items/<my-action>, see under libs for examples)
Create a client-library with the categories="[cq.authoring.editor]". So it is loaded as part of the page editor (and not inside the iframe with your page)
Create a JS-Listener, that opens a dialog if the menu-entry was clicked (see code). You can either use plain Coral UI dialogs, or my example misused a Granite page dialog (Granite reads the data-structure in cq:dialog, and creates a Coral UI component edit-dialog out of it - while Coral is the plain JS UI-framework)
Create a Java-Servlet, that catches your request, and creates the workflow. You could theoretically use the AEM servlet. But I often have to write my own, because it lacks some features.
Here is the JS Listener:
/*global Granite,jQuery,document,window */
(function ($, ns, channel, window) {
"use strict";
var START_WORKFLOW_ACTIVATOR_SELECTOR = ".js-editor-myexample-activator";
function onSuccess() {
ns.ui.helpers.notify({
heading: "Example Workflow",
content: "successfully started",
type: ns.ui.helpers.NOTIFICATION_TYPES.SUCCESS
});
}
function onSubmitFail(event, jqXHR) {
var errorMsg = Granite.I18n.getVar($(jqXHR.responseText).find("#Message").html());
ns.ui.helpers.notify({
heading: "Example Workflow",
content: errorMsg,
type: ns.ui.helpers.NOTIFICATION_TYPES.ERROR
});
}
function onReady() {
// add selector for special servlet to form action-url
var $form = ns.DialogFrame.currentFloatingDialog.find("form");
var action = $form.attr("action");
if (action) {
$form.attr("action", action + ".myexample-selector.html");
}
// register dialog-fail event, to show a relevant error message
$(document).on("dialog-fail", onSubmitFail);
// init your dialog here ...
}
function onClose() {
$(document).off("dialog-fail", onSubmitFail);
}
// Listen for the tap on the 'myexample' activator
channel.on("click", START_WORKFLOW_ACTIVATOR_SELECTOR, function () {
var activator = $(this);
// this is a dirty trick, to use a Granite dialog directly (point to data-structure like in cq:dialog)
var dialogUrl = Granite.HTTP.externalize("/apps/...." + Granite.author.ContentFrame.getContentPath());
var dlg = new ns.ui.Dialog({
getConfig: function () {
return {
src: dialogUrl,
loadingMode: "auto",
layout: "auto"
}
},
getRequestData: function () {
return {};
},
"onSuccess": onSuccess,
"onReady": onReady,
"onClose": onClose
});
ns.DialogFrame.openDialog(dlg);
});
}(jQuery, Granite.author, jQuery(document), window));
And here is the servlet
#Component(service = Servlet.class,
property = {
SLING_SERVLET_RESOURCE_TYPES + "=cq:Page",
SLING_SERVLET_SELECTORS + "=myexample-selector",
SLING_SERVLET_METHODS + "=POST",
SLING_SERVLET_EXTENSIONS + "=html"
})
public class RequestExampleWorkflowServlet extends SlingAllMethodsServlet {
#Override
protected void doPost(#Nonnull SlingHttpServletRequest request, #Nonnull SlingHttpServletResponse response) throws IOException {
final Page page = request.getResource().adaptTo(Page.class);
if (page != null) {
Map<String, Object> wfMetaData = new HashMap<>();
wfMetaData.put("workflowTitle", "Request Translation for " + page.getTitle());
wfMetaData.put("something", "Hello World");
try {
WorkflowSession wfSession = request.getResourceResolver().adaptTo(WorkflowSession.class);
if (wfSession != null) {
WorkflowModel wfModel = wfSession.getModel("/var/workflow/models/example-workflow");
WorkflowData wfData = wfSession.newWorkflowData(PayloadInfo.PAYLOAD_TYPE.JCR_PATH.name(), page.getPath());
wfSession.startWorkflow(wfModel, wfData, wfMetaData);
MyServletUtil.respondSlingStyleHtml(response, HttpServletResponse.SC_OK, "Triggered Example Workflow");
} else {
throw new WorkflowException("Cannot retrieve WorkflowSession");
}
} catch (WorkflowException e) {
MyServletUtil.respondSlingStyleHtml(response, HttpServletResponse.SC_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR, e.getMessage());
}
} else {
MyServletUtil.respondSlingStyleHtml(response, HttpServletResponse.SC_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR, "Internal error - cannot get page");
}
}
}