Administrator Guide 2017
Set a value for an item within the document

Set a value for an item within the document refers to an item in a job that is associated with the template (see Item Types). The way the value is set depends on the Update mode specified below.

Main

 Main screen for this action

*Description

A descriptive text to identify this action
*Unique name of item to update All items (and other objects in your template) have a unique name. This will be automatically generated by magic5 but can be amended to create something more meaningful. If you do not know the unique name, click on the item that you wish to update and make a note, or copy it to the clipboard, to enter, or paste, here. Please be aware that if the form has already been used then changing the unique name can undermine data integrity and should be avoided.
*Value to set This is the value that you will allocate to the item identified in 'Unique name of item to update'.  Report processing variables can be used here.
Update mode

Update mode determines how magic5 will behave when updating the attribute.  The drop-down box contains the following options:

  • Overwrite existing value – takes the value entered above and replaces the existing value.  This is useful for recording date of most recent visit.
  • Append to existing value – adds the new value onto whatever was there before.  A full history of visit dates might be held in a string of data.
  • Append to existing value with date/time heading – as above, the new value is added to the string of existing data but with the current date/time as well
  • Create value only, don't overwrite – will never overwrite/update so it will only be created once as a new value.  This is useful for recording the date of a first visit or assigning a job number to a job that may take some time to complete.

Conditions

This action will only be triggered if the conditions below are met. Leave blank if it is always to be executed.

Condition (1)-(4) If you wish to only run an action in a particular situation then you can use these conditions to specify them. The action will only occur if both conditions are satisfied. Typical uses are to only run an action or display an item if a particular answer has been given to one of the answers on the template.
For more help on using Display Conditions view the how-to guide.
Disable action

Tick this box to unconditionally disable this action.  This is the same as inserting a display condition that will never be fulfilled (eg. resultValue;xxx;equals;999 where there is no unique name of xxx).
Custom condition using 'and/or'

The text box under “Conditions (advanced)” allows custom conditions. These are tested in addition to any simpler conditions above.

If simple and complex conditions are both added then it will “AND” them together but each can be used on their own.

 

  • Each individual condition is the same as before (see above and how-to guide), but must be enclosed in square brackets.
    [condition type;unique name;test type;value to test] for example [resultValue;Priority;equals;High]
  • or and and test two or more conditions. NB. These are case-sensitive, OR and AND will not work
    • parentheses (curved brackets) give precedence to conditions. For example, to make A and B or C less ambiguous, use either:
      • (A and B) or C
      • A and (B or C)
  •  nesting can be used:
    • Surround each condition with [ and ]
    • Use lower-case or and and
    • Explicitly set precedence using ( and )
    • for example
      • ([resultValue;Priority;equals;High] and [resultValue;City;equals;London]) or (([resultValue;City;equals;Manchester] or [resultValue;City;equals;Leeds]) and [resultValue;Priority;equals;Medium])

Post-action processing (advanced)

After an action has finished running a file can be executed on the server. This could be, for instance, a .exe or a .bat file. Typically this would be used to insert data into another system.

File name to run Enter the full path and filename here.  Ensure that it is correctly spelt and that the file extension (such as .exe or .bat) is also correct.
Command line to run If the file specified above requires additional information on its command line, please enter it here. Contact your magic5 expert for further help.
Folder to run from Enter the full path and folder name that the executable programme needs to be launched from.
URL Instead of running an executable file locally, an http request can be sent to the URL specified here. It can contain standard variables.
HTTP verb Choose the http verb to be sent with the request to the URL specified above.  If you do not know what this is, ask your magic5 expert.
HTTP request body This will be very different in different circumstances and probably needs to defined at the implementation stage. It can contain standard variables and may contain the data entered on the form.
See Also
Set a value for the associated job

Templates

Template
Template action

Reports

Should I create a unique number on the device or on the server?

Manage Reports

Generate sequential numbers