Forms Storage Adapters

When a User adds a form record, the Forms API routes the processing of the request through the storage adapter API. The same is true for the other CRUD operations performed on form entries (read, update, and delete operations). The default implementation of the storage service is called JSONStorageAdapter, and as its name implies, it implements the StorageAdapter interface to provide JSON storage of form entry data.

The DDM backend can adapt to other data storage formats for form records. Want to store your data in XML? YAML? No problem. Because the storage API is separated from the regular service calls used to populate the database table for form entries, a developer can even choose to store form data outside the Liferay database.

Define your own format to save form entries by writing an OSGi component that implements the StorageAdapter interface. The interface follows the CRUD approach, so implementing it requires that you write methods to create, read, update and delete form values.

The example storage adapter in this tutorial serializes form data to be stored in a simple file, stored on the file system.

Figure 1: Choose a Storage Type for your form records.

Figure 1: Choose a Storage Type for your form records.

Note that these code snippets include the references to the services they’re calling directly beneath the first method that uses the service. It’s a Liferay code convention to place these at the very end of the class.

Implementing a Storage Adapter

First declare the class a Component that provides a StorageAdapter implementation. To implement a storage adapter, extend the abstract BaseStorageAdapter class.

@Component(service = StorageAdapter.class)
public class FileSystemStorageAdapter extends BaseStorageAdapter {

Step 1: Name the Storage Type

The only method without a base implementation in the abstract class is getStorageType. For the file system storage example, just make it return "File System".

@Override
public String getStorageType() {
    return "File System";
}

Return a human readable String, as getStorageType determines what appears in the UI when the form creator is selecting a storage type for their form. The String value you return here is added to the StorageAdapterRegistry’s Map of storage adapters.

Step 2: Override the CRUD Methods

Next override the doCreateMethod to return a long that identifies each form record with a unique file ID:

@Override
protected long doCreate(
    long companyId, long ddmStructureId, DDMFormValues ddmFormValues, 
    ServiceContext serviceContext)
    throws Exception {

    validate(ddmFormValues, serviceContext);

    long fileId = _counterLocalService.increment();

    DDMStructureVersion ddmStructureVersion =
        _ddmStructureVersionLocalService.getLatestStructureVersion(
            ddmStructureId);

    long classNameId = PortalUtil.getClassNameId(
        FileSystemStorageAdapter.class.getName());

    _ddmStorageLinkLocalService.addStorageLink(
        classNameId, fileId, ddmStructureVersion.getStructureVersionId(),
        serviceContext);

    saveFile(
        ddmStructureVersion.getStructureVersionId(), fileId, ddmFormValues);

    return fileId;
}

@Reference
private CounterLocalService _counterLocalService;

@Reference
private DDMStorageLinkLocalService _ddmStorageLinkLocalService;

@Reference
private DDMStructureVersionLocalService _ddmStructureVersionLocalService;

The first line in this method (and the subsequent doUpdate method) calls a validate method that’s not yet written, so don’t save the class until you’ve written that method.

In addition to returning the file ID, add a storage link via the DDMStorageLinkLocalService. The DDM Storage Link associates each form record with the DDM Structure backing the form.

The addStorageLink method takes class name ID as retrieved by PortalUtil.getClassNameId, the fileId (used as the primary key for the file storage type), the structure version ID, and the service context. There’s also a call to a saveFile method, which serializes the forms record’s values and uses two additional utility methods (getStructureFolder and getFile) to write a java.io.File object. There are some other utility methods invoked as well:

private File getFile(long structureId, long fileId) {
    return new File(
        getStructureFolder(structureId), String.valueOf(fileId));
}

private File getStructureFolder(long structureId) {
    return new File(String.valueOf(structureId));
}

private void saveFile(
        long structureVersionId, long fileId, DDMFormValues formValues)
    throws IOException {

    String serializedDDMFormValues = _ddmFormValuesJSONSerializer.serialize(
        formValues);

    File formEntryFile = getFile(structureVersionId, fileId);

    FileUtil.write(formEntryFile, serializedDDMFormValues);
}

@Reference
private DDMFormValuesJSONSerializer _ddmFormValuesJSONSerializer;

Note the call to the write method.FileUtil is a Liferay utility class for manipulating java.io.File objects. By default, the write method writes the data into the user home folder of your system.

Override the doDeleteByClass method to delete the File using the classPK:

@Override
protected void doDeleteByClass(long classPK) throws Exception {
    DDMStorageLink storageLink =
        _ddmStorageLinkLocalService.getClassStorageLink(classPK);

    FileUtil.delete(getFile(storageLink.getStructureId(), classPK));

    _ddmStorageLinkLocalService.deleteClassStorageLink(classPK);
}

Once the file is deleted, its storage links should also be deleted. Use doDeleteByDDMStructure for this logic:

@Override
protected void doDeleteByDDMStructure(long ddmStructureId)
    throws Exception {

    FileUtil.deltree(getStructureFolder(ddmStructureId));

    _ddmStorageLinkLocalService.deleteStructureStorageLinks(ddmStructureId);
}

To retrieve the form record’s values from the File object where they were written, override doGetDDMFormValues:

@Override
protected DDMFormValues doGetDDMFormValues(long classPK) throws Exception {
    DDMStorageLink storageLink =
        _ddmStorageLinkLocalService.getClassStorageLink(classPK);

    DDMStructureVersion structureVersion =
        _ddmStructureVersionLocalService.getStructureVersion(
            storageLink.getStructureVersionId());

    String serializedDDMFormValues = FileUtil.read(
        getFile(structureVersion.getStructureVersionId(), classPK));

    return _ddmFormValuesJSONDeserializer.deserialize(
        structureVersion.getDDMForm(), serializedDDMFormValues);
}

@Reference
private DDMFormValuesJSONDeserializer _ddmFormValuesJSONDeserializer;

Override the doUpdate method so the record’s values can be overwritten. This example calls the saveFile utility method provided earlier:

@Override
protected void doUpdate(
        long classPK, DDMFormValues ddmFormValues,
        ServiceContext serviceContext)
    throws Exception {

    validate(ddmFormValues, serviceContext);

    DDMStorageLink storageLink =
        _ddmStorageLinkLocalService.getClassStorageLink(classPK);

    saveFile(
        storageLink.getStructureVersionId(), storageLink.getClassPK(),
        ddmFormValues);
}

Once the CRUD logic is defined, deploy and test the storage adapter.

Step 3: Validating Form Entries

The doCreate and doUpdate methods above both include this line:

validate(ddmFormValues, serviceContext);

Because the Storage Adapter handles User entered data, it’s important to validate that the entries include only appropriate data. Add a validate method to the StorageAdapter:

protected void validate(
    DDMFormValues ddmFormValues, ServiceContext serviceContext)
	throws Exception {

	boolean validateDDMFormValues = GetterUtil.getBoolean(
		serviceContext.getAttribute("validateDDMFormValues"), true);

	if (!validateDDMFormValues) {
		return;
	}

	_ddmFormValuesValidator.validate(ddmFormValues);
}

Make sure to do three things:

  1. Retrieve the value of the validateDDMFormValues attribute.

  2. If validateDDMFormValues is false, exit the validation without doing anything.

    When a User accesses a form at its dedicated link, there’s a periodic auto-save process of in-progress form values. There’s no need to validate this data until the User hits the Submit button on the form, so the auto-save process sets the validateDDMFormValues attribute to false.

  3. Otherwise, call the validate method from the DDMFormValuesValidator service.

Once the necessary logic is in place, deploy and test the Storage Adapter.

Enabling the Storage Adapter

The storage adapter is enabled at the individual form level. Create a new form, and select the Storage Adapter before saving or publishing the form. If you wait until first Saving the Form, the default Storage Adapter is already assigned to the Form, and this setting is no longer editable.

  1. Go to the Site Menu → Content → Forms, and click the Add button (Add).

  2. In the Form Builder view, click the Options button (Options) and open the Settings window.

  3. From the select list field called Select a Storage Type, choose the desired type and click Done.

Now all the form’s entries are stored in the desired format.

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