Attach Excel document to Contact in PlugIn

[collabex]

Hi,

I would like to be able to attach an Excel file to the Documents tab of a contact.  I have the plugin interface working, but can't figure out the ACT object model to accomplish the subject task.

Thank you for your assistance,

John

[mwood]

Hello collabex,

Below is a bit of code that creates a history item and attaches it to an opportunity. Attachments on the document tabs are history items of type Library Document, I think that's the biggest bit of confusion in regards to attachments.

OpportunityList ol = ActApp.ApplicationState.CurrentOpportunities;
Opportunity o = ol[0];
History h = ActApp.ActFramework.Histories.CreateHistory();
string filePath = @"D:\Images\Sage_Logo.gif";
Act.Framework.SupplementalFiles.Attachment att =
                    ActApp.ActFramework.SupplementalFileManager.CreateAttachment(AttachmentMate.History, filePath, "This File", false);
HistoryType ht = ActApp.ActFramework.Histories.GetHistoryType("Library Document");
h.OpportunityList = ol;
h.CreateUserID = ActApp.ActFramework.Contacts.GetMyRecord().ID;
h.HistoryType = ht;
h.Regarding = "Test";
h.Details = "";
h.StartTime = System.DateTime.Now;
h.EndTime = System.DateTime.Now.AddDays(2);
h.ManageUserID = ActApp.ActFramework.Contacts.GetMyRecord().ID;
h.Update();

[collabex]

Hi Matthew,

Thank you for your quick response.

Can you briefly explain what each of the lines of code is doing?  You create an ht object, but then never reference it - why?  I see the CList object is created referencing the CurrentContact, but again it is never referenced again - why?

Thanks,

John

[mwood]

I didn't really look through it much before posting it and for that I apologize. My code often has remanents left over from testing similar issues (or very disimilar in this case). I read the name of my method, ctrl+c, ctrl+v...

I'm sorry if this has caused you any confusion, I've updated my post above with something that does create a document for an opportunity, modifying it to work with contacts is pretty straightforward, but if you have any issues with it then please feel free to post them here.

[collabex]

OK,

I got the code working to add a document shortcut to the current contact, which is below:

// Private Variables
private ActApplication _Application;
private ActFramework _ActFramework;
private ActApplicationState _ActApplicationState;

private void CreateDocumentShortcutForCurrentContact(string filePath, string displayName) {
    try {
        Attachment MyAttachment = _ActFramework.SupplementalFileManager.CreateShortcutAttachment(AttachmentMate.History, filePath, displayName, false);
        HistoryType MyLibraryDocument = _ActFramework.Histories.GetHistoryType("Library Document");
        Contact MyRecord = _ActFramework.Contacts.GetMyRecord();
        History MyHistory = _ActFramework.Histories.CreateHistory(_CurrentContact, MyRecord.ID, MyLibraryDocument, false, DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now, "", "", MyAttachment);
    }
    catch (Exception Ex) {
        ExceptionHandler(Ex);
    }
}      

Any comments on my code are welcome. 

Now I'm trying to figure out how to see if a shortcut to a file already exists to avoid duplicates.  How do I get this informatiion out of the current contact?

Thank you for the help,

John

[vivek]

Hi John,

There are a couple of ways to go abouts doing this, but both involve using the overloaded HistoryManager.GetHistories().

1. Get a HistoryList for the Contact and itterate through each history using an if statement on the HistoryType for each History object

2. Create a InFilter object to get only the Library history items for that Contact.

Approach 2 would seem the most logical way forward but doing IFilterCriteria is really tedious in the SDK!

ACT! SDK rule of thumb - always look at the entity manager class to see if there is a general method for what you are trying to do.

HTH

P.S. if you use the .GetHistories(HistorySortCriteria[], Contact) overload you can set the sortcriteria object to null so you just pass in null and the myContact object.

[collabex]

Hi,

I've written a little method to find out whether or not a shortcut already exists on a contact or not, which is below:

        private bool DocumentShortcutExistsForContact(string filePath, Contact contact) {
            bool Value = false;

            try {
                HistoryList MyHistoryList = _ActFramework.Histories.GetDocuments(contact.ID);

                int HistoryCount = MyHistoryList.Count;
                if (HistoryCount > 0) {
                    HistoryType MyLibraryDocument = _ActFramework.Histories.GetHistoryType("Library Document");
                    for (int i = 0; i < HistoryCount; i++) {
                        History MyHistory = MyHistoryList[i];
                        if (MyHistory.HistoryType == MyLibraryDocument) {
                            if (MyHistoryList[i].AttachmentFileName == filePath) {
                                Value = true;
                                break;
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }

            }
            catch (Exception Ex) {
                ExceptionHandler(Ex);
            }

            return Value;
        }

 When it hits this line:

History MyHistory = MyHistoryList[i];

I get the exception below:

System.ArgumentException was caught
  Message=Parameter USERID failed set its value to type String.
  Source=Act.Data
  StackTrace:
       at Act.Data.Parameter.set_Value(Object value)
       at Act.Framework.Histories.HistoryManagerDB.get_DataFetchCommand()
       at Act.Framework.ComponentModel.BaseManagerDB.GetDataRange(Guid[] keys)
       at Act.Shared.Collections.DataList`1.FetchDataRange(Guid[] newKeys)
       at Act.Shared.Collections.DataList`1.GetData(Guid key, Int32 index, Boolean isEnumeration)
       at Act.Shared.Collections.DataList`1.System.Collections.Generic.IList<T>.get_Item(Int32 index)
       at Act.Shared.Collections.DataList`1.System.Collections.IList.get_Item(Int32 index)
       at Act.Framework.Histories.HistoryList.get_Item(Int32 index)
       at CopingSystems.SF2ACT.CurrentContactPlugin.DocumentShortcutExistsForContact(String filePath, Contact contact) in C:\CopingS\Development\SF2ACT\CurrentContactPlugin.cs:line 359
  InnerException:

Any suggestions on why this is happening?

Thanks,

John

[wellmet]

I think there is a bug in that method.  If you substitute this line:

HistoryList MyHistoryList = _ActFramework.Histories.GetHistories(null,contact);

for this line:

HistoryList MyHistoryList = _ActFramework.Histories.GetDocuments(contact.ID);

your code should work.

Stan

[wellmet]

Actually you're going to have to use the AttachmentDisplayName instead of the AttachmentFilename or you will have to resolve the lnk file that is in the AttachmentFilename.

Stan

[mwood]

I'm not sure there's a bug here, I tested this in 14.1 SP1 with this:

private void GetDocuments()
        {
            Contact c = ActApp.ApplicationState.CurrentContact;
            HistoryList myHList = ActApp.ActFramework.Histories.GetDocuments(c.ID);
            HistoryList myAltHList = ActApp.ActFramework.Histories.GetHistories(null, c);
 
            String results = "GetDocuments: " + myHList.Count.ToString() +
                Environment.NewLine + "GetHistories: " + myAltHList.Count.ToString();
            MessageBox.Show(results);
        }

Both returned the correct number of history items, but it certainly can't hurt trying Stan's method admittedly this could have been an issue with a prior release that I'm just not aware of. What version are you running this against?