How to display multiple files with document link in a single column

Question

Hi, 
 I have a grid style interface based on process backed record. One of the column(Documents) has multiple files. See the screenshot below:

I'm trying to display download link for the docs listed. I am getting error "Could not display interface. Please check definition and inputs. Interface Definition: Expression evaluation error at function a!forEach [line 358]: Error in a!forEach() expression during iteration 1: Expression evaluation error at function 'document' [line 361]: The passed parameter(s) are of the wrong type. Received the type List of Document." 
 Here is the code: a!gridTextColumn(
 label: "Documents",
 field: "documentAttachmentArray",
 data: if(local!datasubset.totalCount=0,{},a!forEach(items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: joinarray(index(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {}),"; "))),
 links: a!forEach(
 items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: joinarray(a!documentDownloadLink(
 label: document(index(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {}),"name"),
 document: index(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {})
 ),"; ")
 )
 ) 
 
 Any help is appreciated. 
 Thanks, 
 Meena

Mike Schmitt · Accepted Answer

A few things: 
 1) In my previous example, I made sure the index() calls returned "null" when no data was found, instead of an empty set. This is important. 
 2) I strongly encourage you to not over-compress your code (i.e. removing so many newlines), it makes it nearly impossible to read and make sense of, either as a third party, or in my experience, if i come back some time later even to my own code. 
 Please try this version and let me know if it seems to address the link issues. The intent is that rows without the target document will get a blank label (and link) for that document instead of "stealing" the document from the subsequent row. 
 a!gridTextColumn(
 label: "Documents",
 field: "documentAttachmentArray",
 data: if(
 local!datasubset.totalCount=0,
 {},
 a!forEach(
 items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: joinarray(rule!OMC_getDocNames(index(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {})),"; ")
 )
 ) 
),
a!gridTextColumn(
 label: "Cover Letter",
 /*field: "documentAttachmentArray",*/
 data: if(
 local!datasubset.totalCount=0,
 {},
 a!forEach(
 items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: rule!OMC_getDocNames(
 index(
 property(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {}),
 1,
 null() /* This needs to be "null" instead of "empty set" to work */
 )
 )
 )
 ),
 links: if(
 local!datasubset.totalCount=0,
 {},
 a!forEach(
 items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: rule!OMC_getDocLinks(
 index(
 property(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {}),
 1,
 null() /* This needs to be "null" instead of "empty set" to work */
 )
 )
 )
 )
),
a!gridTextColumn(
 label: "Memo",
 /*field: "documentAttachmentArray",*/
 data: if(
 local!datasubset.totalCount=0,
 {},
 a!forEach(
 items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: rule!OMC_getDocNames(
 index(
 property(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {}),
 2,
 null() /* This needs to be "null" instead of "empty set" to work */
 )
 )
 )
 ),
 links: if(
 local!datasubset.totalCount=0,
 {},
 a!forEach(
 items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: rule!OMC_getDocLinks(
 index(
 property(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {}),
 2,
 null() /* This needs to be "null" instead of "empty set" to work */
 )
 )
 )
 )
)

Mike Schmitt · Answer

I meant to mention about those earlier - they need to be updated such that they can be run with a single null value and return null instead of breaking. In our revised code we are (as required) running each rule on one document at a time, passing in either the document id or null(), not an array. (I believe once passed into the rule, this is cast to an array of 1, either {doc ID} or {null()} ) 
 This modification to getDocNames seems to prevent it breaking when passing in {null()} as the rule input: 
 if(
 or(
 isnull( ri!docList ),
 length( ri!docList ) = 0
 ),
 null,
 a!forEach(
 items: ri!docList,
 expression: document(
 fv!item,
 "name"
 )
 )
)

Mike Schmitt · Answer

I think your only choice might be, like Subhad also mentioned already, to use an Editable Grid - in the old style paging grid, there isn't any way that I know of to have multiple links in a single given cell in a paging grid, due to the way the configuration works. 
 Out of curiosity, is upgrading to 19.2+ on your roadmap at all? 18.2 is missing many newer features which I would consider essential at this point.

Mike Schmitt · Answer

Alternatively I'd suggest maybe not worrying about showing the documents / links in the record list grid like you have here - i assume you're allowing a user to link to that record, so why not just show a downloadable list of documents once they're on the interface for a particular record? I'd suggest that having downloadable documents at the top level like you're trying to do adds unnecessary clutter to the already dense grid, though with that said I have no way of knowing what your customer requirements are. If you are required to show those documents and you can't go with an editable grid, then you could perhaps show just the plain names of the documents instead of their IDs.

Mike Schmitt · Answer

Yeah - as I mentioned above, you can add a max of 1 link per cell in the old style paging grid. Your options are pretty much limited to upgrading to 19.2+ and using the updated grid, or perhaps as a workaround for now, you could add a second column and just show one document in each column (and just don't show any content in the second column when it's not indicated).

Mike Schmitt · Answer

The only other option I can think of is to split out to 2 columns, one for each document you'd like to link, as I mentioned above - did you consider this method? It would be fairly easy at least.

Mike Schmitt · Answer

Try this. 
 a!gridTextColumn(
 label: "Date Approved",
 field: "OMCAppointmentInfo.AppointeeOM.DateApproved",
 data: if(
 local!datasubset.totalCount=0,
 {},
 property(property(local!datasubset.data.OMCAppointmentInfo, "AppointeeOM",{}), "DateApproved",{})
 )
),
a!gridTextColumn(
 label: "Date Removed",
 field: "OMCAppointmentInfo.AppointeeOM.DateRemoved",
 data: if(
 local!datasubset.totalCount=0,
 {},
 property(property(local!datasubset.data.OMCAppointmentInfo, "AppointeeOM",{}), "DateRemoved",{} )
 )
),
a!gridTextColumn(
 label: "Document 1",
 field: "documentAttachmentArray",
 data: if(
 local!datasubset.totalCount=0,
 {},
 a!forEach(
 items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: 
 /*joinarray(*/
 rule!OMC_getDocNames(
 index(
 property(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {})
 1, /* return document array index 1 */
 null()
 )
 ),
 /*"; "*/
 /*)*/
 )
 ),
 links: a!forEach(
 items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: rule!OMC_getDocLinks(
 index(
 property(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {}),
 1, /* get link for 1st document */
 null()
 )
 )
 )
),
a!gridTextColumn(
 label: "Document 2",
 field: "documentAttachmentArray",
 data: if(
 local!datasubset.totalCount=0,
 {},
 a!forEach(
 items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: 
 /*joinarray(*/
 rule!OMC_getDocNames(
 index(
 property(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {})
 2, /* return document array index 2 */
 null()
 )
 ),
 /*"; "*/
 /*)*/
 )
 ),
 links: a!forEach(
 items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: rule!OMC_getDocLinks(
 index(
 property(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {}),
 2, /* get link for 2nd document */
 null()
 )
 )
 )
),
a!gridTextColumn(
 label: "Appointment Status",
 field: "status",
 data: if(
 local!datasubset.totalCount=0,
 {},
 property(local!datasubset.data,"status",{})
 )
), 
 I've done 3 things here: 
 1) split out the link column to 2 columns, each of which gets the name and link for one of two documents in the array, assuming there are only 2 (and it might need there to always be 2, though it should handle 1 or 0 documents with proper tweaking to null checks) 
 2) replaced all your "index()" calls with "property()", which helps with code readability for getting CDT properties, particularly since I had to use "index()" to get array index values for your documents, and nesting index() functions on top of each other with different usages gets crazy to read 
 3) adjusted your formatting some. 
 A final note: as an aside, I see all of your columns have "if(local!datasubset.totalCount=0,{}" qualifiers, but this shouldn't be needed in the case of an empty set because when empty, your index (property) statements already return the empty set ("{}") correctly. So removing these could help simplify your code a bit if you care to do that... but it won't help or hurt your current use case.

Mike Schmitt · Answer

Here's the same code but with the additional code cleanup I mentioned above: 
 a!gridTextColumn(
 label: "Date Approved",
 field: "OMCAppointmentInfo.AppointeeOM.DateApproved",
 data: property(property(local!datasubset.data.OMCAppointmentInfo, "AppointeeOM",{}), "DateApproved",{})
),
a!gridTextColumn(
 label: "Date Removed",
 field: "OMCAppointmentInfo.AppointeeOM.DateRemoved",
 data: property(property(local!datasubset.data.OMCAppointmentInfo, "AppointeeOM",{}), "DateRemoved",{} )
),
a!gridTextColumn(
 label: "Document 1",
 field: "documentAttachmentArray",
 data: a!forEach(
 items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: rule!OMC_getDocNames(
 index(
 property(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {})
 1, /* return document array index 1 */
 null()
 )
 ),
 ),
 links: a!forEach(
 items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: rule!OMC_getDocLinks(
 index(
 property(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {}),
 1, /* get link for 1st document */
 null()
 )
 )
 )
),
a!gridTextColumn(
 label: "Document 2",
 field: "documentAttachmentArray",
 data: a!forEach(
 items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: 
 rule!OMC_getDocNames(
 index(
 property(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {})
 2, /* return document array index 2 */
 null()
 )
 ),
 ),
 links: a!forEach(
 items: local!datasubset.data,
 expression: rule!OMC_getDocLinks(
 index(
 property(fv!item, "documentAttachmentArray", {}),
 2, /* get link for 1st document */
 null()
 )
 )
 )
),
a!gridTextColumn(
 label: "Appointment Status",
 field: "status",
 data: property(local!datasubset.data,"status",{})
),

How to display multiple files with document link in a single column

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