force startprocesslink always open in a new tab?

Hey,

Using this method allows you to open the interface in a new tab. In the link field, you need to provide the opaque ID and cache key, which can be obtained from the `startprocesslink` function.

However, It is advisable to avoid the following approach as the parameters may changes in different scenarios.

a!localVariables(
local!startProcessLink: a!startProcessLink(
processModel: Process Model Constant,
processParameters: Parameters for the Process Model
),
a!linkField(
links: a!safeLink(
label: "Open Form",
uri: "[site url]/suite/tempo/start-process/" & local!startProcessLink.processModelOpaqueId & "?parameters=" & local!startProcessLink.cacheKey,
openLinkIn:"NEW_TAB"
)
)
)

If I were you, I would challenge the approach.

The interface that opens, what are they? A task assigned to the user, or just a listview, or something else? Because you could take out one of these interfaces from the process model and use various link fields available.

When there is a task in a process, I do not see any good reason to try to open another process from it and somehow jump into that user interface.

In my small world, I implement mostly process driven applications in Appian. This means that the process model in Appian is a close approximation of that business process. Then, having three buttons in a task means, that the user needs to make a decision about how the next step in the process. For me, this is then just a XOR in the model.

The parent process is basically a dashboard with a whole bunch of buttons for different actions that open new interfaces. Unfortunately this is a very large and old system, and the client wants to change as little as possible. So is there a way to force startprocesslink to open in a new tab, or do you know of another solution that might work here? Thanks!

Depends on the nature of these "new interfaces". Can you provide a few more details?

Sure. So the parent form is a user input task in a parent process. The UI on the parent user input task contains multiple cards configured with submitlinks. Depending on which card the user selects, a different subprocesses is initiated in the parent process. There are user input tasks in each of these sub processes, that load in the same tab as the parent UI when the user selects a card. 

Does that help? 

Yes. But as that task is submitted, I do not see any way to open the follow up UI in new tab.

I would remove the submit link. What I am doing now is replacing the submit link with a startProcessLink, which works well but requires the user to Control + Click in order to open in a new tab. They just want to left click without having to hold cntrl. 

The technique to (use unsupported functionality to) open a start process link in a new tab has been posted already - i'll admit i've used it here or there, but usually for unofficial / testing / non-user-facing use cases.

The other thing I can think of that uses more "supported" functionality would be the thing you're already thinking of - basically, to establish a "dummy" record type, for instance, and create record actions that you can invoke (adding them as on-form record actions using that alternative functionality) for arbitrary use cases.

I've asked in the past for more options for "start process link" - imho we should be able to configure it to target "new tab" or "pop-up", for flexibility of various options.  For the moment though it's buried in the product backlog behind a decade worth of new/flashy/"sellabe" features that i won't have any use case for in the next 5 years at a minimum

Hi Mike, 

Thanks for the info, and that sounds about right with the backlog haha. I will see what I can do.