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Working with Java Objects

This section explains how to work with serialized Java objects in embedded task forms.

note

Out of the box, you can only work with Java objects that are serialized in JSON format. If Java classes are serialized using JAX-B, you need to add custom XML parsing and writing logic to the embedded form. Java objects serialized using Java Serialization cannot be used in forms.

Fetching an Existing Serialized Java Object Variable​

The Form SDK will only fetch variables that are actually used in a form. Since a complex Java object is usually not bound to a single input field, we cannot use the cam-variable-name directive. Therefore, we need to fetch the variable programmatically:

<script cam-script type="text/form-script">
  camForm.on('form-loaded', function() {
    // tell the form SDK to fetch the variable named 'invoiceData'
    camForm.variableManager.fetchVariable('invoiceData');
  });
  camForm.on('variables-fetched', function() {
    // work with the variable (bind it to the current AngularJS $scope)
    $scope.invoiceData = camForm.variableManager.variableValue('invoiceData');
  });
</script>

Creating a New Serialized Java Object​

In case the variable does not yet exist (for instance in a Start Form), you have to create the variable and specify the necessary metadata in order for the process engine to correctly handle the variable as a Java object.

<script cam-script type="text/form-script">

  var dataObject = $scope.dataObject = {};

  camForm.on('form-loaded', function() {

    // declare variable 'customerData' including metadata for serialization
    camForm.variableManager.createVariable({
      name: 'customerData',
      type: 'Object',
      value: dataObject,
      valueInfo: {
        // indicate that object is serialized as JSON
        serializationDataFormat: 'application/json',
        // provide class name of Java object to map to
        objectTypeName: 'org.operaton.bpm.example.CustomerData'
      }
    });

  });

</script>