Introduction

This article describes how to build folder structures ('virtual' folders'). The structure is based on the configuration of each context folder.

You configure the folder structure in a text file in the designer.

The client gets the folder structure by requesting the new microservice named Structure Service.

For more general information, refer to the Frequently Asked Questions.

Folder Structure Configuration

This section describes the Folder Structure API. This API leads to individual folder structures for a folder (German: Ordner).

The REST calls used to request the folder structure for a single folder are documented here.

Syntax

The folder structure configuration is a text file with JSON-based syntax.

Structure Service Testing Tool

A testing tool is available to help you validate structure configurations. For more information, refer to the testing tool documentation.

Standard Structure

If no individual folder structure configuration is given for a folder, the standard structure offers 'structure elements' (German: Strukturelemente) as shown in the client:

Figure 1: Standard structure of a folder

Children tree definition

The configuration for the standard structure is shown in the following code sample. The details are explained below.

[
  {
    "title" : "All objects",
    "title_locales" : {
      "de":"Alle Objekte",
      "es":"Todos los objetos",
      "fr":"Tous les objets",
	  "it":"Tutti gli oggetti",
	  "pt":"Todos os objetos",
	  "ru":"Все объекты",
      "zh":"所有對象"
    },
    "key" : "Types",
    "field" : "type",
    "expanded" : true,
    "showempty" : true
  },
  {
    "title" : "Edited by me",
    "title_locales" : {
      "de":"Von mir bearbeitet",
      "es":"Editado por mí",
      "fr":"Edité par moi",
      "it":"Modificato da me",
      "pt":"Editado por mim",
      "ru":"Отредактировано мной",
      "zh":"由我編輯"
    },
    "key" : "ModifiedByMe",
    "condition" : "modifier=#CURRENTUSER#"
  },
  {
    "title": "Editors",
    "title_locales" : {
      "de":"Bearbeiter",
      "es":"Editores",
      "fr":"Éditeurs",
      "it":"Editors",
      "pt":"Editores",
      "ru":"редакторы",
      "zh":"編者"
    },
    "key": "Modifier",
    "field": "modifiertitle"
  },
  {
    "title" : "Modification range",
    "title_locales" : {
      "de":"Bearbeitungszeitraum",
      "es":"Rango de modificación",
      "fr":"Plage de modification",
      "it":"Gamma di modifica",
      "pt":"Faixa de modificação",
      "ru":"Диапазон модификации",
      "zh":"修改範圍"
    },
    "key" : "ModifiedRange",
    "method" : "daterange",
    "field" : "modified"
  }
]

Reference tree definition

Beginning with product version 5.16 an additional tree is offered that shows all objects referencing the current folder.

The structure tree that was described in the first section is able to show all children of a folder. If you model id references to the folder it is useful to show also these references to the current folder. There may be many other referencing objects and it is useful to be able to navigate to them.

Since product version 5.16, it is possible to model and use a reference tree to an object. Contrary to the structure tree, which is selecting all children, the reference tree is selecting all objects that have references to a target object. For example, you have two other objects, project and task that reference to a target object. The object 'project' defines an id reference field named 'participants' and the other object 'task' defines two reference fields named 'reviewer' and 'responsible'. We have 3 modeled id reference fields to the target object. The condition that is used to select these referencing object is this :

project.participants=#TARGETID# OR task.responsible=#TARGETID# OR task.reviewby=#TARGETID#

The default reference tree that is used for this is:

Reference definition example

[ 
{
        "title": "project",
        "title_locales": {
          "en": "Project",
          "de": "Projekt"
        },
        "key": "ReferenceType#project",
        "type": "project",
        "folder": [
          {
            "title": "participants",
            "title_locales": {
              "en": "Participants",
              "de": "Teilnehmer"
            },
            "key": "Referencefield#project.participants"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "title": "task",
        "title_locales": {
          "en": "Task",
          "de": "Aufgabe"
        },
        "key": "ReferenceType#task",
        "type": "task",
        "folder": [
          {
            "title": "Responsible",
            "title_locales": {
              "de": "Verantwortlich",
              "en": "Responsible"
            },
            "key": "Referencefield#task.responsible",
            "condition": "task.responsible=#TARGETID#"
          },
          {
            "title": "reviewby",
            "title_locales": {
              "de": "Prüfung von",
              "en": "Review by"
            },
            "key": "Referencefield#task.reviewby",
            "condition": "task.reviewby=#TARGETID#"
          }
        ]
      }

Each referencing type is given as a folder and each referencing field is a subtree element. To distinguish between the task responsible and the task reviewer an additional condition is set, that is using the current target id.

List of tree node element properties

Term		Description
[ ]	mandatory	Opens and closes the whole folder structure configuration. Use JSON syntax for arrays.
{ }	mandatory	Opens and closes the configuration of a node, as well as each subnode. Use a comma ( , ) to separate sets of curly brackets ( { } ). Use JSON syntax for objects.
key	mandatory	There is a unique key for each level in the tree. It is used to reference the results in the structure tree.
title	mandatory	The label for the key.
field	optional	The contents of the index field referenced here are displayed as subfolders in the structure. The value of 'field' can be the technical name of general object attributes (see chapter 'List of general object attributes') or of individual index data with the format 'technical and normalized name of object type','technical name of index field' (qualified technical name): In the case of system properties of object types the technical name doesn't contain a dor like 'creator' or 'created'. For standard object properties, the technical name contains the technical of the object type followed by the technical name of the property with a dot between them like 'invoice.amount'. For a table column, the technical name contains the technical of the object type followed by the technical name of the table followed by the column name with a dot between them like 'invoice.lineitem.name' In the case of a field defined in an abstract object type, its technical name must be used for this field. If the field is one of an abstract object type, all objects of the derived object types are shown in the corresponding list of objects. Note Only lower-case characters are allowed.
type	optional	Use 'type' to filter for a specific type. All elements provided in the result are instances of this type. Note Only lower-case characters are allowed.
condition	optional	Use 'condition' to filter objects. For more information, see the chapter 'Condition grammar'
method	optional	Use 'method' to aggregate objects in the following ways: daterange: For fields of type date and date/time. Aggregates objects by today, yesterday, this week (last seven days), last week, this month, last month, this year and last year. yearhistogram: For fields of type date and date/time. Aggregates objects by year. monthhistogram: For fields of type date and date/time. Aggregates objects by month. yearmonthhistgram: For fields of type date and date/time. Aggregates objects by a specific year and month (since product version 9.12) sum: Adds up the values of the referenced 'field'. avg: Build the average of the referenced 'field'. min: Gets the minimum value of the referenced 'field'. max: Gets the maximum value of the referenced 'field'. If 'method' is not defined, the default is 'count'. The aggregation will count the objects referenced by 'field'.
size	optional	For count aggregations, the structure service returns the first 10 results. If you want more results, you can set a higher limit (e.g., 10,000), for example, if 'showempty' is used and there are more than 10 structure elements. Note: A higher limit can decrease the performance of the aggregation. It is not recommended to set a high limit on each structure element definition. The size property can only be used if the method is 'count'. If the field reference is a catalog, it is not necessary to set the size in the structure element definition. The size is automatically set to the number of possible elements in the catalog. But it is still possible to override this behavior by setting a size.
folder	optional	To set up subfolder structures
hide	optional	A boolean that can be used to hide a folder from the result. It can be used to "pull-up" all child results. The result folder is always hidden from the result and all child results are shown in the parent result folder of this element.
expanded	optional	A boolean that controls whether a folder with substructure is shown expanded when the object view is opened. Default is 'false' (not shown expanded). Supported since product version 3.32
showempty	optional	A boolean that controls whether a folder with substructure shows all folders, regardless of whether an object can be found for it. The default is 'false' (no empty folders are shown). This property can only be used if the possible child elements are known. The element must have a field property. The child elements are known if a fixed catalog is used, the 'type' field is used, or if a 'showemptylist' property is provided for a string field.
showemptylist	optional	'showemptylist' can be used for fields of type catalog and string. If used, the elements of the list are shown even if no object with the value is given. If such an element is marked in the structure tree it is offered within the create object menu and preset in the create form. In case of a field of type catalog, the list values must be the data values of the catalog. [..., { "title": "Documents", "key": "Docs", "field": "eoxdocument.eoxdocumenttype", "showempty": true, "showemptylist": ["Whitepaper","Correspondence"] }, ...] Supported since product version 4.10
hideempty	optional	A boolean that controls whether a node folder element is shown if all child elements are empty. If set to 'true', the node element is hidden from the result, if the number of objects - the aggregations - is zero. If at least one child element is available, the folder element is shown. The property 'showempty' controls the behavior for empty child elements, while the property 'hideempty' controls the behavior of the parent element. Supported since product version 4.12
contextcondition	optional	The element is only visible if the context folder condition matches. In the following example, the node 'Candidate' is only shown if the personalfile class is a 'Applicant'. [ ..., { "key":"CandidateInformation", "title":"Candidate", "contextcondition":"personalfile.class='Applicant'", "folder":[ ... ] }, ... ] Hint: If a contextcondition is used, the service will carry out an additional call to Eleasticsearch to resolve the index data of the context folder. If used too often, this will decrease the performance. Supported since product version 4.12
sort	optional	If aggregation of a field is built by using the field property and the default method 'count', the results are sorted by relevance returning the most frequently used terms first. This behavior can be changed by using the 'sort' property. If set to 'count' (default), the most frequent terms are returned first. If set to 'title', the result is sorted alphanumerically by the user interface title. If a catalog is used for the 'field' property, the sort property can also be set to 'catalog', In this case, the return is sorted by the designed order of the catalog entries. [ ..., { "title": "Documents", "key": "Docs", "field": "eoxdocument.eoxdoctype", "sort": "title" }, ... ] Supported since product version 4.12

List of system properties for objects (term: 'field')

technical name	English name	Description
created	Created	Date of object creation.
creatortitle	Modified	'Last name, First name' of the creator.
filesize	Filesize	Size of the content in bytes.
mimetypegroup	File type	Group of files whose extension references one application. Examples: pdf, word, excel, image
modified	Edited	Date the object was last edited.
modifiertitle	Editor	'Last name, First name' of the last editor.
version	Version	Current version number (count starts with 1).

Condition grammar

The structure definition term "condition":"<condition grammar>" is used to define a search filter. This section describes the tokens used.

Token	Use	Description
#CURRENTUSER#	Placeholder	During runtime, the logged-in user name is used for filtering
#CURRENTYEAR#	Placeholder	During runtime, the current year is used for filtering
#LASTYEAR#	Placeholder	During runtime, the last year is used for filtering
#TODAY#	Placeholder	During runtime, today is used for filtering
#YESTERDAY#	Placeholder	During runtime, yesterday is used for filtering
#THISWEEK#	Placeholder	During runtime, this week is used for filtering. Example: { "title": "Edited by me this year", "key": "EditedByMeThisYear", "condition": "modifier=#CURRENTUSER# AND modified=#THISWEEK#" }
#LASTWEEK#	Placeholder	During runtime, the last week is used for filtering
#THISMONTH#	Placeholder	During runtime, this month is used for filtering
#LASTMONTH#	Placeholder	During runtime, the last month is used for filtering
#TARGETID#	Placeholder	Target id (in most cases a folder) that is used in a reference tree as root id. Supported since product version 5.16
#TARGETTYPE#	Placehoder	Target type name that is used in a reference tree as root type. Supported since product version 5.16
#CONTEXTID#	Placeholder	Context folder id that is the common parent for a structure tree. Supported since product version 5.16
#CONTEXTTYPE#	Placeholder	Context folder type. Supported since product version 5.16
YEAR	Modifier	A field modifier that can be used on datetime or date fields. It provides access to the year value of the field. Example: { "title": "Edited in 2016", "key": "Edited2016", "condition": "modified(YEAR)=2016" }
MONTH	Modifier	A field modifier that can be used on datetime or date fields. It provides access to the month value of the field. Example: { "title": "Edited in August 2016", "key": "Edited2016_08", "condition": "modified(YEAR)=2016 AND modified(MONTH)=08" } Supported since product version 9.12
PARENT	Modifier	A field modifier that can be used to resolve a hierarchical catalog node. This example shows all children of nodes with the value Europe which may be its countries: { "title": "Employees in Europe", "key": "EmpEurope", "condition": "personalfile.continent(PARENT)='Europe'" } It can be used for catalogue fields. The parent node itself is always included.
=	Operator	Compares for equality. Example: "condition":"modifier=#CURRENTUSER#"
!=	Operator	Compares two values. Result is true if they are not equal. Example: "condition": "modifier!=#CURRENTUSER"
<	Operator	Compares two values. Result is true if the first value is less than the second one. Example: "condition": "version<4"
>	Operator	Compares two values. Result is true if the first value is greater than the second one. Example: "condition": "version>1"
>=	Operator	Compares two values. Result is true if the first value is greater than or equal to the second one. Example: "condition": "version>=1" Since product version 5.8.
<=	Operator	Compares two values. Result is true if the first value is less than or equal to the second one. Example: "condition": "version<=1" Since product version 5.8.
AND	Operator	Logically combines two terms. Example: "condition": "doc.status!='new' AND doc.status!=null"
OR	Operator	Logically combines two terms. Example: "condition": "doc.status='started' OR doc.status='tobereworked'"
null	Value	Without value. Example: "condition": "doc.active=null"
false	Value	For comparing Boolean fields. Example: "condition": "doc.active=false"
true	Value	For comparing Boolean fields. Example: "condition": "doc.active=true"
[0-9]	Value	Integer value. Example: "condition": "doc.amount>4711"

Configuration Examples

This chapter explains the configuration syntax step by step.

One single folder for listing all context folder objects

The configuration is based on JSON syntax. The definition begins and ends with square brackets [ ]. Inside the brackets are lists, enclosed in curly brackets { }, of parameters defining the node attributes. The first example defines the shortest configuration with only one node. This node offers access to a list of all objects within the context folder.

Single node

[
 {
  "key":"all", 
  "title":"All objects"
 }
]

One folder for each object type

The next example extends the node by grouping all objects by type, as shown for the first node in Figure 1.

Single node with leaves

[
 {
  "key":"all",
  "title":"All objects", 
  "field":"type",
  "showempty":true
 }
]

Complex folder structure

The following complex example shows how to configure subnodes.

Complex configuration with many nodes and leaves

[
    {
      "title": "All",
      "key": "Common",
      "folder": [
        {
          "title": "Created by me",
          "key": "CreatedByMe",
          "condition": "creator=#CURRENTUSER#"
        },
        {
          "title": "Modified by me",
          "key": "ModifiedByMe",
          "condition": "modifier=#CURRENTUSER#"
        },
        {
          "title": "Modified by others",
          "key": "ModifiedByOther",
          "condition": "modifier!=#CURRENTUSER# AND modifier!='Bartonitz'"
        },
        {
          "title": "Modified by Martin",
          "key": "ModifiedByMartin",
          "condition": "modifier='Bartonitz'",
          "folder": [
            {
              "title": "Modified by Martin by years",
              "key": "modifiedyear",
              "field": "modified",
              "method": "yearhistogram"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "title": "By types",
          "key": "type",
          "field": "type"
        },
        {
          "title": "by file type",
          "key": "mimetypegroup",
          "field": "mimetypegroup"
        },
        {
          "title": "Year of modification",
          "key": "modifiedyear",
          "field": "modified",
          "method": "yearhistogram"
        },
        {
          "title": "Year of creation",
          "key": "createdyear",
          "field": "created",
          "method": "yearhistogram"
        },
        {
          "title": "By creator",
          "key": "creator",
          "field": "creatortitle"
        },
        {
          "title": "By modifier",
          "key": "modifier",
          "field": "modifiertitle"
        },
        {
          "title": "Time period of modification",
          "key": "ModifiedRange",
          "method": "daterange",
          "field": "modified"
        },
        {
          "title": "Time period of creation",
          "key": "CreatedRange",
          "method": "daterange",
          "field": "created"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Sickness notification",
      "key": "sicknessnotification",
      "type": "sicknessnotification",
      "folder": [
        {
          "title": "Longer then 3 days",
          "key": "sicknessnotificationlong",
          "condition": "sicknessnotification.numberdays>3"
        },
        {
          "title": "By years",
          "key": "year",
          "method": "yearmonthhistogram",
          "field": "sicknessnotification.begin",
          "folder": [
            {
              "key": "days",
              "method": "sum",
              "title": "Days",
              "field": "sicknessnotification.numberdays"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "title": "Child sick",
          "key": "sicknessnotificationchild",
          "condition": "sicknessnotification.sickness!='employee' AND sicknessnotification.sickness!=null",
          "folder": [
            {
              "key": "days",
              "method": "sum",
              "title": "Days",
              "field": "sicknessnotification.numberdays"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "title": "Employee sick",
          "key": "sicknessnotification",
          "condition": "sicknessnotification.sickness='employee'",
          "folder": [
            {
              "key": "days",
              "method": "sum",
              "title": "Days",
              "field": "sicknessnotification.numberdays"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Vacation management",
      "key": "holidays",
      "type": "vacation",
      "folder": [
        {
          "title": "By year",
          "key": "year",
          "method": "yearhistogram",
          "field": "vacation.holidayfrom",
          "folder": [
            {
              "key": "days",
              "method": "sum",
              "title": "Days",
              "field": "vacation.holidaysrequested"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "title": "Approved by me",
          "key": "HolidaysApprovedByMe",
          "condition": "vacation.approvedby=#CURRENTUSER#",
          "folder": [
            {
              "key": "days",
              "method": "sum",
              "title": "Days",
              "field": "vacation.holidaysrequested"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "title": "Not yet approved",
          "key": "HolidayNotApproved",
          "condition": "vacation.approvedby=null",
          "folder": [
            {
              "key": "days",
              "method": "sum",
              "title": "Days",
              "field": "vacation.holidaysrequested"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "title": "Approved",
          "key": "HolidayApproved",
          "condition": "vacation.approvedby!=null",
          "folder": [
            {
              "key": "days",
              "method": "sum",
              "title": "Days",
              "field": "vacation.holidaysrequested"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Statement of earnings",
      "key": "statementofearnings",
      "type": "statementofearnings",
      "folder": [
        {
          "key": "year",
          "title": "By years",
          "field": "statementofearnings.yearofpayment"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Contract documents",
      "key": "contract",
      "type": "contractdocuments",
      "folder": [
        {
          "title": "By type",
          "key": "type",
          "field": "contractdocuments.type"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Documents",
      "key": "documents",
      "type": "document",
      "folder": [
        {
          "title": "By status",
          "key": "state",
          "field": "basicdocument.status"
        }
      ]
    }
]

'Unplugged' - Additional Examples

Vacation Management / Urlaubsverwaltung

The following example shows a configuration for a personnel file. There are two object types for vacation management ("Urlaubsverwaltung") in the file. You access the two object types, "Leave available" ("Urlaubsanspruch") and "Leave requested" ("Urlaubsantrag"), under this heading. The next level aggregates the years. Leave requests are aggregated in the next level down using the status catalog. The sum of relevant days for each status type is displayed here. Since there is only one "Leave available" object type per year, no "Business year" is necessary on the additional level.

This is an example of the configuration for the vacation management only:

[
  {
    "title": "Urlaubsverwaltung",
    "key": "urlaubv",
    "condition": "type='abwesenheit' OR type='urlaubsverwaltung'",
    "folder": [
		{
			"title": "Urlaubsantrag",
			"key": "ulantr",
			"condition": "abwesenheit.art='Urlaub'",
			"folder": [
				{
					"title": "Geschäftsjahre",
					"hide": true,
					"key": "year",
					"field": "abwesenheit.geschaeftsjahr",
					"folder": [
						{
							"title": "Genehmigt",   
							"key": "state",
							"hide":true,
							"field": "basicdocument.status",
							"showempty":true,
							"folder": [
								{
									"title": "Tage",
									"method": "sum",
									"key": "days",
									"field": "abwesenheit.tage"
								 }
							]
						}
					]
				}
			]
	},
	{
		"title": "Urlaubsanspruch",
		"key": "ulantr2",
		"type": "urlaubsverwaltung"
	},
    {
      "title": "Project",
      "key": "Year",
      "type": "project",
      "field" : "project.startday",
      "method" : "yearhistogram",
      "expanded": true,
      "folder":[{
        "title": "Projects",
        "hide":true,
        "key": "ProjectMonth",
        "type": "project",
        "field" : "project.startday",
        "method" : "monthhistogram",
        "expanded": true
      }]
  }

]

Specific settings for Elasticsearch

A limitation regarding 'conditions' was introduced with the Elasticsearch version that is used in yuuvis® RAD 8.16.

Reason: https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/55303

To solve this, this property is introduced: indices.query.bool.max_nested_depth

For more details, see this documentation: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-settings.html

Solution for yuuvis® RAD since 8.16 LTS

Add this line to the elasticsearch.yml file in the config folder of the elasticsearch installation:
indices.query.bool.max_nested_depth: 100
Restart the service.

Structure Service API - Folder Structure