Placeholder

In order to keep the process as flexible and reusable as possible, it is often necessary to replace certain text modules in an e-mail or a form with different values. In the case of a holiday request, for example, it could be that you want to send an email to the manager of a person in which the details of the holiday are listed. Here, of course, the period in which leave is taken is different for each version. For example, the e-mail text could look like this:

Hello {{NAME OF MANAGER}},  

{{NAME OF THE APPLICANT}} has requested leave {{START HOLIDAY}} to {{END HOLIDAY}}.

linqi offers placeholders for the flexible design of texts, conditions, etc. You can use placeholders to insert text modules that are replaced by the specific value when a process is executed.

Use of placeholders

Whenever you see one of these buttons in linqi above a text field, you can insert a placeholder:

• : This button allows you to insert a simple placeholder. These can, for example, reference form values, user values or data from external systems and are then replaced with the entered form value, for example, when the process is executed.
• : This button allows you to insert a calculated value. This can be, for example, a mathematical calculation or the number of days between two dates.

As soon as you click on one of these buttons, a window opens in which you can define which value you want to reference or calculate. As soon as you confirm this configuration by ticking the box at the bottom of the window, the placeholder is inserted. This is highlighted as a coloured block.

You can edit a placeholder again by double-clicking on it and then apply the changes again by clicking on the tick. You can use the X on the right-hand side of an inserted placeholder to delete it again.

Available placeholders

info

The available placeholders adapt to the target field. For example, it makes no sense to enter the link to the process in a person field for authorisation assignment. For this reason, the available placeholders vary depending on the target field.

The following placeholder groups are available in linqi:

• General:
  In this group you will find values such as the current date, the person who is currently logged in, etc. For example, you can insert the date on which the document was generated into a document template.
• Process values:
  Under this group you will find values that relate to the current process. This can be, for example, the process number, the status of the process, the link to the current process or the person who started the process or their manager.
• Form value:
  You can use this group to reference values that have been entered in forms. Each inserted control element is automatically available as a placeholder.
  Note: If a control element is not yet displayed, you may still need to save the form.
• Lookup list value:
  Here it is possible to load a value from a lookup list. In this way you can, for example, load a different person responsible depending on the department, or the price of a product.
• Fixed user / group:
  This placeholder offers you a field to select one or more persons or groups. This is particularly useful if you want to authorise a specific group or, for example, load a person's e-mail address.
• Person search:
  Here you can load people based on their properties. For example, you can load all persons who work in a certain department and then authorise them or, for example, start a process for each of these persons.
• Action nodes:
  Various action nodes provide placeholders. This allows you to reference data loaded from an external system, for example, and insert it as a default value for a control element in a form. Details can be found on the help pages of the various external systems.
• Process documents:
  If you attach a document to a process, you can reference it here. For example, you can attach a fixed document (such as an information document) in an e-mail.
• Document template:
  Within the header and footer area, you can use these placeholders to insert the current page number as well as the number of pages.
• PDF export template:
  If you define a document template for exporting a BPMN 2.0 process to PDF, you can use it to reference the graphical representation of the process, metadata etc. In this way, you can create a template with very high reusability.