KB397293354: Automation Engine - Compare links in the Wait for Action task

Description

How to add a link in the Wait for Action task to compare two files in the browser client viewer in Automation Engine 23.03?

Procedure

1. Compare two files in 'My Workspace' or 'Roll-Fed labels' and have a look at the URL used by the viewer. This URL will be similar to the ones shown below:
   For an on-premises setup:

   http://MyServer:9000/myworkspace/#/viewer?file=file%3A%2F%2Feskw190090%2FExampleJobContainer%2FDigital%2520Label%2520Production%2FResources%2FReportMaker%2FParts%2FWinding_0.pdf&compare=file%3A%2F%2Feskw190090%2FExampleJobContainer%2FDigital%2520Label%2520Production%2FResources%2FReportMaker%2FParts%2FWinding_1.pdf&mode=compare&fromurl=%2Ffiles%3Ffolder%3Dfile%253A%252F%252Feskw190090%252FExampleJobContainer%252FDigital%252520Label%252520Production%252FResources%252FReportMaker%252FParts%252F

   For an Automation Engine SaaS setup:
   https://AESaaSServer/workspaces/myworkspace/#/viewer?file=file%3A%2F%2Feskord-ae015%2FExampleJobContainer%2FDigital%2520Label%2520Production%2FResources%2FReportMaker%2FParts%2FWinding_1.pdf&compare=file%3A%2F%2Feskord-ae015%2FExampleJobContainer%2FDigital%2520Label%2520Production%2FResources%2FReportMaker%2FParts%2FWinding_2.pdf&mode=compare&fromurl=%2Ffiles%3Ffolder%3Dfile%253A%252F%252Feskord-ae015%252FExampleJobContainer%252FDigital%252520Label%252520Production%252FResources%252FReportMaker%252FParts%252F
   
   

2. These URL's contain the following components:

   <viewerURL>?file=<first file>&compare=<second file>&mode=compare&fromurl=<starturl>

   where:

   <viewerURL> = the (fixed) URL towards the viewer application

   <first file> = the URL of the first file encoded as an URI component

   <second file> = the URL of the second file encoded as an URI component

   <starturl> = the URL to return to when closing the viewer. This part can be left out as by default closing the viewer jumps to the default start page of the workspace.

   
   

3. For Automation Engine versions 23.03 or higher, please refer to the next item.
   In the Automation Engine versions prior to 23.03, one has to encode a file URL as a URI component to be able to use it in a viewer URL (see also the examples under 1.). This can be handled using some dedicated SmartNames but this also results in potentially large URL's - which might cause issues in the 'Wait for Action' task where links are limited to 512 characters in Automation Engine versions prior to 23.03.
   
   To do the encoding of the file paths, one has to set up two SmartNames to get to the correct encoding:
   
   First: Use the standard 'URL encoding' (see SmartName 'File URL - URL encoded' in the attached example):

   
   
   

   Second: Use a custom encoding to additionally escape the % : and / characters:
   
   
   The  'Wait for Action' task uses the above SmartNames to add an external link with this syntax :
   
   Example ticket: Compare Product with Uploaded file (21.11).zip (created with Automation Engine 21.11)

   
   
   

4. As of Automation Engine 23.03, the viewer allows to work with plain URL's (without encoding), creating a compare URL is fairly simple - see attached example Compare Product with Uploaded file (23.03).zip
   The example workflow starts from a product and looks for a corresponding file on the uploads folder to compare against. The 'Wait for Action' task uses the above SmartNames to add an external link with this syntax :
   
   (This link is for an on-premises setup - it can easily be adapted for a server in a datacenter - see step 1)

   Note that the limitation for links in the 'Wait for Action' task was raised to 2024 characters in Automation Engine 23.03 (was previously 512 characters) - so besides avoiding the need for encoding  (which results in shorter URL's), also the maximum length of links in the 'Wait for Action' task is much larger.