This document describes changes between ANDP 8.4 and ANDP 8.5

The main change is the integration from ActaNova-Forms into Gentics CMS. Acta-Nova now directly publishes external Forms into the CMS. Editing of a form (previously via FormGrid) can now be done directly in the CMS and Staging with the Standard CMS Content-Staging


Form-Config

Every Configuration which involves forms need to be set in the CMS now. This includes Config for Formgrid, Form-Flow and Translations for Forms.
In the andp-project we provide a default config file  cms/conf/extraconfig/forms.yml and cms/conf/extraconfig/forms-translations.yml which includes the default config for a andp formtype.

This can be changed anytime for your project. Common project changes are:

  • setting a new Form-Flow (like no-summary, payment, ...)
  • adding custom options for acta-nova form-element
  • adding new custom-formgrid elements like text-blocks, headlines, ... or adding options to existing formgrid-elements
  • adding translations keys for custom-elements

Please see  the CMS documentation for Forms Config

Form Languages

Acta-Nova publishes forms in different languages (language-country Codes = Culture - e.g. de-AT, en-AT, ...)
To allow forms to be created in the CMS the corresponding language (de-AT) need to be available in the CMS. If you don't want to rename an existing language in the CMS you can use the languageMapping in the CMS Forms-Config

forms:
  types:
    andp:
      languageMapping:
        "de-AT": "de"
        "en-AT": "en"

This example maps the Acta-Nova culture "de-AT" to "de" in the CMS. You can't publish Acta-Nova Forms if they contain a language which is not available in the CMS or no mapping exists

Form Publishing

Forms are sent to Mesh by ActaNova and created as a Form in the CMS. 
So it's necessary to configure where the forms are created in the CMS and how the CMS can be accessed. This need to be set in the Acta-Nova-Plugin Config in Mesh. All Options can also be set via ENV variables (see Plugin-Config )

cms:
  restApiBaseUrl: http://cms:8080/rest/
  restApiUser: node
  restApiPassword: xxx
  restApiNodeId: 3 #also a CMS-Node-UUID is possible

The CMS Node need to

  • have the forms feature activated
  • the andp formtype assigned
  • the standard folder for external forms set

Acta-Nova Forms will all initially be created in the configured Folder, but can be moved to any folder in the node


Translations

Form-specific translations are no longer part of ANDP Translations, instead they are maintained in the Forms Translation Customtool (see Gentics CMS Forms).

ANDP Translations have moved from the dedicated Translation CMS Page to a ANDP Translation Custom-Tool. 
You can maintain all relevant ANDP translations and project translations there.

To add your project specific translations (old path /cms/packages/andp/files/translations/xxx/project.json) you need to move them to  /mesh/plugins/acta-nova-plugin/strage/translations/project.json

Be careful, a new structure is used:

{
    "business_partner_search_submit": {
        "de": "Absenden",
        "en": "Submit",
         ...
    },
    ...
}

All translations in the file are the default translations used and visible as default translations in the CMS.

To migrate the old translation set in the CMS Translation Page, you need to read the from the old system (https://%PORTAL_URL%/api/andp/translate/%lang%), transform them to the new format and send it to the Custom-Tool via Request to the new Endpoint (you need a authenticated CMS Session)

POST https://%CMS_URL%/rest/proxy/andpplugin/andp/translations/backend?sid=%sid%
(please see the save request when using the new Custom-Tool or send it directly via browser)


Form-Staging Custom-Tool

The Form-Staging Custom-Tool has been removed from the andp-project. Forms are now staged with the CMS Contentstaging

FormGrid Custom-Tool

The FormGrid Custom-Tool has been removed from the andp-project. Forms can now be edited in the CMS Editor-UI directly. See Gentics Manual (Forms)


Form Migration into CMS

Important: Before Migrating Forms, the forms-config need to be set correctly and include custom-types/custom-settings you had in ANDP 8.4. Otherwise the Forms will loose those elements / settings
Saved-Form-Data is lost in this process.

In ANDP 8.4 forms were saved in the configured andp_mesh_project (default "andp") in mesh. Forms are now published by the CMS to the Mesh-Project of the CMS Node holding the Form.

If you don't had Formgrid-Changes in ANDP 8.4 you could also just publish all Frontoffice-Forms in Acta Nova fresh into the CMS.
Otherwise you could use the Migration Endpoint which loads all available acta-nova forms in mesh and creates them in the CMS. It uses the same version as you would see when opening the form now in the old FormGrid-Custom-Tool

The endpoint is available in Mesh and can be called with

POST mesh/api/v1/PROJECT/plugins/acta-nova/forms/migrateMeshFormsToCMS

(replace PROJECT with the mesh project containing the saved forms in ANDP 8.4 - if you didn't change the default behaviour it's andp)


Form Include into Pages

Forms are no longer selected and included by formID, instead the CMS Form object need to be selected in the Tagtype like other CMS Forms.
A automatic migration on product side is not available.

For a migration, either link the new form manually in the FormInclude Tagtype, or migrate them via RestAPI
The old formid part in the Tagtype is still available and only hidden, it can be mapped to the externalId of a form Object to fill the new form  tagpart