Custom Lookups

Using Custom entities you can store and use custom lookups whose data lives, for example, in other systems (applications). You can refresh lookup data with script automation that runs on a schedule or manually.

Example of updating a lookup from XML

In this example we work with a custom entity whose attributes are already configured.

In the project settings, under Custom Actions, create a new action for this custom entity:

As a parameter, specify an XML field of type "text field", and select the option that this custom action is used to create lookup rows.

On the PHP Script tab, place a script that parses the passed XML and creates lookup rows from the XML data:

$doc = new \DOMDocument("1.0", APP_ENCODING);
$doc->loadXML($it->get('xml'));

$text = "";
foreach(libxml_get_errors() as $error) {
    $text .= $error->message;
}
if ( $text != '' ) getFactory()->error($text);
                
$custom = getFactory()->getObject('custom_ChangeNotifications');
foreach ($doc->firstChild->childNodes as $child) 
{
    if (! $child instanceof \DOMElement) continue;
    
    getFactory()->mergeEntity($custom, [
            'Caption' => $child->getAttribute("Caption"),
            'Author' => $child->getAttribute("Author"),
            'MainCode' => $child->getAttribute("UniqueIdentifier")
        ], 
        ['MainCode']
    );
}

the following is assumed:

  • reference name of the custom action parameter: xml
  • table name of the custom entity: custom_ChangeNotifications
  • the custom entity has extra attributes: Author and MainCode. MainCode is a unique field, so data can be updated if that row was added earlier.

Open the custom lookup and run the custom action:

In the event log you can track the lookup update history and problems that may occur while the script runs.

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