Service broker: cannot parse MimeType in custom forms

[SistDip]

Hello everyone,

I need your help to solve a problem that is driving me crazy : I got an error from service broker, trying to parse a file passed as inputFile(Mime).

I'll explain my usecase:

• users upload a txt into Service broker with a list of vms (VMs List)
• In VMs field I put an action that parse "VMs List" and check if the vm exists in our environment

If I run the workflow in Orchestrator, everything runs fine :

but if run from Service Broker, it fails with error :

I'm running on 8.18 Automation and the code for checkVmsFromFile is here :

//load file content split by lines
var fileContent = inputfile.content.split(/\r\n|\n/)
//System.log("fileContent > " + fileContent)
vmWithError = new Array()


for each (var vmName in fileContent) {
    //System.log("vmName > " + vmName)
    var found = Server.findAllForType("VC:VirtualMachine", "xpath:name='" + vmName + "'")
    //System.log(found.length)
    //check if the inserted vm exists or not    
    if ( found.length == 0) {
        System.log(vmName + " NOT FOUND")
        vmWithError.push(vmName + " NOT FOUND")
    }
}


if ( vmWithError.length == 0 ) {
    vmWithError.push("Check VMs SUCCESSFULLY Completed")
}


return vmWithError.sort()

Can someone help me to solve this problem ?

[V00Z11]

I had a similar issue where I was trying to use input validation for MimeAttachment inputs and got the same error. I opened and case and received the following repsonse: "Upon checking internally I confirmed that unfortunately using file uploads in service broker is not supported. You can use them only if you are running the workflow directly in vRO. "

What is working in my case is simply use MimeAttachments as inputs but don't do the the input validation. Just pass is to the workflow. In the first step I validate the correct MimeType and fileextension. If that fails the workflow fails too.

In your case another approach could be to use the TextArea input and let the user just paste the list of VMs as a string and than process this string by splitting it to allow multiple ways of input, like comma, semiclon, space or tab seperation. Something like the following and then go on from there.

var array = input.replace(/["']/g, "").split(/[\s\n,;]/g);

[SistDip]

Hi Valentin ,

thanks for your reply, I also opened a case that is still "Under Investigation" by Broadcom.

I like your approach and will use it as a workaround and hope the problem will be solved.

[SistDip]

Back to you mate ... with a different error. As for mime, also this work-around runs smmotly in orchestrator and Service Broker fails :

the code of the action is :

var content = inputText.replace(/["']/g, "").split(/[,;\r\n|\n]/g);

var vmWithError = new Array()
for each (var vmName in content) {
    //System.log("vmName > " + vmName)
    var found = Server.findAllForType("VC:VirtualMachine", "xpath:name='" + vmName + "'")
    //System.log(found.length)
    //check if the inserted vm exists or not    
    if ( found.length == 0) {
        System.log(vmName + " NOT FOUND")
        vmWithError.push(vmName + " NOT FOUND")
    } else {
        //
    }
}

if ( vmWithError.length == 0 ) {
    vmWithError.push("Check VMs SUCCESSFULLY Completed")
}

return vmWithError.sort().toString()

where inputText is the text area

[V00Z11]

I tried recreating it and for me it works in service broker. I did it like this:

Action Code:

// Return empty array if input is not present
if (!vms) {
    System.log("List is empty")
    return [];
}

// Split input to array
var list = vms.replace(/["']/g, "").split(/[,;\r\n|\n]/g);

// Cleanup
var arr = list.filter(function(el) {
    return el != null && el !== '';
});

// Get all VMs
var allVMs = VcPlugin.getAllVirtualMachines(["name"], null);
System.log("Total VMs: " + allVMs.length);

// Create empty array
var vmsNotFound = [];

// Interate over cleaned up list of VM names
arr.forEach(function(vmName) {
    // Check if VM name exists
    var result = allVMs.filter(function(vm) {
        return vm.name.toLowerCase() === vmName.toLowerCase().trim();
    });
    // Push to list of not found VMs when above query does not return any results
    if (!result || result.length === 0) {
        vmsNotFound.push(vmName)
    }
});

// Return list of not found VM names
return vmsNotFound;

Workflow with two variables, one string, one array of string.

Value options for "check" map to "vms".

This works in service broker.

"Check" contains the list of not found VM names.

Workflow does run too and completes.

[SistDip]

thanks mate, it works!

[Gai Hefetz]

I was able to achieve this using the following approach:

1. Use a data grid for file uploads – In the catalog item workflow, set the input type to Array/MimeAttachment to handle multiple file uploads.
2. Configure the validation action – The input parameter that receives the file list in the validation action should be of type string.
3. Bind the input in YAML – In the request form YAML configuration, add a binding to link the file upload field to the validation action input.

Schema

In the request form YAML, you need to define the binding correctly so that the file uploads are passed to the validation action.

validation action inputs from yaml:

Note: The field binding will appear empty in the validation action menu on the "Validations" tab, but the method still works as expected.

the action which will validate has the input as shown:

P.S. This method is specifically for validating a list of files. However, I've also successfully validated a single file upload using a similar approach.

this is the field as shown on the request form itself

[xian]

That's an excellent idea, @Gai Hefetz

Based on that I was able to compile what @SistDip wanted. Here is the combined code:

if (!file) return [];
var fileJson = JSON.parse(file);
var fileName = fileJson.label;
var fileValue = fileJson.value;
var b64content = fileValue.substring(fileValue.lastIndexOf(',') + 1);
var inputfile = new MimeAttachment();
inputfile.buffer = new ByteBuffer(b64content);

var fileContent = inputfile.content.split(/\r\n|\n/)
vmWithError = new Array()


for each (var vmName in fileContent) {
    //System.log("vmName > " + vmName)
    var found = Server.findAllForType("VC:VirtualMachine", "xpath:name='" + vmName + "'")
    //System.log(found.length)
    //check if the inserted vm exists or not    
    if ( found.length == 0) {
        System.log(vmName + " NOT FOUND")
        vmWithError.push(vmName + " NOT FOUND")
    }
}

if ( vmWithError.length == 0 ) {
    vmWithError.push("Check VMs SUCCESSFULLY Completed")
}

return vmWithError.sort()

The input of this action is String, output is Array of String. I have added it to the custom form, but could bind it to the file input by manually adjusting the form yaml:

  file:
    label: file
    type:
      dataType: file
      isMultiple: false
  multiSelect_cb2a17e7:
    label: VMs
    type:
      dataType: string
      isMultiple: true
    valueList: []
    constraints: {}
    default:
      type: scriptAction
      id: com.test/checkVMsFromFile
      parameters:
        - file: file
          $type:
            dataType: string
            isMultiple: false

Here is how it looks like once the file is uploaded:

I found one drawback: even if a new file is uploaded, the Array below is not refreshed.