Bitrix Framework

When working in document flow mode 2, infoblock elements are created: one “final” with an empty WF_PARENT_ELEMENT_ID (which we can see in the administrative part), and another “temporary” with WF_PARENT_ELEMENT_ID equal to the ID of the just created final element. The “temporary” element turns into “final” when it reaches a final status Published in the document flow or any other status flaged as IS_FINAL. This flag cannot be set using the API methods of Bitrix Framework; it only can be set by editing the database. Accordingly, entries will be made to the infoblock up to this moment; however, for standard API methods with default parameters these entries will not be available.

The principal difference between the “temporary” elements and “final” is the field WF_PARENT_ELEMENT_ID, which is empty for the “final” elements and contains an identifier of the “final” element for temporary elements. Should a new element be created in the document flow (provided that the starting status of the document flow is not final), an element will be created, and its own identifier will be written in the field WF_PARENT_ELEMENT_ID. Upon the subsequent promotion of the element to any other document flow status, including the final one, new elements with the field WF_PARENT_ELEMENT_ID will be created in the infoblock.

Upon the promotion of an element to a final status, the initial element will be updated in such a manner so that the field WF_PARENT_ELEMENT_ID becomes empty, and the field WF_STATUS_ID becomes equal to the value of the final status (1 is the most frequent value). After the subsequent promotion of the element to any temporary status the cycle will be repeated with a slight difference that the current published element will be used as a starting point.

By default, API only permits working with published elements. If a published element is promoted to any other status, API will return the element version that corresponds to the published one.

In order to obtain the list of all of the elements (including unpublished ones), the method CIBlockElement::GetList must have the following parameter in the filter properties: "SHOW_HISTORY" => "Y".

In addition, it is possible to obtain the latest version of an element in the document flow by its ID using the function CIBlockElement::WF_GetLast, nd vice versa to obtain the original ID of an element knowing the latest version of such an element through the function CIBlockElement::GetRealElement.

Event handlers also deserve some attention, among them OnAfterIBlockElementUpdate. Since in case of working with document flow a direct Update only occurs in case of the promotion of an element to the final status, handlers of this event should not be expected when an element is promoted to “temporary” statuses. Instead, add a handler to the event OnAfterIBlockElementAdd and watch the fields "WF" = "Y" (a sign that the element participates in the document flow) and WF_PARENT_ELEMENT_ID (identifier of the “final” element).

All change history of an element can be displayed using the function CIBlockElement::WF_GetHistoryList. In order to obtain detailed information about the temporary elements obtained using this function, the functions CIBlockElement::GetByID and CIBlockElement::GetProperty should be used.