Workflow Guide

CHAPTER 3

Working with Activities

This chapter describes the activities you can use in the Workflow Modeler. It includes these topics:

For more information    For information about using the Workflow Modeler, see Workflow Modeler.

 
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About workflow activities

There are two types of workflow activities:

Category

Description

Activites

Presentation

Provide user interaction for the flow

Pageflow

User

System

Perform background processing functions required by the flow

Start

Web Service

Rule

Java

Synchronize Merge

Composer

Finish

About activity properties   The workflow activities have properties you can set in the Workflow Modeler. Some of these properties are common to all activities, and others are available only on some of the activities.

Some activities have a primary property. The primary property associates an object with the activity. For presentation activities, this is the item to display. For system properties, this is the object you want to execute.

About scoped paths   Scoped paths are pointers to application data that you can select visually in the Workflow Modeler. You can use scoped paths to select the activity's primary property. In addition, most activities allow you to copy scoped paths before or after the execution of an activity.

For more information    For more information, see the chapter on working with scoped paths in Developing exteNd Director Applications.

 
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Pageflow activity

PageFlowActivity

Description

The Pageflow activity represents a task or step in your business process that uses a portlet created using the Pageflow Modeler. Including a pageflow in a workflow allows you to take advantage of the Pageflow Modeler's integrated client technology.

Properties

The properties for the Pageflow activity are

Property Inspector tab

Property name

Description

Activity

Name

A unique reference to this activity that is used for runtime processing.

Description

A description of the activity intended for the Workflow Modeler user.

Pageflow Portlet

Portlet

Primary property. Specifies the pageflow descriptor in the resource set.

Addressees

Addressee

A valid user, group, or role name.

See Specifying the addressee below.

Copy Scoped XPaths

Copy Before

Copies data from one scoped path location to another before the activity is executed.

Copy After

Copies data from one scoped path location to another after the activity is executed.

Design UI

Design UI properties control the design-time appearance of the activity. For more information, see Setting object display properties.

Specifying the addressee   The addressee property determines where the workitem will be routed by the workflow engine. Each link can accept a single value for its Addressee property. Typically this value is a role, and the role defines a list of users with permission to perform work at the activity. You can also specify that the addressee value be dynamically derived at runtime from a workitem property.

Procedure To specify an addressee:

  1. Open the Property Inspector for the activity and choose the Addressees tab.

  2. Click Edit Addressee:

    wdaddresseebuilder

  3. In the Value field specify a scoped path for a user or role. See the examples at the bottom of the Addressee form.

      String/JSmith
    

    NOTE:   If you are accessing an LDAP realm, specify the distinguished name. For example:

      cn=user,ou=users.
    
      String/workflowUser
    

    The name of the security role you specify must be the name of a security role descriptor file, without the file extension. For the example shown above to work, you would need to define the role workflowUser in a file called workflowUser.xml.

    For more information    For information about creating and using roles, see the chapter on using security roles in the User Management Guide.

Usage

At runtime, the Workflow engine delegates processing to the specified pageflow until the Workflow-Return activity in the pageflow is executed.

This activity ensures that the workflow engine does the following:

This process is repeated for each included pageflow.

For more information    For more information with examples, see Pageflow in a workflow.

 
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User activity

UserActivity

Description

The User activity represents a task or step in your business process that requires user interaction. Use this activity is for:

Properties

The properties for the User activity are:

Property Inspector tab

Property name

Description

Activity

Name

Primary property.

The name must match the name element in the activity policy descriptor, as described in Binding activities to client types.

Description

An optional description of the activity for the Workflow Modeler user.

Addressees

Addressee

A valid user or role name.

For more information    See Specifying the addressee.

Copy Scoped XPaths

Copy Before

Copies data from one scoped path location to another before the activity is executed.

Copy After

Copies data from one scoped path location to another after the activity is executed.

Design UI

Design UI properties control the design-time appearance of the activity.

For more information    For more information, see Setting object display properties.

Usage

Binding activities to client types   The default client for workflow applications is the Portal subsystem. The Workflow subsystem provides a mechanism for specifying different client types for workflow activities. For example, you might want the UI for a particular workitem to be a spreadsheet application, a Java client, or some other application.

With a User activity you are required to specify clients in a descriptor called activity-policy.xml.

Creating an Activity policy descriptor    You need to create a descriptor that follows the schema is defined in activitypolicy.xsd, located in library/WorkflowService/schema in your installation directory. Place the descriptor in the data/workflow-activity-policy directory in your exteNd Director project's resource JAR.

NOTE:   The name of the file must be activity-policy.xml

Here is the activity policy defined for three portlets used in the installed Content Life Cycle workflow application.

  <?xml version="1.0" ?> 
  - <activitypolicy xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="activitypolicy.xsd"> 
  - <activity name="AssignContent"> 
  <client type="portal" uri="/portal/portlet/WorkflowAssignPortlet">Portal</client> 
  </activity> 
  - <activity name="CreateContent"> 
  <client type="portal" uri="/portal/portlet/WorkflowCreatePortlet">Portal</client> 
  </activity> 
  - <activity name="AuthorizeContent"> 
  <client type="portal" uri="/portal/portlet/WorkflowAuthorizePortlet">Portal</client> 
  </activity> 
  </activitypolicy>

Element

Description

name

The name of the activity. This must match the Name property in the Workflow Modeler.

For example, the Name property in the Workflow Modeler for the first activity would be AssignContent

client

The client type and URI for the application portlet or JSP page. The default client type is portal, which means the activity will use exteNd Director portal services to render the client.

NOTE:   You can also specify default as the client type and provide an implementation. You can also add a client tag under <activitypolicy> as a global default using the string default.

Adding client types   To provide a different client type you must modify the activity policy file and add the new client type and associated URLs. The XSL of the WorkflowQueue core portlet (WorkflowQueueDefault.xsl) looks for portal as the client type and uses the associated URL as the link for the activity. To reference a different client type, modify the XSL for the queue portlet and the activity-policy client type accordingly.

NOTE:   The WorkflowQueue portlet only supports direct URL references as an URI pointer.

Accessing policy information   EbiWorkitemDelegate provides access to activity policy information. Here are some of the methods:

Client info method

Description

getClientTypes()

Returns an array of all client types for this activity

getClientURI()

Returns the URI of the specified client type

getPolicyDefaultURI()

Returns the default policy client URI for this activity

hasClientType()

Determines whether the activity includes the specified client type

hasClientDefault()

Determines whether the activity has a default client type

Coding the User activity    You need to access the workitem and define your presentation logic in the implementation class. For code examples, refer to the sources for the User activities in the Content Life Cycle application.

For more information    For more information see Content life Cycle application sources.

 
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Web Service activity

WebServiceActivity

Description

The Web Service activity is a system activity that executes a Web Service.

The Web Service activity only provides support for document-style WSDL files that contain a schema. However, you can create a pageflow that uses an RPC-style Web Service by using a Java activity.

For more information    For background information on Web Services, see the chapter on Web Service basics in Utility Tools.

For more information    For details on how to use an RPC-style Web Service in the context of a pageflow, see the chapter on working with RPC-Style Web Services in the Pageflow and Form Guide.

Properties

The properties of the Web Service activity are:

Property Inspector tab

Property name

Description

Activity

Name

A unique reference to this activity that is used for runtime processing.

Description

A description of the activity intended for the Workflow Modeler user.

Document Style

Web Service Input Document Path

Provides instance data for the request being made to the service. The input document is specified by means of a scoped path. Typically, the scope used for the input document is Flow/document.

Web Service Name

The name of the service, as specified in the WSDL file.

Web Service Operation

The name of the operation, as specified in the WSDL file.

Web Service Output Parameter (optional)

The node name of the element returned by the service.

Web Service Port Type

The port type for the service, as specified in the WSDL file.

Web Service Return Document Path

Provides instance data for the response returned from the service. The output document is specified by means of a scoped path. Typically, the scope used for the output document is Flow/document.

Web Service WSDL Document Path

Specifies the name of the WSDL file that describes the Web Service.

TIP:   Fill in this property first when you're working in the Workflow Modeler. Once the property sheet has a path to the WSDL file, it can automatically fill in many of the other properties associated with the activity.

Copy Scoped XPaths

Copy Before

Copies data from one scoped path location to another before the activity is executed.

Copy After

Copies data from one scoped path location to another after the activity is executed.

Design UI

Design UI properties control the design-time appearance of the activity.

For more information    For more information, see Setting object display properties

 
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Rule activity

RuleActivity

Description

The Rule activity represents the Rule subsystem functionality needed to execute a rule within a workflow. Rules allow you to build complex logic into your workflow by using installed conditions and actions.

Properties

The properties for the Rule activity are:

Property Inspector tab

Property name

Description

Activity

Name

A unique reference to this activity that is used for runtime processing.

Description

A description of the activity intended for the Workflow Modeler user.

Rule

RuleID

Primary property. Specifies the rule descriptor in the resource set.

Copy Scoped XPaths

Copy Before

Copies data from one scoped path location to another before the activity is executed.

Copy After

Copies data from one scoped path location to another after the activity is executed.

Design UI

Design UI properties control the design-time appearance of the activity.

For more information    For more information, see Setting object display properties.

 
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Java activity

JavaActivity

Description

The Java activity represents an unattended task or step in your process. This can be any kind of logic or processing that you want to happen automatically without user intervention. You specify a Java class you want to execute, which you create using the Java Activity Wizard. The class that you define extends EbiJavaActivity.

For more information    For information about creating and coding the Java class, see Java Activity Wizard.

Properties

The properties for the Java activity are:

Property Inspector tab

Property name

Description

Activity

Name

A unique reference to this activity that is used for runtime processing.

Description

A description of the activity intended for the Workflow Modeler user.

Class Name

Class Name

Primary property. The Java class that you want to execute.

Copy Scoped XPaths

Copy Before

Copies data from one scoped path location to another before the activity is executed.

Copy After

Copies data from one scoped path location to another after the activity is executed.

Design UI

Design UI properties control the design-time appearance of the activity.

For more information    For more information, see Setting object display properties.

 
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Synchronize Merge activity

SynchMergeActivity

Description

The Synchronize Merge activity is used to synchronize a split in a workflow process. This activity is necessary only in cases when workitems are forwarded on more than one path of the split.

Here is how the workflow engine synchronizes multiple branches:

  1. When encountering a split the engine forwards the workitem to the next activity in each branch where the link evaluates to true.

  2. The work is processed by each branch activity and forwarded according to the flow logic, until each one reaches the Synchronize Merge activity.

  3. The workflow engine waits until work is completed on all branches and forwards the workitem to the next activity.

Properties

The properties for the Synchronize Merge activity are:

Property Inspector tab

Property name

Description

Activity

Name

A unique reference to this activity that is used for runtime processing.

Description

A description of the activity intended for the Workflow Modeler user.

Copy Scoped XPaths

Copy Before

Copies data from one scoped path location to another before the activity is executed.

Copy After

Copies data from one scoped path location to another after the activity is executed.

Design UI

Design UI properties control the design-time appearance of the activity.

For more information    For more information, see Setting object display properties.

Usage

For more information    For more information and examples, see Process design concepts.

 
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Start activity

StartActivity

Description

The Start activity represents the Workflow subsystem functions necessary to create a new workitem, and optionally to assign an initial document to the workitem. The start activity is created when a new workflow process is created and cannot be deleted from the process. There is only one Start activity per process.

Properties

The properties for the Start activity are:

Property Inspector tab

Property name

Description

Activity

Name

A unique reference to this activity that is used for run-time processing.

Description

A description of the activity intended for the Workflow Modeler user.

Document

Document Name

A unique reference for the start document that can be accessed from other flow objects.

Start Document

A name and a string (separated by a space) that points to the contents of the start document. The pointer can be an URL.

Copy Scoped XPaths

Copy Before

Copies data from one scoped path location to another before the activity is executed.

Copy After

Copies data from one scoped path location to another after the activity is executed.

Design UI

Design UI properties control the design-time appearance of the activity.

For more information    For more information, see Setting object display properties.

 
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Composer Service activity

ComposerActivity

Description

The Composer Service activity is a system activity that executes an exteNd Composer service. exteNd Composer services typically combine executable units of work called components and coordinate the flow of data between them. A typical service might include a series of components that receive an input XML document, perform sophisticated document mappings and transformations, collect information from back-end data sources, execute transactions on mainframes and AS/400s, process error conditions, send context-sensitive e-mail or JMS notifications, and/or return one or more XML response documents to the original requestor(s).

By breaking up a service's tasks into discrete components, important benefits—in terms of testing, debugging, code maintenance, and code reuse—can be realized.

For more information    For details on using the Composer Pageflow Wizard, see the chapter on the Composer Pageflow Wizard in the Pageflow and Form Guide.

Properties

The properties of the Composer Service activity are:

Property Inspector tab

Property name

Description

Activity

Name

A unique reference to this activity that is used for runtime processing.

Description

A description of the activity intended for the Workflow Modeler user.

Composer Service

Input Document

Provides instance data for the request being made to the service. The input document is specified by means of a scoped path. Typically, the scope used for the input document is Flow/document.

Service

Indicates which service to run by specifying a service descriptor in the resource set

Output Document

Provides instance data for the response returned from the service. The input document is specified by means of a scoped path. Typically, the scope used for the input document is Flow/document.

Copy Scoped XPaths

Copy Before

Copies data from one scoped path location to another before the activity is executed.

Copy After

Copies data from one scoped path location to another after the activity is executed.

Design UI

Design UI properties control the design-time appearance of the activity.

For more information    For more information, see Setting object display properties.

 
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Finish activity

FinishActivity

Description

The Finish activity represents the Workflow subsystem functions necessary to bring a workflow process to a normal end. There must be one (and only one) Finish activity in a workflow process.

Properties

The properties for the Finish activity are:

Property Inspector tab

Property name

Description

Activity

Name

A unique reference to this activity that is used for runtime processing.

Description

A description of the activity intended for the Workflow Modeler user.

Copy Scoped XPaths

Copy Before

Copies data from one scoped path location to another before the activity is executed.

Copy After

Copies data from one scoped path location to another after the activity is executed.

Design UI

Design UI properties control the design-time appearance of the activity.

For more information    For more information, see Setting object display properties.




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