Flow form
Editing Utility shape properties

Field

Description

Enter a text name for this Utility shape . Choose a name meaningful to application users who see this on the work object history display, the breadcrumbs control (for entry points), and the Where-Am-I? diagram. For example, Compute Customer Open-To-Buy.

The task name is only descriptive; it does not affect runtime execution of the flow. This name also appears inside the Utility shape on the Diagram tab.

Select a Utility activity to be executed when a flow execution reaches this shape. See Atlas — Standard Activities for Flows for descriptions of a few standard Utility activities.

Optional. Select the name of the application that you want to link to the flow shape. The value of this field is referenced with the flow diagram in application documents.

Optional. Select the name of the work type for the application that you want to link to the flow shape. The value of this field is referenced with the flow diagram in application documents.

Optional. Select the name of the use case for the application and work type that details the implementation requirements for the flow shape. The value of this field is referenced with the flow diagram in application documents and on the Implementation tab of the corresponding Rule-Application-UseCase rule.

If the utility selected requires parameters, supply a literal value for each parameter. Process Commander validates these parameter values when you exit from Visio editing (unless the flow in is Draft mode).

You can use the notation param.name in a parameter field to refer to a flow parameter. In this case, you are instructing the system to set a value of a parameter to this call of the activity equal to the value of a parameter to the flow. (Inside the activity, the keyword param refers — as always — to activity parameters, not flow parameters.

Optional. Select or enter the name of a Rule-Message rule to control the text of an instances added to the work object history (the "audit trail") when a flow execution completes this shape. Process Commander includes a few dozen standard messages in the Work- class. (Through field value rules, the corresponding text on work object history displays can be localized. See About the Localization wizard.)

Optionally, to reduce the volume of history detail instances, your application can prevent system-generated messages from being added to work object history. See Controlling the volume of generated work object history instances and the Pega Developer Network article PRKB-25196 How to control history instances written to the audit trail.

Optional. Enter a brief text note to be included in the work history object that the system creates when a flow execution uses this utility task.

When you plan to localize the application using this rule, so the application can support users in various languages or locales, choose the text carefully and limit text length to 64 characters. A field value rule with this text as the final key part is needed for each locale. When practical, choose a caption already included in a language pack, to simplify later localization. See About the Localization wizard.

Select to indicate that this Utility task is an entry point, which a user can return to using the breadcrumbs control or the standard flow action Previous. The default is cleared.

Because a utility task presents no user form, if a user clicks a breadcrumbs control to return to this entry point, flow processing resumes and pauses at the next assignment or other task that requires user input.

This check box appears only when you select the Entry Point? check box. Select to restrict users at runtime who are at this entry point to choose only those entry points (on the breadcrumbs display) that identify earlier steps in the flow.

Leave unselected to allow users to select any entry point of the flow when at this entry point. They can click the breadcrumbs control or tab to complete or visit an earlier or later step.

For maximum user flexibility, clear this check box if your flow accepts inputs in any order. However, this approach is typically not workable for flows that contain fork and decision shapes, or that have intermediate tasks that are not entry points.