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Process Modeler - Editing Assignment Service shape properties
 

 About Flow rules

Purpose

Advanced featureUse the Assignment Service task in a flow to pass control to an external system using a connector (for example, Connect BPEL rule). Assignment Service tasks support asynchronous coordination with external systems, in contrast to the Integrator tasks, which support synchronous connections. MARIK 2/14/05 3/29/05COLLAPSE CANDIDATE

Both Integrator tasks and Assignment Service tasks reference an activity of type Connect. For an Integrator task, flow execution continues as soon as the activity completes. For an Assignment Service task, flow execution pauses until Process Commander receives a service request of the appropriate type. vague need examples from MARIK

Adding an Assignment Service task to a flow

1. Right-click on a blank area of the canvas.

2. Hover over Add on the submenu to display a list of tasks you can add to the flow.

3. Click the Assignment Service shape name. will the properties panel display by default? Not yet -- too complicated if you add multiple at once, per Joan. You can add multiple shapes without saving the flow.If the properties panel displays by default, it would have to close one before you add a new assignment

4. Right-click the Assignment Service shape and select Properties to display the properties panel.

5. When the Assignment Service Properties panel appears, complete the fields as described in the tables below. (To edit the shape properties after you save the Flow form, open the Diagram tab, right-click the shape, and select Properties.)

6. Click  OK   when finished.

7. Click and drag the shape as needed to position it in the flow.

8. Connect at least one incoming connector and at least one outgoing connector to the shape.

-Copy/Paste - Ctrl c on Decision, then Ctl V to make a copy (eventually)

Select shape from plus-sign style icon and drop-down menu on toolbar (eventually)

Field

Description
Name

Enter a text name for this Assignment Service 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.

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

SmartPromptSelect an activity with an Activity Type of Connect. Three standard activities, stubBPELinvoke, stubBPELreceive, stubBPELreply, defined with Work- as the Applies To class are always choices in this field. (Your application may include others or override these standard activities.)
Parameters

If the activity accepts input parameters, a list of parameters appears. Enter parameter values. Process Commander validates these parameter values when you exit from check when it validates --when click OK? --Visio editing. 5.5 GRP-405
Service Level

SmartPromptOptional. Select a service level rule to apply to this task. For example, a service level can cause escalation processing when no response is received from the external system after 60 seconds.

This may indicate that the external system is unavailable or that other technical problems are present. See Handling connector exceptions.
Audit Note

SmartPromptOptional. 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. B-18887 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.)

NoteOptionally, 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 PDNPRKB-25196 How to control history instances written to the audit trail.
Entry Point

Select to indicate that this Assignment Service task is an entry point, which a user can return to using the breadcrumbs control or the standard flow action Work-.Previous. The default is cleared. 5.2

This checkbox works with Perform harness rules that include a breadcrumbs display and with assignments that offer the Work-.Previous flow action. In other cases, the checkbox has no effect.
Only going back

This checkbox appears only when you select the Entry Point checkbox. Select to restrict users at runtime from jumping ahead to this step without having completed the preceding steps. After having completed this step, users may jump back to it from steps that follow it.

Leave unselected to allow users to select this entry point from anywhere within the flow. They can complete or visit an earlier or later step.

TipFor maximum user flexibility, leave this checkbox unselected if your flow accepts inputs in any order. However, this approach is typically not workable for flows that contain decision shapes, or that have intermediate tasks that are not entry points.
Post Action on Click Away

This checkbox appears only when you select the Entry Point checkbox. Select to run flow action post-processing when you click away from this entry point.

Completing the Tickets tab

XXXXX Add a Ticket Name field under the Tickets tab to indicate the ticket(s) available at runtime. Use the Ticket to mark the starting point for exceptions that may arise at any point in the flow, such as a cancellation. The ticket is a label for a point in a flow, much like a programming "GOTO" destination.

An activity executing anywhere in your entire Process Commander application can set or raise this ticket by executing the Obj-Set-Tickets method with this ticket name as a parameter.

A raised ticket causes the system to search for any executing flow (on the same or a different work object) that contains this ticket. If found, processing stops on that flow promptly, and resumes at the ticket point.

The system adds a ticket icon to assignment shape to indicate one or more tickets are associated with this assignment. get an icon when they are done.

Field

Description
Ticket Name

Optional. Select one or more tickets that are to be available at runtime from this assignment. Add a row for each ticket. Use SmartPrompt to display all tickets available to flows in this work type.

TipCreating ticket rules is recommended but not required. You can enter here a name that does not correspond to a ticket rule.

NoteIf a shape has more than one ticket associated with it, then processing continues with that task only after all tickets are set.check

Example

Processing is connected to a ticket to respond to an exception, error flow or event. For example, if a mortgage application is withdrawn after some, but not all, of the application processing is completed, a mortgage processing flow can:

  • Include a ticket named Withdrawn
  • Connect this ticketed shape since there is not a 'ticket' shape? to a utility task that computes the fees due for work done so far, and any refund amount
  • Follow the utility task with another that produces correspondence, to alert all parties working on the mortgage that it was withdrawn
  • Connect to external systems to back out (rollback) changes or void accounting entries as appropriate

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