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Flow form
Use the Assignment Service shape
in a flow to pass control to an external system using a connector (for example, Connect BPEL rule). Assignment Service shapes support asynchronous coordination with external systems.
Both Integrator shapes and Assignment Service shapes reference an activity of type Connect. For an Integrator shape, flow execution continues as soon as the activity completes. For an Assignment Service shape, flow execution pauses until PRPC receives a incoming service request of the appropriate type.
The
icon helps to identify the Assignment Service shape. A clock shape 
indicates that an SLA is applied to the Assignment Service.
indicates that one or more tickets are defined on the Assignment Service shape. Assigned ticket names appear beside this icon on the flow.
Adding an Assignment Service shape
On the flow Diagram tab, you can add a shape to a flow in one of three ways. Validation of the added shapes occurs when you save the flow.
Use the canvas context menu:
- Right-click a blank area of the canvas near the location where you would like the Assignment Service shape to appear.
- Hover over Add on the submenu to display a list of shapes you can add to the flow.
- Click the Assignment Service shape. After the shape has been added to the canvas, click and drag to reposition.
Use the toolbar Flow Shape palette:
- Click the toolbar Flow Shape palette
to display a drop-down shapes menu that will remain open until you close it, facilitating the process of rapidly adding multiple shapes. Click the window title bar and drag the submenu to another area of the screen, as needed. - Click and drag the Assignment Service shape to the canvas.
- Close the Flow Shape palette at any time.
Use the Flow Shape palette drop-down menu:
- Click the down arrow
on the toolbar Flow Shape palette to display a drop-down shapes menu. - Click and drag the Assignment Service shape from the drop-down menu to the desired position on the canvas.
Editing Assignment Service properties
1. On the flow Diagram tab, open the properties panel using one of the following:
- Double-click the shape.
- Right-click the shape and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
- Click the shape, then click the Properties icon
.
2. When the Assignment Service Properties panel appears, complete the fields as described in the tables below.
3. Assign a name to this Assignment Service shape. Choose a name meaningful to application users who see this on the work item history display, the breadcrumbs control (for entry points), and the Where-Am-I? diagram. The shape name is only descriptive; it does not affect runtime execution. This name also appears inside the assignment service shape on the Diagram tab.
4. Click OK or click anywhere off the shape to save edits and close the panel.
5. Connect at least one incoming connector to the Assignment Service shape.
6. Connect one or more outgoing connectors from the Assignment Service shape.
Deleting an Assignment Service
An assignment service shape may be deleted from the process flow. Right-click the assignment service, and select Delete from the drop-down menu.
You can also select the assignment service shape and do one of the following:
- Click the Delete
icon on the toolbar. - Press the Delete key on your keyboard.
When a shape is deleted, the connectors to and from the shape are also deleted.
Completing the Assignment Service tab
Complete the Assignment Service tab as described below.
Field |
Description |
| Type |
|
| Parameters |
The assignment activity you select may accept input parameters that will appear in the box below. Supply a value for each parameter. PRPC validates these parameter values when you save the flow. (unless the flow in is Draft mode). |
| Service Level |
This may indicate that the external system is unavailable or that other technical problems are present. See Handling connector exceptions. |
| Audit Note |
|
| Entry Point |
Select to indicate that this Assignment Service shape 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. This checkbox works with Perform harnesses 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.
|
| 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. |
Select an activity with an Activity Type of 
25196 How to control history instances written to the audit trail.
For 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.Complete the Work Status field under the Status tab to set the status for the work item. This allows you to easily change the status at multiple points in the life cycle of a work item without adding a Utility shape to the flow for each status change. Similar to setting work item status using a Utility shape, setting the status on this tab invokes the UpdateStatus activity. Any defined tickets dependent on the status are raised, as appropriate.
Field |
Description |
| Work Status |
A status indicator appears on connectors to shapes that change a work item status. For example, if the shape status is set to Pending-External, the connector to that shape displays a small red flag. All transitions connecting to the shape will display the status indicator. Following are the status indicators for the four status prefixes.
|
New
Open
Pending
ResolvedAdd 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 PRPC application can set or raise this ticket by executing the Obj-Set-Tickets method with this ticket name as a parameter. See Ticket help for other ways to raise a ticket.
The scope of a raised ticket includes all flows on the current work item that contain this ticket. If found, processing stops on that flow promptly, and resumes at the ticket point.
The system adds a ticket icon () to the assignment service shape to indicate that one or more tickets are associated with this assignment service. Assigned ticket names appear beside this icon on the flow.
Field |
Description |
| Ticket Name |
ExampleProcessing 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:
|
| Display Name | Optional. The Ticket Name appears by default. Enter a name to display other than the ticket name. |
Optional. Select one or more tickets that are to be available at runtime from this assignment service. Add a row for each ticket. Use SmartPrompt to display all tickets available to flows in this work type.