Property

Description

Action Display Name

This property specifies name to be displayed for the action in the Activity List. The name entered here overrides any display name that may be configured for this action in the Actions.xml file.

Action Outputs

This property is used to specify the outputs of the Choice task assignment. These outputs can be specified as buttons, which will be displayed in the activity list of the recipient. To assign action outputs, click the 'Action Outputs' button in the Properties pane for the Choice action. A new window pops up. In this window, enter each button's name and indicate whether it is a completion maker or not.

To

This property specifies the resource(s) who have to take up the Choice action. It is tagged with the Ignore Unavailable Resources property which in turn is tagged with Alternate Resource Allowed. This will be explained in detail later.

Subject

This is the subject of the Choice task assignment. The subject can be customized for each resource. To assign a subject to the Choice action, click the 'Subject' button in the Properties pane for the Choice action. A new window pops up. In this window, customize the subject by appending the various fields to the subject.

Notes

This is the message that describes the Choice action task assignment sent to the resource(s). The notes can be customized for each resource. To assign notes for the Choice, click the 'Notes' button in the Properties pane for the Choice action. A new window pops up. In this window, customize the content by appending the various fields to the notes.

Custom Fields

This property is used to add the custom fields to be used to display application data as well as value in variables and content in the activity list when this action is executed. For information on how to set custom fields see Using Custom Fields

Redirect URL

This property is used to get the URL of the web page to redirect the client to, in the case of synchronous execution of the action. To assign the URL of the web page, click the 'Redirect URL' button in the Properties pane for the Choice action. In the window that pops up, enter the URL.

Custom Document View URL

This property is used to get the URL of the page to which the custom document view dlls does a post. The dlls will have to be configured in the WorkflowNET.Config file to enable the automatic posting. The data posted to the page are application, workflow, executionid, executiondetailsid, and activityid. The posted data can be retrieved as Request.Form["activityid"].

Min. Acknowledgements

This property (referred to as Min.Ack), which can be specified as a number or percentage, is the minimum number of resources who should acknowledge receipt of the Choice task assignment. This property is related to the 'Timeout warning for Acknowledgement' and 'Timeout for Acknowledgement' properties. To illustrate, when 'Timeout for Acknowledgement' is reached, the activity first checks if the acknowledgement count is less than Min.Ack (if it is set). If it is, the activity will be removed from all activity lists. If the 'Min.Ack' has already been satisfied, then the activity will be removed from the non-acknowledgers' lists. If the Min.Ack value is 0, then the activity checks if the acknowledgement count is less than Max.Ack (if it is set). If it is, the activity will be removed from all activity lists. Else the activity will be removed from the non-acknowledgers' list. If both Min.Ack and Max.Ack are set to 0, then there should be at least one acknowledgement within the set time, otherwise the activity will be removed from all activity lists.

Max. Acknowledgements

This property (referred to as Max.Ack), which can be specified as a number or percentage, is the maximum number of resources who should acknowledge receipt of the Choice task assignment. If 'Timeout for Acknowledgement' is specified and achieved, and the 'Min.Ack' is also satisfied, then the activity waits for action from those who acknowledged. If the Min.Ack value is set to 0, then it checks if the acknowledgement count is less than Max.Ack. If it is, the activity will be removed from all activity lists. Else the activity will be removed from the non-acknowledgers' list. If both Min.Ack and Max.Ack are set to 0, then there should be at least one acknowledgement within the set time, otherwise the activity will be removed from all activity lists.

Timeout for Acknowledgement

This property (referred to as Time For Ack.) specifies the time until which acknowledgement is allowed i.e. the time until which the Choice action will wait for acknowledgement. If Min.Ack is set and is not reached, the activity is removed from all activity lists. If Min.Ack is 0, it will check if acknowledgement count is less than Max.Ack. If it is, the activity is removed from all activity lists. Else the activity will be removed from the non-acknowledgers' list. The activity will remain in the acknowledgers' activity list and wait for action from them.

Click here to view the flowchart for Timeout for Acknowledgement.

Timeout Warning for Acknowledgement

This property (referred to as Time Out Warning For Ack.) specifies the time at which a warning is provided to a resource to acknowledge the activity assigned to him/her. If the resource does not acknowledge within this time the engine is notified with a warning. Thus if 'Min.Ack' is set, and it is not satisfied before the given time then a warning is sent. If Min.Ack is 0, it will check for Max.Ack. If the acknowledgement count does not reach the Max.Ack value within the set time, a warning is sent. If both Min.Ack and Max.Ack are not set, this property is ignored.

Click here to view the flowchart for Timeout Warning for Acknowledgement.

How Acknowledgement Properties relates to each other

Affirmative Answer for TaskAssignment Completion [% or Number]

This property is used to check what percentage or number of persons should take action for the Choice task assignment. Decision for the Choice is taken only after the specified number or percentage of resources have taken the action. The activity waits for the resources' action until the 'Timeout for Action' is reached.

Action Min Limit TaskAssignment Completion [% or Number]

This property specifies the minimum number of resources required to act on the Choice task assignment before the 'Timeout Warning for Action'. If the action limit is reached before the 'Timeout Warning for Action' then the warning message is not shown.

Minimum Time for Action.

This property specifies the minimum time that is required to finish the action. If the resource does not have the minimum time left in the day to complete the action then the alternate resource is selected.

Timeout warning for Action

This property specifies when a reminder has to be provided for the resources to act on the task assignment, if the action count has not been reached. If properties such as Max.Ack, Affirmative Action for TaskAssignment Completion (AAT), and Action Limit (AL) are set, once the property values are reached then a warning is sent to the participant. When the timeout is reached, the following checks are made:

Click here to view the flowchart for Timeout Warning for Action.

Timeout for Action

This property's value is used to decide until what time the activity should wait for resource action. If properties such as Max.Ack, AAT, AL are set, once the property values are reached the activity is removed from the task lists of all the resources. When the timeout is reached, the following checks are made:

Click here to view the flowchart for Timeout for Action.

Hide Responses?

If this property is set to 'No', then users can see the responses of other users in a group response scenario. To view these responses i.e., acknowledgements or task settings, click on the 'Read Acknowledge' button. This will open a new popup with the responses of other users who have acknowledged.

Consider only Business Hours for Timeout?

If this property is set, all the time out calculations will be done based on only the business hours, i.e. leaves and Organization holidays will not be considered. Business hours for the Organization and Resource can be set using the calendar controls (Organization, Resource ) provided.

Forwarding Allowed?

If this property is set then the resource is provided with a Forward button. Using this the resource can forward the activity to another resource

Ignore Unavailable Resources?

If this property is set, when the Task is assigned to the resources list a check is first done to see whether the resource is available. If the resource is not available then a check is made for an alternate resource assigned to the unavailable resource. Simultaneously the value of the property 'Alternate Resource Allowed' is checked. If that is also set, then the Task is assigned to this resource.

Alternate Resource Allowed?

This property is set to assign a particular task to an alternate resource in the absence or unavailability of any resource.

Severity

This property is set to indicate the severity of the Task. It can be set to 'Low', 'Medium', or 'High'.

Show Custom Document View Window

If this property is set, then the Custom Document View Window will be shown.

Send Notification Email

If this property is set to 'Yes', then notification emails will be sent to the resources. If it is set to 'Yes-HTML', then the emails will be sent in HTML format.

Multiple TimeOut Warning

This is used to set recurring timeout warnings that will be sent to the resources who have to take action. To set multiple timeout warnings, click the 'Multiple TimeOut Warning' button in the Properties pane for the Task action. A new window pops up. In this window, set the interval for the recurring warning as well as the output message. You can also set the Recurring Time Interval. This can be used to set a different recurring time out after the first timeout happens. For example, if 'Time Interval' for the property is set as 7 days and 'Recurring Time Interval' is set as 2 days, then the first time out will happen after 7 days and there will be a recurring time out every 2nd day after the 7th day (first) time out.

 Property settings for Choice

To set the properties for the Choice action click on the Choice icon in the design area. The properties corresponding to the Choice action will be displayed in the Properties pane of the process designer.

To specify the action outputs for the Choice task to be assigned, click on the button for the 'Action Outputs' property. A window pops up (Fig 2.), in which the button names can be entered under the 'Button Name' column. Set the button output to be a task completion maker by selecting 'Yes' from the 'Completion Maker' drop down; select 'No' if you do not want the output to be a task completion maker. To add more buttons click on the New row button. To remove a button, click the Remove selected button. After adding all the buttons, click the Update button.

To select the resources to whom this Choice task is to be assigned, click on the button for the 'To' property. A window pops up (Fig 3.), in which the resources can be selected. An expression can be built to select the resources based on the resource properties. Select a property from the list, then select the operator, type of value (Value, Variable, Content), corresponding value for the property and the logical operator. Add the condition to the expression by clicking the Add button. To end the expression select the 'End' instead of a logical operator. To remove a condition already added to the expression, click the Undo button. After building the expression, click the Update button.

The subject of the Choice can be customized. To prepare the Choice subject, click on the button for the 'Subject' property. A window pops (Fig 4.) up where the subject can be typed and customized by appending the resource property values. Click the Update button to save the subject.

Notes is the content of the Choice task assignment. To prepare the notes, click on the button for the 'Notes' property. A window pops (Fig 5.) up where the notes can be typed and customized by appending the resource property values. Click the Update button to save the notes.

Redirect URL is the URL of the web page to which the client will be redirected if the Choice action is executed synchronously. To set the URL, click on the button for the 'Redirect URL' property. A window pops (Fig 6.) up where the URL can be typed in the text editor. The URL can also be specified by selecting the variable or content that contains it and clicking 'Append'. Click the Update button to save the URL.

Custom Document View URL is the URL of the web page to which the application details will be posted by the Custom Document View dlls if this is configured in the WorkflowNET.config file. To set the URL, click on the button for the 'Custom Document View URL' property. A window pops (Fig 7.) up where the URL can be typed in the text editor. The URL can also be specified by selecting the variable or content that contains it and clicking 'Append'. Click the Update button to save the URL.

Multiple TimeOut Warnings are repeated warnings sent to the resources regarding timeout of the Choice. To set multiple timeout warnings, click on the button for the 'Multiple TimeOut Warning' property. A window pops (Fig 8.) up where the Time Interval can be typed and the Recurring? option set to 'Yes'. The output message can also be typed here. You can also set the recurring time out in the 'Recurring Time Interval' column. More than one timeout warning can be set by clicking the New row button and entering the new timeout warning settings. Click the Update button to save the settings.