API call to alter the flow (11g)

Question

I am doing a POC to figure out if i can alter the flow of a bpm process instance programmatically using the API. I found the API methods to alter a flow by calling setTargetActivity(IActivityInfo targetActivity) on the IFlowChangeItem
However, mostly when we alter the flow, we will also need to set the data object values manually to reflect the instance state that would have been if the instance was in that state. But after sifting through the API methods here http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/apirefs.1111/e25378/toc.htm , I couldn't find anything to do this.
Could anyone please help me with any pointers to do this ? [Googling didn't help]
thanks,
Jaseer

Answer 1

I was doing the same POC, I used queryTask to get a instance but when I tried to use grab it returns an error. I didn't find examples or documentation about how to use the API to implement this feature.
My code is:
cf = ProcessUtils.getServiceClientFactory(CLIENT_CONFIG);
ProcessUtils processUtils = new ProcessUtils(cf);
try {
ctx =
(IBPMContext)processUtils.getHwfServiceClient().getTaskQueryService().authenticate(null,
null,
null);
} catch (WorkflowException e) {
IBPMServiceClient bPMServiceClient = cf.getBPMServiceClient();
IInstanceManagementService instManSer = bPMServiceClient.getInstanceManagementService();
GrabInstanceRequest grab = new GrabInstanceRequest();
//id and name for acitivities in bpmn file
IFlowChangeItem change = FlowChangeItem.create(ActivityInfo.create("ABSTRACT_ACTIVITY3688569746588", "Cadastrar Briefing"), ActivityInfo.create("ABSTRACT_ACTIVITY3690017028690","Validar Briefing"));
IProcessInstance instance = null;
IInstanceQueryService query = bPMServiceClient.getInstanceQueryService();
try {
instance = query.getProcessInstance(ctx, "760001");
} catch (BPMException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
grab.setProcessInstance(instance);
change.setTargetActivity(ActivityInfo.create("ABSTRACT_ACTIVITY3690017028690","Validar Briefing"));
IGrabInstanceRequest igrab = grab;
ArrayList<IFlowChangeItem> list = new ArrayList<IFlowChangeItem>();
list.add(change);
igrab.setRequestedFlowChanges(list);
try {
instManSer.grabInstance(ctx, igrab);
} catch (BPMException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
The error is:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassCastException: cannot assign instance of oracle.bpm.services.instancemanagement.model.impl.alterflow.ActivityInfo to field oracle.bpm.services.instancemanagement.model.impl.alterflow.FlowChangeItem.sourceActivity of type oracle.bpm.services.instancemanagement.model.IOpenActivityInfo in instance of oracle.bpm.services.instancemanagement.model.impl.alterflow.FlowChangeItem
     at weblogic.rjvm.ResponseImpl.unmarshalReturn(ResponseImpl.java:234)
     at weblogic.rmi.cluster.ClusterableRemoteRef.invoke(ClusterableRemoteRef.java:348)
     at weblogic.rmi.cluster.ClusterableRemoteRef.invoke(ClusterableRemoteRef.java:259)
     at oracle.bpm.services.instancemanagement.ejb.InstanceManagementServiceBean_sqa2w0_IInstanceManagementServiceRemoteImpl_1036_WLStub.grabInstance(Unknown Source)
     at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
     at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
     at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
     at weblogic.ejb.container.internal.RemoteBusinessIntfProxy.invoke(RemoteBusinessIntfProxy.java:85)
     at $Proxy15.grabInstance(Unknown Source)
     at br.com.grupomult.bpm11g.services.grab.Grab.<init>(Grab.java:98)
     at br.com.grupomult.bpm11g.services.grab.Grab.main(Grab.java:50)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassCastException: cannot assign instance of oracle.bpm.services.instancemanagement.model.impl.alterflow.ActivityInfo to field oracle.bpm.services.instancemanagement.model.impl.alterflow.FlowChangeItem.sourceActivity of type oracle.bpm.services.instancemanagement.model.IOpenActivityInfo in instance of oracle.bpm.services.instancemanagement.model.impl.alterflow.FlowChangeItem
     at java.io.ObjectStreamClass$FieldReflector.setObjFieldValues(ObjectStreamClass.java:2039)
     at java.io.ObjectStreamClass.setObjFieldValues(ObjectStreamClass.java:1212)
     at java.io.ObjectInputStream.defaultReadFields(ObjectInputStream.java:1952)
     at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readSerialData(ObjectInputStream.java:1870)
     at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(ObjectInputStream.java:1752)
     at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(ObjectInputStream.java:1328)
     at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject(ObjectInputStream.java:350)
     at java.util.ArrayList.readObject(ArrayList.java:593)
     at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor3.invoke(Unknown Source)
     at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
     at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readSerialData(ObjectInputStream.java:1848)
     at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(ObjectInputStream.java:1752)
     at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readSerialData(ObjectInputStream.java:1870)
     at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject(ObjectInputStream.java:350)
     at weblogic.rjvm.MsgAbbrevInputStream.readObject(MsgAbbrevInputStream.java:599)
     at weblogic.utils.io.ChunkedObjectInputStream.readObject(ChunkedObjectInputStream.java:204)
     at oracle.bpm.services.instancemanagement.ejb.InstanceManagementServiceBean_sqa2w0_IInstanceManagementServiceRemoteImpl_WLSkel.invoke(Unknown Source)
     at weblogic.rmi.internal.BasicServerRef.invoke(BasicServerRef.java:668)
     at weblogic.rmi.cluster.ClusterableServerRef.invoke(ClusterableServerRef.java:230)
     at weblogic.rmi.internal.wls.WLSExecuteRequest.run(WLSExecuteRequest.java:118)
     at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:256)
     at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:221)
I can't even find the IOpenActivityInfo in the path mentioned.
Anyone can help?
Jaseer, can you send your code?
Thanks.