Executing multiple process instances in a batch

Question

In one of our processes we need to execute multiple process instances together in one go. In order to accomplish this, we have taken a new process which takes a list of instanceStampIds to be processed and then using PAPI processing them one after another in a loop. There is a grab actibity defined, named "GrabAndProcess" to Grab the process instance and then to execute it. We're getting the exception: "Cannot invoke on remote components" while getting process instance using getInstance() in the code below. Here is the code:
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] Inside Reconcile Task... " + instanceStampId);
// Pre-Process instanceStampId
instanceStampIdList = instanceStampId.split(delim : "!");
// Define the arguments of the activity.
argumentSet\["reconcilerCommentsArg"\] = reconcilerComments;
argumentSet\["newStatusArg"\] = newStatus;
argumentSet\["reconcilerIdArg"\] = reconcilerId;
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] instanceStampIdList.length: " + instanceStampIdList.length());
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] Connecting to ReconcilationProcess... ");
ClientBusinessProcess.connectTo(processId : "/ReconcilationProcess");
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] Connected to ReconcilationProcess... ");
foreach (instanceStampIdVal in instanceStampIdList) {
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] Inside loop... instanceStampId: " + instanceStampIdVal);
// Pre-process Instance Id
instanceStampIdParts = instanceStampIdVal.split("/");
String baseInstanceStampId = "";
for (int part=0; part < instanceStampIdParts.length - 1; part++) {
if (instanceStampIdParts[part].compareTo("") != 0)
baseInstanceStampId = baseInstanceStampId + "/" + instanceStampIdParts[part];
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] instanceStampId: " + instanceStampIdVal);
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] baseInstanceStampId: " + baseInstanceStampId);
// Grab Instance
try {
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] processInstanceId: " + baseInstanceStampId);
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] Getting Process Instance..." + baseInstanceStampId);
instance = ClientBusinessProcess.processService.getInstance(instance : baseInstanceStampId);
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] Instance " + baseInstanceStampId + " Retrieved.");
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] Grabbing Instance... " + instanceStampIdVal);
instance.grab(grabActivity : "GrabAndProcess");
if (instance.grabbed) {
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] Instance " + instanceStampIdVal + " grabbed successfully!");
// Process Instance
instance.runTask(activity : "GrabAndProcess", args : argumentSet);
reconcileResult = reconcileResult + "\nInstance " + instanceStampIdVal + " processed successfully!";
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] Instance " + instanceStampIdVal + " processed successfully!");
catch (Java.Lang.Exception e) {
reconcileResult = reconcileResult + "\nInstance " + instanceStampIdVal + " could not be processed!";
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] Exception occurred while processing instance " + instanceStampIdVal);
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] Exception: " + e.message);
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] Done with processing instanceStampId " + instanceStampIdVal);
logMessage("\[MultiReconcile\]\[reconcileTask\] Leaving Reconcile Task... " + instanceStampId);
display (reconcileResult);
Why is it giving the execption "Cannot invoke on remote components"? What's wrong in the above approach?
Any help in resolving the issue will be highly appreciated.
Thanks,
MK
Edited by: goelmk on May 6, 2009 3:11 PM

Answer 1

Hi,
Could you go into your use case a little bit? I'm confused why you're using PAPI and the automatic grab functionality.
Going under the assumption, you're trying to use it to do ad hoc routing of intstances. If this is the case, here's another approach to using an automatic grab to route instances. The "instF" search would need to be modified to suit your use case:
BusinessProcess bp;
try {
    logMessage("PapiHelper: actionGrabAndRoute: Entry: instance: " + instanceToActOn.instanceIn, severity : DEBUG);
    InstanceFilter instF = InstanceFilter();
    Fuego.Instance[] instances;
    String instanceDescription;
    bp.connectTo(url : Fuego.Server.directoryURL, user : "AUTOCLIENT", password : "P",
                 process : "/" + processName);
    instF.create(processService : bp.processService);
    instF.searchScope = SearchScope(participantScope : ParticipantScope.ALL, statusScope : StatusScope.ONLY_INPROCESS);
    instF.addAttributeTo(variable : VarDefinition.INSTANCE_NUMBER, comparator : Comparison.IS,
                         value : instanceToActOn.instanceIn);
    instances = bp.getInstancesByFilter(filter : instF);
    foreach (inst in instances) {
        logMessage("PapiHelper: actionGrabAndRoute: Found it: " + inst.id, severity : DEBUG);
        try {
            // change this to be the name of your Grab Activity
            inst.grab(grabActivity : "GrabAutomatic");
            logMessage("PapiHelper: actionGrabAndRoute: Grabbed Instance Status: " + inst.grabbed, severity : DEBUG);
            try {
                inst.runTask(activity : "GrabAutomatic");
                logMessage("PapiHelper: actionGrabAndRoute: Ran Grab " + inst.grabbed, severity : DEBUG);
            catch (Exception e) {
                logMessage("PapiHelper: actionGrabAndRoute: tried to run grab and failed because no task to run in Grab", severity : DEBUG);
            inst.route(activity : groupGrabAndRouteToActivityName);
            logMessage("PapiHelper: actionGrabAndRoute: Routed back", severity : DEBUG);
        catch (Exception e1) {
            logMessage("PapiHelper: actionGrabAndRoute: Exception when running or routing: " + e1.cause, severity : DEBUG);
            errors = errors + "Instance could not be grabbed and reassigned\n\n";
            logMessage("PapiHelper: actionGrabAndRoute: Errors: " + errors, severity : DEBUG);
finally {
    bp.disconnectFrom();
}Dan