Q: Start Workflow...

Question

Hi all,
The "Start Workflow" task allows an alternate organisation to be
specified using an expression, but when I do this, I cannot select the
workflow to start - nothing will appear in the list.
Is there a trick to making this work? Should the template name be
part of the expression?
I don't quite understand the functionality behind this option - the
templates, versions and activation properties seem to be globally
scoped, so that all organisations share the exact same template
definitions. What is the intended purpose for specifying an alternate
organisation?
Any light shed on these issues would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Ben Hatton.

Answer 1

Yes, I would imagine that the point of using an expression is that the
selection organization would be determined according to some condition
defined in the workflow which must be evaluated at run time.
But specifying orgs does have some ramifications, limited as they may be.
These are:
1) controlling access to starting workflows manually via the Worklist. That
is, if a template is associated with only a particular org, a user who is
not a member of that org won't be able to start the workflow from the
Worklist. For called workflows, this is irrelevant anyway, however.
2) controlling which users or roles may be assigned tasks within the
workflow. Again, if a user or role isn't defined for the org associated with
the template, that user/role can't execute tasks in the Worklist. (But they
probably can be through task reassignment. I haven't tested this to see what
would actually happen.) This point does affect called workflows.
On the other hand, the fact that you can use an expression to define the
actual organization, rather than the condition to apply to a limited set of
allowable choices (defined by the orgs associated with the template), seems
to subvert the whole intention anyway, as you can really select any org you
want.
There will obviously have to be some redesign of the whole org-template
thing in future releases.
Kara
While Templates can be associated to specific organisations by the
designer, you can't have two orgs that use different definitions of
the same template (name). If different orgs could have their own
implementation of a named flow, like "approveOrder", then each
organisation could have a different private process for that function
(one uses manual task, another uses an automatic caluculation). As it
is, there is no point in being able to specify a different org, 'cause
you'll get the exact same template definition.
Is the intention that you can test for the name of the organisation in
the template definition and branch to different functionality?
Probably not - if we have the ability to evaluate the right
organisation when defining the "Start Workflow" task, then we would
likely be able to use that same logic at the point that functionality
splits in the subflow.
Regards,
Ben.
On Wed, 3 Oct 2001 16:12:17 -0400, "Kara Moscoe" <[email protected]>
wrote:
I agree with you, and do not understand why the Studio does not provide a
combo box for this functionality, in the same way triggered or timed
start
nodes do. And given that there is no workflow function to return an
organization, I really don't understand what kind of expression couldeven
be sensibly used here. The only thing I could imagine this being used foris
a variable that has contained previously stored organization from an
incoming XML message received by another node in the calling workflow,from
some other workflow or other source. Tony, maybe you could shed somelight
on this.
On the other hand, you are incorrect when you say that all TDs are sharedby
all organizations. At least, this is not the case at design time; orgs tobe
associated with TDs are selected by the designer. So the intention hereis
to be able to specify the org in which the subworkflow is operable, ifit's
not the current one. What should happen is that here, as in triggered and
timed start nodes, a list of orgs associated with the template shouldappear
in the combo box.
What actually happens is another matter, and there is a CR filed on thefact
that the server does not actually control organizations in whichworkflows
can be started, and you could theoretically specify anything you want,
including a non-existing org. The template/organization paradigm is quite
broken, and it appears that a proper solution to the problem won't happenin
the Berlin time frame.
Hope this helps,
Kara
"Benjamin Hatton" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Hi Tony,
Thanks for your help on this and the other queries I had.
I am in the studio, adding a "Start Workflow" action to a task. If
the subworkflow is in the current organisation, there is no issue. If
it is another organisation, then it does not appear in the list of
flows to start.
Given that an expression evaluated at run-time can be used to
determine the organisation, how can the studio resolve the
organisation, and hence resolve the list of flows that can be called?
Given that workflow templates and activation properties are shared
across organisations, what is the point of have a dynamically
evaluated expression to choose the organisation?
Best regards,
Ben.
On Tue, 2 Oct 2001 22:17:38 -0300, "tony lodge" <[email protected]>
wrote:
Ben can you be more specific. Are you saying that when you use the
worklist
client you can not see the template to start. If this is the case youhave
to ensure that the start node in the workflow has a start note that is
triggered manually. This is done by a choice section on the start node
(timed,manual,event,called)
Tony
"Benjamin Hatton" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Hi all,
The "Start Workflow" task allows an alternate organisation to be
specified using an expression, but when I do this, I cannot select
the
workflow to start - nothing will appear in the list.
Is there a trick to making this work? Should the template name be
part of the expression?
I don't quite understand the functionality behind this option - the
templates, versions and activation properties seem to be globally
scoped, so that all organisations share the exact same template
definitions. What is the intended purpose for specifying analternate
organisation?
Any light shed on these issues would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Ben Hatton.