#STUCK on a voting timeout

Question

I have a voting notification activity with REQUIRE_ALL_VOTES and a timeout.
The timeout transition goes to an FYI notification to an administrator, asking him to nag the participants.
There is a transition from the FYI back to the vote, and the vote has ON_REVISIT=LOOP
When the vote times out, the process ends up in an error state #STUCK, and the FYI doesn't get sent. The web monitor shows the transition in green, but not the FYI.
The Workflow Guide (2.6.1 June 2001 p 2-34) describes three ways for a process to be stuck, but mine doesn't seem to meet any of them.
When I use the "Expedite" button of the web monitor, the dialog refers to the FYI notification, and when I tell it "Retry", the FYI is sent and the process loops back to the vote as I had planned.
Can anyone tell me why this is happening?
Thanks,

Answer 1

I've been trying to trace the problem. It looks to me (a Java programmer with minimal PL/SQL experience) that:
When not all "voters" have responded and WF_ENGINE.Background executes ProcessTimeOut
It finds the activity.
Sets its status to COMPLETE:TIMEOUT
Calls WF_UTIL.Execute_Post_NTF_Function in TIMEOUT MODE which
Calls the post-notif function (WF_STANDARD.VoteForResultType) for which
<snip>
-- If the mode is one of:
-- a. REQUIRE_ALL_VOTES
-- b. WAIT_FOR_ALL_VOTES and no timeout has occurred
-- and there are still open notifications, then return WAITING to
-- either continue voting (in run mode) or trigger timeout processing
-- (in timeout mode).
if ((l_voting_option = 'REQUIRE_ALL_VOTES') or
((funcmode = wf_engine.eng_run) and
(l_voting_option = 'WAIT_FOR_ALL_VOTES'))) then
if (wf_notification.OpenNotificationsExist(l_group_id)) then
resultout := wf_engine.eng_waiting;
return;
end if;
end if;
</snip>
sets the OUT parameter result to WAITING,
and Execute_Post_NTF... does the same for pntfstatus and returns.
Back in Process Timeout:
<snip>
if (pntfstatus = wf_engine.eng_completed) then
-- Post-notification function found and returned a completed status.
-- Complete activity with result of post-notification function.
Wf_Engine_Util.Complete_Activity(l_itemtype, l_itemkey, l_actid,
pntfresult, FALSE);
else
-- Either had no post-notification function, or result was still
-- not complete.
-- In either case, complete activity with #TIMEOUT.
Wf_Engine_Util.Complete_Activity(l_itemtype, l_itemkey, l_actid,
wf_engine.eng_timedout);
end if;
</snip>
we take the else branch, calling CompleteActivity BUT NOT SETTING its runpntf parameter to FALSE (its default is TRUE). In that procedure,
<snip>
if (runpntf and (acttype = wf_engine.eng_notification)) then
-- First execute possible post-notification function to see if activity
-- should really complete.
Wf_Engine_Util.Execute_Post_NTF_Function(itemtype, itemkey, actid,
wf_engine.eng_run, pntfstatus, pntfresult);
if (pntfstatus = wf_engine.eng_waiting) then
-- Either post-notification function is not complete, or error occurred.
-- In either case exit immediately without changing status.
return;
</snip>
calls VoteForResultType with the same result, i.e. pntfststus = wf_engine.eng_waiting, and returns BEFORE either cancelling the outstanding notifications or transitioning to thereminder notification. This leaves the process with no ACTIVE activities, and when ProcessStuckProcess sees this, it sets the process to ERROR:#STUCK.
I THINK that this is the problem (on the other hand, I could be completely out to lunch :).
My questions are:
Is my analysis of what's happening correct?
Is that what's supposed to happen to a REQUIRE_ALL_VOTES activity on a timeout?
If so, is there another way to get the timeout/renotify effect on that kind of activity?
If not, how could itbe fixed?
Thanks.