Terminate one subprocess from another subproces

Question

Hi All
I have a scenario in which there are two sub processes running in parallel and I want to terminate one sub process from another one for e.g.
Let say Parent Process is - A
First Child Process of A - a1 (Subprocess)
Second Child Process of A - a2 (Subprocess)
Now on a particular condition on a2(Subprocess) I need to terminate a1(Subprocess) and vice-versa.
I had created correlation for both the sub processes.
Solution I thought was that subprocess a2 should listen for notification from a1 for termination. But this is not feasible as subprocess a2 could be in any state and I don't know where to wait.
Also how can a process be terminated as I am not able to find any api for process instance termination.
Thanks in anticipation
user9945154
Edited by: user9945154 on Mar 25, 2009 11:56 PM

Answer 1

Hi,
You'd use logic like this to send a notification from one of your subprocesses to the target subprocess you're trying to terminate. In this example, it's important that you realize:
1. The name of the target in this example is "TargetProcessToNotifyWithCorrelation". Change this to your target process's name and be sure to put the "\" in front of it.
2. The name of the Notification Wait (now Message Wait for Oracle BPM 10g). ) activity in the target process in this example is "WaitForNotification". Right mouse click click the Nofication Wait activity in the target process -> Properties -> and note the "Activity id" name in the read only field at the top of the dialog box. A common mistake is to use the name with the space characters for this parameter (e.g. "Wait for Notification").
3. The name of the Notification Wait activity's argument mapping in the target process is "In" in this example (the default for Oracle BPM 10g). Determine the name of the mapping in your target process's Notifcation Wait activity by right mouse clicking the activity -> "Argument Mapping" -> note the name highlighted in the upper left hand corner of the dialog.
4. This assumes that you have already set up the Correlation in the target process before this notification is sent. In the example logic below, I used the customerId as the correlation (use the "initiate" method in the Fuego.Lib.Correlation).
5. Both subprocesses have in this example the same "customerId" passed into them from their parent process. This way the two subprocesses know that they are siblings and can notify each other if necessary.
6. It's easier if the two subprocesses where the two sibling instances reside are in different processes (e.g. one goes into the process "Check Credit" and the other sibling goes into the process "Check Inventory"). The reason is because correlations are like primary keys in a database table. They provide an easy way for notifications like this to be sent from outside a process either via PAPI or PBL using information that someone outside the target process can easily obtain (e.g. "customerId"). For every process, you can only have one correlation based on the customerId "227". If both siblings were in the "Check Credit" process, you'd get a runtime error when you tried to create the correlation based on 227. There's a way around this, but it would be easier if you just made sure that the siblings were in different processes. That way they could both use the same unique id and both are aware of what that id is (the value stored in customerId in this example) so they could easily send each other notifications.
7. The Notification Wait in the target process's correlation is set to wait for the argument "customerIdArg" in this example. Change this to match the correlation you've already created.
8. The editor for the OTN forum drives me nuts. While it's common in code to have open and close square brackets, if you do this in code snippets in this editor it changes the text to either disappear or underline (thinks I wanted a link). The sloppy way I worked around this in the logic below is to type the text "open square bracket" and "close square bracket" in the comment above the line that you'll see presented incorrectly
<pre class="jive-pre"><font color="navy">// set up the associative array (a hash table)
// - this next line of logic should instead read:
// "any as Any open square bracket Any close square bracket"
args as Any[Any]
// Set the value to the argument to be received in the Notifcation Wait
// by populating the associative array
// - this next line of logic should read:
// args open square bracket "customerIdArg" close square bracket = customerId
// - leave the double quotes around "customerIdArg" or you'll get a syntax error
args["customerIdArg"] = customerId
send Notification
using processId = "/TargetProcessToNotifyWithCorrelation",
activityName = "WaitForNotification",
arguments = args,
argumentSetName = "In"</font></pre>
Hope this helps,
Dan