Wait functionality in Workflow

Question

Hi Everyone,
I was trying to implement the wait functionality in a workflow. I did the following.
1) Changed the Node type to Relative Time and value to 1 minute.
2) Changed the status to Timeout in the workflow for that Notification.
3) In my pl/sql package, i have written as follows:
IF (FUNCMODE IN ('TIMEOUT')) THEN
WF_ENGINE.Background('WorkflowItemName', NULL, NULL, FALSE, TRUE, FALSE);
RESULT := 'COMPLETE:APPROVE';
END IF;
Now, even after waiting for more than a minute, the notification is not going to the next level. Can anyone please give suggestions??
Thank you
Jim

Answer 1

Hi,
Let's start with the original post - you don't need to have anything in the code that performs differently in TIMEOUT mode, unless you want specific logic to fire when the timeout transition is taken. As you've found, you need to run the background engine for that item type in order to move the process on.
You can perform whatever logic you want on the timeout transition. Sounds like you want to resend the notification to the original recipient and also to the next recipient at the same time (which could be problematic...). However, there are two ways that you could model this.
1 - Timeout transition returns back to the original notification, so that notifies the original recipient. A parallel timeout transition determines the next recipient and then goes to a different (identical) notification. You then have two notifications open at the same time, so you need to include an "OR" activity so that only one of those can move the process onto the next step. This is not something that I would advocate.
2 - Timeout transition goes to a new PL/SQL activity. In that activity, retrieve the current responder and the next one, and add them to an adhoc role. Then transition back to the notification, but send it to that adhoc role now. The question really is whether you accept a response from either of those recipients, or does one take precedence over the other? If you are accepting a response from either, then do not tick the "Expand Roles" checkbox, and the standard functionallity will process the first response that comes in. If not, then expand the roles and you will need to have a post notification function for the notification to determine what happens for each response.
HTH,
Matt
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