Flow form
Process Modeler — Editing Assignment shapes
Flow form
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Complete the Assignment Property panel to define the processing that occurs when a flow execution reaches the Assignment shape
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indicates that an SLA is applied to the assignment.
indicates that one or more tickets are defined on the assignment. Assigned ticket names appear beside this icon on the flow.
indicates that one or more notifications are generated from this assignment.
Add an assignment shape for each place in the business process that requires human judgment and input.
For every assignment, add at least one flow action. The assignment normally appears on the worklist of the user who executes the flow.
On the flow Diagram tab or in Process Outline, you can add a shape in one of three ways. Validation of the added shapes occurs when you save the flow.
on the toolbar to display a drop-down shapes menu that will remain open until you close it, facilitating the process of rapidly adding multiple shapes. Click the window title bar and drag the submenu to another area of the screen, as needed.
on the toolbar Flow Shape palette to display a drop-down shapes menu.After adding a shape, add connectors as follows:
An assignment may be deleted from the process flow. Right-click the assignment, and select Delete from the drop-down menu.
You can also select the assignment and do one of the following:
icon on the toolbar.
When a shape is deleted, the connectors remain on the canvas.Cut or copy shapes from a flow and paste them within the same flow or in other flows within your user session.
to cut a selected shape(s) and connector(s). Cut differs from Delete in that cut shapes appear faded on the canvas until you paste them elsewhere. You can also cut selected shapes using the right-click canvas menu or the shape drop-down menu
to place selected shape(s) and connector(s) in the copy buffer. You can also copy selected shapes using the right-click canvas menu or the shape drop-down menu.
to paste selected shape(s) and connector(s) elsewhere in the flow or in other flows within your user session. You can also paste selected shapes using the right-click canvas menu or the shape drop-down menu.Click Assignment shape, then click the 
on the toolbar to preview the Harness associated with the shape.
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This name appears inside the Assignment shape on the diagram. You can edit the name by double clicking the shape's label on the diagram. To change the name after you have exited from the properties panel, click the name, and type over the highlighted text.
Complete the sections comprising the property panel as described below. If this flow is a screen flow, special rules apply. Continue with Flow Rules — Editing in Process Modeler — Creating and Editing a Screen Flow.
This section appears only when opening an Assignment in Process Outline on the Case Designer Stages & Processes tab.
Use this section to add flow actions to this assignment, define the steps they connect to, and add fields to actions. The system automatically draws the connector for each action you define.
To add an action, click +Add Action. Define the following:
Field | Description |
| Action |
To create a new flow action, referenced section, and data properties, enter a name. Use the Configure Form link to add data properties and automatically create the flow action and its referenced section in Form Builder. When you complete the dialog, the system creates the flow action, referenced section, and properties in the flow's case type and the current application's highest unlocked RuleSet version. The short description in the Action field is concatenated to create the Name key part for the flow action and section records. The section is populated with the properties defined in this dialog. |
| Connects to | Select a shape that you want the action to connect to. The default values is the End shape. |
When you create a Single Step Assignment or Multi Step Process on the Stages & Processes tab, the system automatically enters the Step name in the Action field as a placeholder description. The second assignment appends _Step2 to the name. By default, the Outcome is End. You can modify the description or delete the default placeholder and select an existing flow action.
Tab out of the field. The following links are available.
Field | Description |
| Route To | Select one of the following to send the work to the party or process that will complete the assignment.
If this assignment is within a Swimlane that has a router activity, it is a best practice to use the same router for both shapes. |
| Assignment Type | Appears when you select Standard activities defined with Work- as the Applies To class are always choices in this field. (Your application may include others or override these standard activities.)
(Another standard assignment activity Assign-.Connect activity is used internally when creating an instance of the Assign-Connect class and to support BPEL processing. Do not use this for assignments directly.) |
| Router | Appears when you select |
| Parameters | The assignment activity you select may accept input parameters that will appear in the box below the Router field. Supply a value for each parameter. PRPC validates these parameter values when you save the flow. (unless the flow in is Draft mode). |
Field | Description |
| Specification | Enter a specification name to associate a specification with this shape. If you change the default shape name [Assignment], the system enters the name in this field. You can either:
Enter a description in the text area beneath the specification name. When you click OK on the Properties panel, the system creates or updates the specification. See Working with specifications in Process Modeler and Case Designer. |
Field | Description |
| Service Level | Optional. Select a service-level agreement to apply to this assignment. See Associating a service-level agreement with an assignment task. Default in Work- is the default service-level agreement. |
Complete the Assignment Details, Local Actions, Notifications, Tickets, and Optimization sections as described below.
The settings you supply depend on the assignment type you select.
Field | Description |
| Harness name | Identify the Purpose key part of a harness the system is to use to present this assignment. (The system uses the Applies To key part of this flow as the first key part of the harness.) By convention, the Purpose key part has the value The action section in the harness you identify affects the presentation of flow action choices at runtime. The most appropriate choice depends on user skills, the complexity of the actions, and likelihood values. See Presenting flow actions. |
| Instructions | Select a field value rule for the worklist column Instructions that describes the task that users perform to complete the assignment. Click the Open Rule icon Examples of instructions are "Evaluate and accept or reject" and "Fulfill as soon as possible." Use wording that clearly states what users are expected to accomplish. When you plan to localize the application using this rule, so the application can support users in various languages or locales, choose the text carefully and limit text length to 64 characters. A field value rule with this text as the final key part is needed for each locale. When practical, choose a caption already included in a language pack, to simplify later localization. See About the Localization wizard. |
| Confirmation note | Enter text to display in a confirmation form presented to the user when the flow action is complete. When you plan to localize the application using this rule, so the application can support users in various languages or locales, choose the text carefully and limit text length to 64 characters. A field value rule with this text as the final key part is needed for each locale. When practical, choose a caption already included in a language pack, to simplify later localization. See About the Localization wizard. |
| Do not perform | WorkList or WorkBasket activities. Select so that when this assignment is reached, do not consider it eligible for the 'Look for an assignment to perform setting on the flow action that was submitted. The settings prevents the activities from overwriting the newAssignPage page, allowing a pre-existing page to be performed instead. This option is useful for performing an assignment on a spun-off work item. |
| Work Status | Set the status for the work item. This allows you to easily change the status at multiple points in the life cycle of a work item without adding a Utility shape to the flow for each status change. Similar to setting work item status using a Utility shape, setting the status invokes the UpdateStatus activity. Any defined tickets dependent on the status are raised, as appropriate. The selected status updates .pyStatusWork when the flow execution reaches this assignment shape. A status indicator appears on connectors to shapes that change a work item status. For example, if the shape status is set to Pending-External, the connector to that shape displays a small red flag. All transitions connecting to the shape will display the status indicator. Following are the status indicators for the four status prefixes.
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| Effort Cost | You can associate a cost value (in any units) with this assignment. For each work item, the system computes the sum of these cost values for the specific path it takes through the flow. A standard Declare Expression rule records this sum as the value of property Work-.pyTotalFlowActionCost. |
| Allow auto-process | Check this box to specify that the assignment automatically follows the path and flow action of the first when condition that evaluates to true. |
| When | Select a when rule identifying the condition(s) that cause this assignment to automatically take this path. The conditions are evaluated in the order listed at design-time. The assignment takes the first path that evaluates to true. If no when rules evaluate to true, the assignment uses likelihood to determine which connector to follow. |
| Perform Action | Select a flow action to execute if the when condition evaluates to true. |
| Enable link if using bread crumb trail | Select to indicate that this assignment shape is an entry point, which a user can return to using the breadcrumbs control or the standard flow action Work-.Previous. The default is selected. This check box works with Perform harnesses that include a breadcrumbs display and with assignments that offer the Previous flow action. In other cases, the check box has no effect. |
| Perform post-processing when navigating back | This check box appears only when you select the Enable link... check box. Select to run flow action post-processing when you click away from this entry point. |
| Status Assign | If this parameter appears, you can enter an assignment status value (not a work item status value). If you leave this blank, the assignment has no status. |
| Use Current Operator When Basket Not Found | WorkBasket activity. Select to redirect the assignment to the current operator if the workbasket is not defined. (This parameter is used by the Work-.WorkBasket activity.) |
| Do Not Perform | WorkList or WorkBasket activities. Select so that when this assignment is reached, do not consider it eligible for the 'Look for an assignment to perform' setting on the flow action that was submitted. Select to prevent the activities from overwriting the newAssignPage page, allowing a pre-existing page to be performed instead. This option is useful for performing an assignment on a spun-off work item. (This parameter is used by Work-.WorkBasket and Work-.WorkList activities.) |
| OperatorModel | External activity. Identify the Operator ID that serves as a model for the external operator. (This parameter is used by the Work-.External activity.) |
| Days to Expiration | External activity. Enter a positive integer for a number of calendar days after which the external assignment expires, unless completed. (This parameter is used by the Work-.External activity.) |
| Party | External activity. Identify the party role (such as Customer, Originator, or another role) of the party within the work item who is to receive the external assignment. (This parameter is used by the Work-.External activity.) |
| Subject | External activity. Enter text to become the subject line of the email message sent to the external party. (This parameter is used by the Work-.External activity.) |
| Message | External activity. Optional. Enter a phrase or sentence to appear in the body of the email message sent to the external party, above the system-generated URL link. (This parameter is used by the Work-.External activity.) |
| Corr Name | External activity. Optional. Identify the Corr Name key part of a correspondence rule to appear in the body of the email message sent to the external party. The resulting output appears above the system-generated URL link. (This parameter is used by the Work-.External activity.) |
| Dependent On | Dependency activity. The Class Name of the case type that the waiting workbasket assignment is dependent upon for completion. This case type and the flow's Applies To class must be under the same top-level case type in the case management hierarchy. To help avoid deadlocks and as a best practice, do not enter a case type that has a parent or child relationship with the flow's case type. For Dependent Assignment types, the system automatically creates a dependency Declare Trigger in the Applies To class entered in the Dependent On field. |
| Dependent Status | Dependency activity. Select a work status that the dependent-on case type instance must reach in order to complete the assignment. |
| Action to Take | Dependency activity. Select the connector flow action (exiting this assignment shape) that is called when the dependency condition is met. Cannot be used with local flow actions. |
| Scope | Dependency activity. Optional. Select an ancestor class that is common to both the waiting case and the DependentOn case. Choose a class low enough in the structure to limit the scope to those specific instances, yet not satisfy any given instance that is waiting. Scope gives the user the ability to have a dependency fulfilled only when a direct descendent, such as a child or grandchild case, satisfies the dependency condition. For example, order O-1 contains two shipments that each contain a single item. S-1 contains I-1, and S-2 contains I-2. With Item specified in the DependentOn field, Shipment paperwork cannot begin until at least one item from a Shipment case has completed. If no Scope value is specified, then satisfying one dependency will fulfill all Shipment dependencies. However, if you provide a Scope value of Shipment, dependencies are only fulfilled by direct descendents, or Items in a Shipment case. Completion of I-1 allows shipment paperwork for S-1 to begin. |
| Complete Dependent When | Dependency activity. Optional. Specify a when condition rule in the dependent-on class that is applied to the Dependent Status value before the dependency condition can be met. For instance, "Wait for a ReceivePayment instance where amount >= $1000 to reach status of Payment-Cleared". |
| Wait for all cases? | Dependency activity. Select so that all instances of the depends-on case type (under that same top-case type) must meet the dependent status before completing the assignment. Otherwise, the first depends-on instance that reaches the status condition completes the assignment. Tip: You can use the standard flow @baseclass-.pyWaitForCase, which employs a Decision shape and two Dependency assignments (Wait for Dependency and Wait for all Dependencies) to determine flow action outcomes for each condition. Add the flow to a Subprocess, Split For Each, or Split Join shape, and enter the flow's parameter values in the shape's Properties panel. The Decision shape uses the WaitForAllCase parameter to determine which Dependency assignment to use. |
For Dependency assignments, the system automatically creates a Declare Trigger in the Applies To class entered in the Depends On field.
The form's Triggers tab contains .pyStatusWork in the One of these Properties Was Modified array. In the Trigger Activity area, pxCheckFlowDependencies appears in the Name field.
The trigger must be able to obtain a lock on the waiting assignment in order to complete it. If it cannot, the work is queued to be completed later. The Process Flow Dependencies agent (System-Queue-FlowDependency-.pzProcessFlowDependency activity) periodically rechecks the lock status until a lock is available.
As a best practice, do not use the When field in the trigger to control conditional dependency behavior. Doing so may prevent the case from leaving the dependent assignment in certain configurations. Rather, use the Complete Dependent When field on this panel.
Complete the fields under the Local Actions to select local flows and specifications to be available at runtime.
Tip: Strive to anticipate and include all the local flow actions that users may ever need. Some local actions let users respond to conditions that happen rarely but are important when truly necessary.
For example, you may want to define and include local flow actions that let users bypass approvals, exceed normal limits, cancel assignments, and so on. Remember that such local flow actions may be restricted through privileges that are available to only some users, and that user selections of flow actions are recorded in work item history.
Neglecting to allow for such real-world situations may make your application seem rigid and unforgiving to users and managers.
Optionally, you can associate a specification with each flow action. Progress through the Specification fields from left to right (Application > Work Type > Specification) as each selection filters the available values in the following field.
Field | Description |
| Local Action | At runtime, local actions appear in the order listed here. |
| Specification Application | Select the application that contains the specification you want to use with this local flow action. Use SmartPrompt to display all applications available to flows in this class. |
| Specification Work Type | Select a work type that contains the specification you want to use with this local flow action. Use SmartPrompt to display all work types available in the application you selected. |
| Associated Specification | Select a specification to associate with this local flow action. Use SmartPrompt to display all specifications available in the work type you selected. |
If you have associated a specification, the system adds it to the For Flow Components array on the flow rule's Specifications tab when you click OK on the Assignment Properties dialog.
Field | Description |
| Notify | Select a notify activity here. The system adds |
| Parameters | The notify activity you select may accept input parameters that will appear in the box below. Supply a value for each parameter. PRPC validates these parameter values when you save the flow. |
Add a Ticket Name to indicate the ticket(s) available at runtime. Use the Ticket to mark the starting point for exceptions that may arise at any point in the flow, such as a cancellation. The ticket is a label for a point in a flow, much like a programming "GOTO" destination.
An activity executing anywhere in your entire PRPC application can raise this ticket by executing the Obj-Set-Tickets method with this ticket name as a parameter. See Ticket help for other ways to raise a ticket.
The scope of a raised ticket includes all flows on the current work item that contain this ticket. If found, processing stops on that flow promptly, and resumes at the ticket point.
The system adds to the assignment shape to indicate one or more tickets are associated with this assignment. The name(s) of assigned tickets appear beside this icon on the flow.
Field | Description |
| Ticket Name |
ExampleProcessing is connected to a ticket to respond to an exception, error flow or event. For example, if a mortgage application is withdrawn after some, but not all, of the application processing is completed, a mortgage processing flow can:
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| Display Name | The Ticket Name appears by default. Enter a name to display other than the ticket name. |
Field | Description |
| Optimization Property |
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Select a flow action in your application RuleSet stack from the autocomplete list.
to review the field value rule or define a new field value rule. The SmartPrompt lists field value rules with an 
New
Open
Pending
Resolved
Select one or more local flow actions that are to be available at runtime from this assignment. Use SmartPrompt to display all flow actions available to flows in this class.
to the assignment shape to indicate that correspondence is created as the assignment is created.
Select one or more tickets that are to be available at runtime from this assignment. Add a row for each ticket. Use SmartPrompt to display all tickets available to flows in this case type. The ticket name will appear beside the icon on the flow.
Creating ticket rules is recommended but not required. You can enter here a name that does not correspond to a ticket rule.