Process tab on the Flow form

Field

Description

Appears only if a case type record has not been defined in this work class. Select to allow this flow to be started (applied to) on an open work item created by a previous flow execution. Users can select this flow from the Add Work sub-menu in the Other Actions menu on the standard Perform harness.

Optional. When this box is selected, complete the Parameters tab to define any parameter values needed when the flow is started.

Select if this flow, when started, creates a new work item. Informally, flows that create new work items are called starter, starting, or top-level processes.

This check box is not available if one or more starter flows are defined on the case type rule (Starting Processes list on the Case Type rule form's Processes tab) that is associated with this flow's Applies To class or there is no case type record in this class. If the check box is not available, you can designate this flow as a starter process by adding it to the list in the case type rule.

See Case Type rules — Completing the Processes tab.

Note: When you create a case type either in the Case Type Explorer or in Application Express, the system generates a default starter flow, pyStartCase, and populates the Starting Processes list on the case type rule.

Users who hold at least one of the privileges listed in the Privileges array on this tab may start the flow from the Case Manager portal, or user forms. See Using the Case Type Explorer.

Choose text that will be meaningful to users selecting a process.

This field is not available for a flow with a Category of ScreenFlow. Screen flows never create a new work item; the flow is started by a branch, call, or similar mechanism.

Note: This setting is ignored if this flow is used in a modal flow, which does not create a pzInsKey value ( pyID). See modal flows.

Work type labels

When the Creates a new work object? box on the Process tab is selected, the text in the Description field on the flow appears to application users as a work type label. The Description texts appear in the New selection box on the Process Work navigation panel, one for each flow checked.

Enter a Description value that is unique within your application and meaningful to application users.

If your application is to support users in multiple locales, choose a Description text carefully and maintain a list of these text values. When practical, choose a text value already included in a language pack, to simplify later localization. See About the Localization wizard.

Open Case Type Definition

Field

Description

Select to indicate that this flow creates a temporary work item. A temporary work item is created and resolved by a single operator or by straight-through processing and is never saved as a database object.

Use this option only in appropriate situations, as reporting, history, and attachment features are not available for temporary cases. The following restrictions apply:

• Temporary cases do not have a case ID.
• Temporary cases cannot be members of a cover.
• History additions performed on such objects do not cause a flow to fail, but have no effect.

Modal flows

If the primary page on which a modal flow is running has a pzInskey value or pyID, then this setting is used as follows:

• If selected, the modal flow does not save and commit the work item; assignments are created for primary flow; modal flow assignments are not created.
• If not selected, the modal flow saves and commits the work item at each assignment and can create assignments.

Skip create harness?

Select to indicate that the application can create a work item from properties defined in a data transform and with processing by the NewDefaults activity, without other sources of property values. 5.2 When selected:

• If the data transform and the NewDefaults activity supply values that pass validation, the system creates the work item.
• The user form based on the harness specified in the Harness field appears only when validation fails.

Look for an assignment to perform after create?

Select to check for another assignment for the same work item (and same flow execution) on the user's worklist. This feature is sometimes called back-to-back assignment processing.

The system only finds and presents assignments that the current user is qualified to perform and for which the value of Assign-.pyActionTime is past.

Clear this box to always use the settings assignment is not being performed settings.

As a best practice, select this box. In many situations, two or more assignments may be open for one work item, assigned to the same person.
When a user who performs one of these assignments is also qualified to perform other assignments, it is usually most efficient to have that user perform the assignments one after another, because the user is familiar with the work item.

This box is analogous to the Look for an assignment to perform after create? check box on the flow action Action tab.

This box appears when the Look for an assignment to perform after create? box is selected.

Select to include assignments in workbaskets in the search for back-to-back assignment processing. The search scope expands to examine the assignments in the workbaskets associated with the user's work group (through the Work Group field on the Workbasket tab of the Workbasket form), as well as assignments on the user's worklist.

Clear this box to bypass a workbasket search.

Optionally, your application can override the detailed search criteria that the system uses when this box is selected. The standard decision tree Assign-Workbasket.PerformCriteria defines these criteria.

If an assignment is not being performed

Indicate what the system is to present to users if no check for assignments occurs, or search occurs but none is found. Select:

• Show Harness — The system presents a refreshed harness form for the current work item, using the harness identified in the adjoining field. Typically, the new harness displays the results of processing or computations based on the user input.

  Select the Purpose key part of a harness to be used. Typically, a post-assignment harness has Confirm as the Purpose key part.

  Caution: Do not specify a "Perform-type" harness here — one that presents the work item in read-write mode.

• Close the Work Object — Close the user form, returning to an earlier workspace contents, such as the Process Work home view. No confirmation form appears. This setting applies only to the Create button.
  
  To close a case when selecting the Submit or Next/Finish buttons on user forms, select the If an assignment is not being performed field on the Flow Action form's Action tab. See Flow Action form - Completing the Action tab.

Harness

Optional. Identify the second key part — Purpose — of a harness to identify the rule that the system presents when a user begins to enter a work item for this flow. (The system uses the Applies To key part of this flow as the first key part of the harness.)

If you leave this blank, the system looks for a harness with New as the Purpose.

When this flow is picked from the Add Work drop-down of a cover that has had its list populated by a case type rule, this field is ignored and the standard harness NewCovered is shown instead.

Note: This setting is ignored in modal flows.

Data transform

Optional. Identify the second key part — Name — of a data transform that the system is to apply to each new work item created with this flow. (To find available data transforms, the system uses the Applies To key part of the flow as the first key part of the data transform.)

If you leave this blank, the system looks for a data transform named pyDefault.

Work parties

Optional. Identify the second key part — WorkParty — of a work party rule to define which party roles can participate in a work item. (To find available work parties, the system uses the Applies To key part of the flow as the first key part of the work party rule.)

If you leave this blank, the system looks for a work party named Default.

Cover Class

Optional. If this flow can create work items that belong to a cover work item (an object of a work type derived from the Work-Cover- class), identify here the class or classes of the cover objects. Order in this array is not significant.

These fields are not available if Temporary object? is selected. Temporary work items cannot be members of a cover.

Note: If this specified class rule is a cover, you can create a case type rule (Rule-Obj-CaseType) that applies to this class. You use a case type rule to define covered classes, and it enables you to cover other cover objects and their children. The rule simplifies the process of designating covered objects.

If this class rule is referenced by a case type rule in a cover class, do not enter values in this field. In this situation, a warning appears stating that the settings are in this section are overridden by the case type rule. The warning does not prevent validation and normal flow processing.

Optional. Identify the second key part — the Purpose — of the harness displayed when a user enters a new work item that will become a member of the cover. (The class identified in this row provides the Applies To key part.)

If there is a related case type rule, the system uses the NewCovered harness .

Identify the second key part of a data transform — the Name — that you want applied when a work item of the specified Cover Class is created. The class identified in this row provides the Applies To key part.

If there is a related case type rule, the data transform specified in the Data transform field (not the one specified here) is used.

After you complete this rule and save it, click Start Flow to test the rule.

Field

Description

Enter a service-level agreement to associate a goal and deadline with this process. The service-level agreement when the process begins and ends when the process is complete or otherwise stopped. See Service-level agreement.

A step service-level agreement for this flow overrides the service-level agreement in this field.

Field

Description

Select a when condition that defines when the flow is run or skipped at run time.

Field

Description

Security restrictions on flows can limit how the flow may be executed. Order is not significant in these two arrays.

Note: Technically, if Creates a new work item is selected, flow execution only begins when a user submits a completed New user form. The system evaluates the restrictions in this array when the flow starts, rather than before the flow starts. As a result, if a user does not hold any of the privileges listed here, or at least one of the when condition rules is false, an Unable to authorize flow execution error condition appears after the New user form is submitted.

Optional. To restrict use of this flow to only those users who hold a specific privilege, enter a class that the system can use with rule resolution to locate the Applies To key part of a privilege rule.

Optional. Enter the second key part — Privilege — of a privilege rule to limit which users can create or update a work item with this flow.

The system uses the Privilege Class and Privilege Name values with class inheritance to look for the privilege rule.

When the privilege array is not blank, a user must hold at least one of the privileges listed to use this flow.