11.4. Task Management

The following sections describe the features provided by the options available under the Tasks menu in Business Central.

Figure 11.6. Task Management

Task Management in Business Central

11.4.1. Tasks List

A User Task represents a piece of work the given user can claim and perform. User Tasks can be handled within the Tasks perspective of the Business Central: the view displays the Task List for the given user. You can think about it as a to-do item. The User Task appears in your list either because the User Task element generated the User Task as part of Process execution or because someone has created the User Task directly in the Business Central console.

A User Task can be assigned to a particular actor, multiple actors, or to a group of actors. If assigned to multiple actors or a group of actors, it is visible in the Task Lists of all the actors and any of the possible actors can claim the task and execute it. The moment the Task is claimed by one actor, it disappears from the Task List of other actors.

Task Client

User Tasks are displayed in the Tasks perspective, that are an implementation of a Task client, in the Business Central console: to display the Tasks perspective, click Tasks . You can filter out the Tasks based on their status using the following tabs:

Figure 11.7. Task Lists Tabs

Task Lists Tabs
  • Active: Displays all the active tasks that you can work on. This includes personal and group tasks.
  • Personal: Displays all your personal tasks.
  • Group: Displays all the group tasks that need to be claimed by you in order to start working on them.
  • All: Displays all the tasks. This also includes completed tasks but not the ones that belongs to a process that is already finished.
  • Admin: Displays all the tasks for which you are the business administrator.

In addition to these, you can create custom filters to filter tasks based on the query parameters you define. For further information about custom tasks filters, see Section 11.4.2, “Creating Custom Tasks Filters”.

The Tasks List view is divided into two sections, Task List and Task Details. You can access the Task Details by clicking on a task row. You can modify the details (such the Due Date, the Priority or the task description) associated with a task. The Task Details section comprises the following tabs:

  • Work: Displays basic details about the task and the task owner. You can click the Claim button to claim the task. To undo the claim process, click the Release button.
  • Details: Displays information such as task description, status, and due date.
  • Process Context: If the task is associated with a process, the information about it is shown here. You can also navigate to process instance details from here.
  • Assigments: Displays the current owner of the task and allows you to delegate the task to another person or group.
  • Comments: Displays comments added by task user(s). It allows you to delete an existing comment and add a new comment.
  • Logs: Displays task logs containing task lifecycle events (such as task started, claimed, completed), updates made to task fields (such as task due date and priority).

11.4.2. Creating Custom Tasks Filters

It is possible to create a custom task filter based on a provided query. The newly created filter is then added as a tab to the Tasks List.

The following procedure shows how to create a custom filter which allows you to view a list of tasks with a specified name.

Procedure: Filtering Tasks by Name

  1. In the main menu of Business Central, click Tasks.

  2. Click the plus button button on the right side of the Tasks Lists tabs.

    The New filtered list pop-up window is displayed.

    TheNew filtered list pop-up window.
  3. Fill in the Name (this is the label of the new Tasks Lists tab) and click Filter.
  4. Click Add New.

  5. In the Select column drop-down menu, choose NAME.

    The content of the drop-down menu changes to NAME != value1.

  6. Click on the drop-down menu again and choose equals to.

    The content of the drop-down menu changes to NAME = value1.

  7. Rewrite the value of the text field to the name of the task you want to filter. Note that the name must match the value defined in the Process Modelling view of a business process. See the following screenshot:

    task name

  8. Click Ok.

    new fl final

    After the filter with a specified restriction is applied, variables associated with the task appear in the list of selectable columns.

    in name column

11.4.3. Creating a User Task

A user task can be created either by a User Task element executed as part of a process instance or directly in Business Central. To create a user task in Business Central, do the following:

  1. On the top menu of the Business Central, click Tasks.

  2. On the Tasks List tab, click New Task and define the task parameters.

    This opens a New Task window with the following tabs:

    Figure 11.8. New Task Window

    New Task window

    • Basic tab

      • Task Name: The task display name.

    • Advanced tab

      • Due On: Add due date of the task.
      • Priority: Select task priority.
      • Add User button: Click to add more users. Note that a task cannot be created without a user or a group.
      • Add Group button: Click to add more groups.
      • User: Add the name of the person who executes the task.
      • Remove User button: Click to remove the existing user.

    • Form tab

      • Task form deploymentId: Select the deployment Id of the form from the list of available deployment Ids.

      • Task form name: Select the name of the associated task form from the list of available forms.

        If tasks are part of a Business Process, they have an associated form that collects data from you and propagates that to the business process for further usage. You can create forms for specific tasks using the Form Modeler. If there is no form provided for a task, a dynamic form is created based on the information that the task needs to handle. If you create a task as an ad-hoc task, which is not related with any process, there will be no such information to generate a form and only basic actions will be provided.

  3. Click the Create button.

11.4.4. Task Variables as Expressions

You can refer and use the task variables in task properties as soon as you create a task. For example, once your task has been created, you can define a task name that refers to a taskId. Task variables are resolved at both task creation time and notification time, unlike process variables, which are resolved only at task creation time. The ability of using task variables while creating tasks minimizes your Java code, such as calling Red Hat JBoss BPM Suite APIs.

Task variables are available as task instances and you can get access to task information using the following expression: 

${task.id}

You can use this expression in data input of user task from within the process definition.

For example, the following expression can be used for accessing the processInstanceId variable: 

${task.taskData.processInstanceId}