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Chapter 5. Process instance filtering

Access the Process Instances list by clicking Menu → Manage → Process Instances.

Figure 5.1. Filtering Process Instances - Default View

Filtering Process Instances - Default View

Process instances can be filtered on the following attributes:

Id

Filter by process instance ID.

Input: Numeric

Initiator

Filter by the user ID of the process instance initiator.

The user ID is a unique value, and depends on the ID management system.

Input: String

Correlation key

Filter by correlation key. For more information about correlation keys, see the Red Hat Process Automation Manager Development Guide.

Input: String

Description

Filter by process instance description.

Input: String

State

Filter by different states. You can select more than one status to display results that meet any of the selected states. Removing the status filter displays all processes, regardless of status.

The following filter states are available:

  • Active
  • Aborted
  • Completed
  • Pending
  • Suspended
Errors
Filter by process instances with or without errors.
Name
Filter by project name.
Date and time filtering
Start Date
When the process was started.
Last Update
When the process was updated or modified.

Each of these filters have the following quick filter options:

  • Last Hour
  • Today
  • Last 24 Hours
  • Last 7 Days
  • Last 30 Days

  • Custom

    Selecting Custom date and time filtering opens a calendar tool for selecting a date and time range.

    Figure 5.2. Process Instances Search by Date Range

    Search by Date Range

5.1. Searching process instances based on business data

You can add process variables as columns in the process instance list in order to enable flexible filtering of process instances based on business data:

  1. Log in to Business Central and click Menu → Manage → Process Instances.
  2. In the Manage Process Instances page, click the filters button button on the left to open the list of process instance filter options.
  3. At the bottom of the Filters list, click Advanced Filters.

  4. In the New Process Instance List dialog box, perform the following:

    1. Provide the name and description for your search process instance list.

    2. Add a new query filter:

      1. Click Add New.
      2. From the list of filter values, select processId and equalsTo.
      3. Provide a valid processId value and click Ok.

    A new filter is created and immediately applied to the process instances list. It is also saved in the Saved Filters list. You can access saved filters by clicking saved filters on the left side of the Manage Process Instances page.

5.2. Creating a custom process instance list

You can view the list of all the running process instances in the Process Instance List under Menu → Manage → Process Instances.

From this page, you can manage the instances during run time and monitor their execution. You can customize which columns are displayed, the number of rows displayed per page, and filter the results.

Use the following procedure to create a custom process instance list:

Prerequisite

  • A project with a process definition has been deployed in Business Central.

Procedure

  1. Log in to Business Central and click Menu → Manage → Process Instances.
  2. In the Manage Process Instances page, click the filters button button on the left to open the list of process instance filter options.

  3. At the bottom of the Filters list, click Advanced Filters.

    The following New Process Instance List dialog box opens:

    Figure 5.3. New Process Instance List

    New Process Instance List
  4. In the New Process Instance List window, fill in the Name (this is the name of the saved filter).

  5. Click Add New.

    1. From the list of filter values, select the appropriate filter condition and its value. You can add more filters by clicking Add New.

    2. Once you have specified all your filter conditions, click Ok.

      A new filter is created and saved in the Saved Filters list. You can access saved filters by clicking saved filters on the left side of the Manage Process Instances page.

5.3. Aborting a process instance using Business Central

Use the following procedure to abort a process instance from Business Central:

Procedure

  1. Click Menu → Manage → Process Instances to view the list of available process instances.
  2. Select the process instance you want to abort from the list.
  3. In the process details page, click the Abort button in the upper-right corner.

5.4. Signaling process instances from Business Central

You can signal a process instance from Business Central.

Prerequisite

  • A project with a process definition has been deployed in Business Central.

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, click Menu → Manage → Process Instances.
  2. Locate the required process instance, click the Actions button and select Signal from the drop-down menu.

  3. Fill the following fields:

    • Signal Name: corresponds to the SignalRef or MessageRef attributes of the signal. This field is required.

      Note

      You can also send a Message event to the process. To do so, add the Message- prefix in front of the MessageRef value.

    • Signal Data: corresponds to data accompanying the signal. This field is optional.
Note

When using the Business Central user interface, you can only signal Signal intermediate catch events.

5.5. Asynchronous signal events

When several process instances from different process definitions are waiting for the same signal, they are executed sequentially in the same thread. But, if one of those process instances throws a runtime exception, all the other process instances are affected and usually result in a rolled back transaction. To avoid this situation, Red Hat Process Automation Manager supports using asynchronous signals events for:

  • Throwing intermediate signal events
  • End events

5.5.1. Configuring asynchronous signals for intermediate events

Intermediate events drive the flow of a business process. Intermediate events are used to either catch or throw an event during the execution of the business process. An intermediate event handles a particular situation that occurs during process execution. A throwing signal intermediate event produces a signal object based on the defined properties.

You can configure an asynchronous signal for intermediate events in Business Central.

Prerequisites

  • You have created a project in Business Central and it contains at least one business process asset.
  • A project with a process definition has been deployed in Business Central.

Procedure

  1. Open a business process asset.
  2. In the process designer canvas, drag and drop the Intermediate Signal from the left toolbar.
  3. Click the Properties icon on the upper-right side of the screen to open the Properties panel.
  4. Expand the Data Assignments section.
  5. Click the box under the Assignments sub-section. The Task Data I/O dialog box opens.
  6. Click Add next to Data Inputs and Assignments.
  7. Enter a name of the throw event as async in the Name field.
  8. Leave the Data Type and Source fields blank.
  9. Click OK.

It will automatically set the executor service on each session. This ensures that each process instance is signaled in a different transaction.

5.5.2. Configuring asynchronous signals for end events

End events indicate the completion of a business process. All end events, with the exception of the none and terminate end events, are throw events. A throwing signal end event is used to finish a process or subprocess flow. When the execution flow enters the element, the execution flow finishes and produces a signal identified by its SignalRef property.

You can configure an asynchronous signal for end events in Business Central.

Prerequisites

  • You have created a project in Business Central and it contains at least one business process asset.
  • A project with a process definition has been deployed in Business Central.

Procedure

  1. Open a business process asset.
  2. In the process designer canvas, drag and drop the End Signal from the left toolbar.
  3. Click the Properties icon on the upper-right side of the screen to open the Properties panel.
  4. Expand the Data Assignments section.
  5. Click the box under the Assignments sub-section. The Task Data I/O dialog box opens.
  6. Click Add next to Data Inputs and Assignments.
  7. Enter a name of the throw event as async in the Name field.
  8. Leave the Data Type and Source fields blank.
  9. Click OK.

It will automatically set the executor service on each session. This ensures that each process instance is signaled in a different transaction.

5.6. Managing tasks

The Task Inbox can be accessed in Business Central by clicking Menu → Track → Task Inbox. Tasks that are assigned to the current user appear in the Task Inbox. You can click on a task to open and begin working on it.

A user task can be assigned to a particular user, multiple users, or to a group. If assigned to multiple users or a group it appears in the task Lists of all assigned users and any of the possible actors can claim the task. When a task is assigned to another user it no longer appears in your the Task Inbox.

Task inbox

Business administrators can view and manage all user tasks from the Tasks page in Business Central, located under Menu → Manage → Tasks. Users with the admin or process-admin role can access the Tasks page but do not have access rights to view and manage tasks by default.

To manage all the tasks, a user must be specified as a process administrator by defining any of the following conditions:

  • User is specified as task admin user. The default value is Administrator.
  • User belongs to the task administrators group. The default value is Administrators.

You can configure the user and user group assignment with the org.jbpm.ht.admin.user and org.jbpm.ht.admin.group system properties.

You can open view and modify the details of a task, such as the due date, the priority or the task description, by clicking on a task in the list. The following tabs are available in the task page:

Task details
  • 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.
  • Assignments: 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 life cycle events (such as task started, claimed, completed), updates made to task fields (such as task due date and priority).

You can filter the tasks based on the filter parameters available by clicking the filters button on the left side of the page. For more information about filtering, see Chapter 5, Process instance filtering.

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 5.7, “Creating custom task filters”.

5.7. Creating custom task filters

You can create a custom task filter based on a provided query in the Manage Tasks page. To open this page, click Menu → Manage → Tasks.

The following procedure shows how to create a custom filter to be added to the list of saved filters.

Procedure: Filtering Tasks by Name

  1. In Business Central, select Menu → Manage → Tasks
  2. Click the filters button button on the left side of the Manage Tasks page.

  3. Click Advanced Filters at the bottom of the filters list.

    The New filtered list pop-up window is displayed.

    TheNew filtered list pop-up window.
  4. Fill in the Name (this is the name of the saved filter).
  5. Click Add New.

  6. In the Select column drop-down menu, choose name.

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

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

  8. 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 business process. See the following screenshot:

    task name

  9. Click Ok.

    new fl final

    After the filter with a specified restriction is applied, the set of configurable columns is based on the specific custom task filter and contains the following column options:

    in name column new

5.8. Task filtering

Access the Manage Tasks list by clicking Menu → Manage → Tasks. This page provides a full list of tasks across all processes.

Figure 5.4. Filtering Tasks - Default View

Filtering Tasks - Default View

+ The Manage Tasks page is only available to administrators and process administrators.

Tasks can be filtered on the following attributes:

Id

Filter by process instance ID.

Input: Numeric

Task

Filter by task name.

Input: String

Correlation key

Filter by correlation key. For more information about correlation keys, see the Red Hat Process Automation Manager Development Guide.

Input: String

Actual Owner

Filter by the task owner.

The actual owner refers to the user responsible for executing the task. The search is based on user ID, which is a unique value and depends on the ID management system.

Input: String

Process Instance Description

Filter by process instance description.

Input: String

Status

Filter by task status. You can select more than one status to display results that meet any of the selected states. Removing the status filter displays all processes, regardless of status.

The following filter states are available:

  • Completed
  • Created
  • Error
  • Exited
  • Failed
  • InProgress
  • Obsolete
  • Ready
  • Reserved
  • Suspended
Process Name
Filter by process name.
Created On

Filtering by date or time.

This filter has the following quick filter options:

  • Last Hour
  • Today
  • Last 24 Hours
  • Last 7 Days
  • Last 30 Days

  • Custom

    Selecting Custom date and time filtering opens a calendar tool for selecting a date and time range.

    Figure 5.5. Search by Date

    Search by Date Range