IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Get started with IBM BPM > Key concepts > BPEL processes and human tasks > Human tasks overview > Authorization and people assignment

People assignment criteria and people query results

A people assignment criteria is associated with a task authorization role. The people query that is derived from the people assignment criteria is stored as part of the deployed task template, or task instance. During the execution of a task, the authorization roles require the resolution of the associated people queries so that people can be assigned to the task.

If you need to change the people assignment criteria, you must change the task definition in Integration Designer, and deploy the task template again.

The result of a people query depends on the content of the people directory, which might change over time.

For example, new members might be added to a people group. To reflect changes in the people directory, a people query must be refreshed in one of the following ways:

• Explicitly by an administrator

  An administrator can use either the administrative console or the administrative commands to refresh people query results. Commands exist for the following actions:

  • Refreshing all of the people query results at once
  • Refreshing all of the people query results that are associated with a task template
  • Refreshing people query results that contain a specific user ID in the current result.

• Triggered by a scheduled refresh of expired people queries

  This approach is based on the following parameters:

  • A timeout value for people query results (T out).

  • A refresh schedule for the people query. Use the WebSphere Application Server CRON-syntax for defining the schedule:

    < Seconds> < Minutes> < Hours> < Day_of_the_Month> < Month_of_the_Year> < Day_of_the_Week>

    For example, every Monday at 1 pm ( 0 0 13 ? * MON), or every work-day at midnight ( 0 0 24 ? * MON-FRI).

  The following parameters determine how people queries are automatically refreshed:

  • When a query is run for the first time or it is refreshed, the query result gets an expiration timestamp ( t exp = t current + T out)

  • When the query refresh daemon is invoked, all of the people queries with results that have expired are run again

  You can set the timeout value to be longer than the schedule refresh interval.

  For example, you can set the timeout value to be 24h, and the refresh interval to 1h. In this way, you can spread the updates to the people queries throughout the day and avoid the extra load caused by refreshing all of the people query results at once.

Authorization and people assignment for human tasks

Related tasks:
Refreshing people query results, using the administrative console
Refreshing people query results, using administrative scripts
Refreshing people query results, using the refresh daemon
Use a plug-in to post-process people query results
Example: Using default schedule calendars