IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Developing business processes > Building BPEL processes > Defining BPEL process logic > Adding an activity to a BPEL process > Work with structured activities

Enhanced dynamic behavior in a process

You can configure a scope activity so that users interacting with a runtime instance of the process will have administrative authority over the activities that are nested within the scope activity. You can achieve enhanced dynamic behavior more directly using a "collaboration scope" in which the associated administration task is automatically generated when the collaboration scope is added to the BPEL process.

When, in the runtime environment, the process is stopped at an activity that is nested within a collaboration scope or a scope for which dynamicity is configured, an authorized individual can (through an appropriate client such as Business Process Choreographer Explorer) skip, undo, or redo that nested activity. The ability to dynamically modify a process that has already been deployed to a runtime environment is especially useful in cases where the process describes a series of steps that are not always necessary.

For example, perhaps a business process models the sequence of steps in an insurance claim. There might typically be five steps in the insurance claim process being modelled, but what of situations where it can be settled in just three? What of situations where one of the steps has to be repeated? Enabling dynamicity in your BPEL process means that an authorized user can make changes such as these after the process has been deployed.

To set up dynamic runtime behavior on a collaboration scope or a scope activity, proceed as follows:

Procedure

1. Confirm that the process is long-running. Because this involves human tasks, the process on which it is enabled cannot be modeled in a microflow.
2. Drop a collaboration scope or a scope activity onto the canvas of the process editor and configure it according to your business needs.

3. In the Properties area, select the collaboration scope or scope activity, click the Administration tab.

4. Create or configure a new administration task.

   For a collaboration scope, a new administration task is automatically created for you. The default setting of this administration task is that Everybody is an administrator. In realistic situations you will want to limit who has administrative control over the activities in the collaboration scope to a specific user or group.

   For a scope activity, no administration task is generated automatically and create and configure a human task to act as the administration task.

5. Configure the administrators of the Human Task to be the group of people that should have administrative authority over the collaboration scope or scope activity. For instructions on how to work with the human task editor, see Human task editor, and The building blocks of the human task editor

Results

When this process is deployed to a runtime environment, the authorized user will see a graphical process view of the Business Process Choreographer Explorer. The user will be able to right-click an activity that is nested in a scope for which enhanced dynamicity is configured, and see a menu displaying the various kinds of behavior that can be influenced.

Work with structured activities

Related reference:
Administration tab: BPEL process editor