IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Create processes in IBM Process Designer > Designing process interactions for business users > Configure a role-based business user interface

Making business data available in searches and views

Before business users in IBM Process Portal can search for business data across process instances, you need to configure each variable in the Process Designer to be available to search. In addition, the business data about a task that business users see in their task list needs to made available to search in order to be viewable in the task list.

As you model the business data for your process application, consider what type of data a business user might want to search on while working with the process. You also should consider which business data provides necessary information about a task to help users complete the task from the task view if it is an in-line task, or which provides a quick way for users to understand something about that task instance without opening the coach for the task. These are the variables that you need to configure in the Process Designer to be searchable and viewable in the IBM Process Portal.

Procedure

1. In Process Designer, open the business process definition (BPD) that includes the variables you want to configure and go to the Variables tab.

2. For each variable whose runtime values you want to search or to make viewable in the IBM Process Portal task list, select the Available in Search check box in the Business Data Search section. For complex variables, be sure to select the check box for each parameter you want to make available.

   Only process level variables can be made available as business data for searches, but not variables defined, for example, inside human services.

3. In the Search Alias text box, type a name for the variable. This is the name to use when performing searches in IBM Process Portal. This is also the name that is seen by users in Process Portal when they are viewing the data related to tasks in their task list.

   If you use camel case, a mix of upper and lower case letters to indicate word boundaries, the label for the variable will be parsed into a multi-word string.

   For example, if your search alias is customerName, the label for the variable in Process Portal will be Customer Name.

   The search alias must be unique to the variable type throughout the process server on which the BPD runs.

   If a variable is shared by multiple BPDs (for example, a parent process and its linked processes) and you want the variable to be searchable in all of those processes, you must define the same search alias for the variable in each of the BPDs where it is used.

4. Save your changes.

Results

Now when IBM BPM runs instances of the BPDs that contain the configured variables, you can search for process instances that include these variables in IBM Process Portal. The variables that have been made available to search are also viewable to business users viewing the associated task in their task list.

If a BPD or subprocess contains a linked process or subprocess that has been specified as "Loop Type: Multi Instance Loop" with "Run In Parallel," users cannot search for tasks using business data declared in the BPD or subprocess even if that data has been specified as "Available in Search".

What to do next

Your IBM BPM administrator can create saved searches to provide IBM Process Portal users with customized views of their tasks.

Business objects and variables

Configure a role-based business user interface

Related tasks:
Declaring variables
Create and maintaining saved searches for Process Portal