Business process integration
Overview
WebSphere Portal V5.1 exploits the process engine of WebSphere Process Choreographer to integrate existing business processes and applications into the portal. The portal displays visual prompts to notify users when they are assigned a new task. These prompts link users to the My Tasks portlet, where they can view, claim, and launch tasks on a new portal page.
Each task is part of the larger business process that can include any combination of human activities with automated services, creating a complete end-to-end workflow solution.
Business process integration scenario: Travel request and approval
In this scenario, employees use a portal to interact with a business process that handles travel requests and approvals for employees. This scenario reveals both the human tasks within the business process, that is, how the employees interact with the portal; and the runtime automated tasks that are invisible to the employees.
In the first part of this scenario, the end user (employee) interaction with the portal is demonstrated. In the second part of the scenario, the technologies that support the workflow are presented, so that you can understand how the business process has been integrated with the portal.
How end users interface with the travel request
In this scenario, three different end users are presented: the Operations Representative, the Manager, and the Administrative Assistant. Although each user plays a different role within the workflow of the travel request, all of them can use the portal interface to complete the request.
The basic workflow of the travel request and approval scenario is:
- The Operations Representative requests to travel and needs a flight reservation.
- The Manager approves the request.
- The Administrative Assistant reviews schedules for the Operations Representative and books the flight.
- The Operations Representative is notified of the flight information.
Step 1 - Operations Representative enters a travel request
The Operations Representative must request a flight reservation for travel. To enact this request, the Operations Representative opens the employee portal. Within the portal is a Travel Request portlet that provides a form that prompts the Operations Representative for the following information.
- The name of the Operations Representative
- Fields for entering the desired destination, departure date, and the reason for trip
- A button for submitting the request
After the Operations Representative enters the desired information and submits the request, two things happen:
- A second portlet on the same portal page lists the status of the request. The Travel Request Status portlet displays information that was entered by the Operations Representative, the current status of the request, and a button for terminating the request.
- The portal notifies the Manager that a task has been assigned, in this case, to approve or not approve the travel request.
Step 2 - Manager approves the travel request
The Manager clicks the task notification link in the portal toolbar, which opens the task list provided by the My Tasks portlet. My Tasks displays the tasks that have been assigned to the Manager, including the Approve Request task. The Manager selects the Approve Request task and then clicks the Claim button. Next, the Manager clicks the Approve Request hyperlink and a new page is launched that provides the required information and options for approving or not approving the request. This task page lists the information entered by the Operations Representative and displays buttons that enable the Manager to approve the request. After the Manager approves the request, the Manager is returned to My Tasks. Next, the following two things happen:
- The Travel Request Status portlet updates to show that the request has been approved.
- The portal for the Administrative Assistant displays a notification indicating that a task is pending. In this case, the Administrative Assistant must act on the travel request approval by scheduling a flight for the Operations Representative.
Step 3 - Administrative Assistant secures the flight reservation
Upon receiving the notification that a task is pending, the Administrative Assistant opens My Tasks. My Tasks provides a task list that includes the Schedule Flight task. The Administrative Assistant selects the Schedule Flight task and then clicks the Claim button to claim it. Next, the Administrative Assistant clicks the Schedule Flight hyperlink and a task page is launched with the following portlets required for reserving the flight.
- The Book Flight portlet, which provides information about the travel request that was generated by the Operations Representative and a form for entering flight information, such as the airport for departure, the airport for arrival, the date and time, and the price of the ticket displays. A Book button is available so that the Administrative Assistant can book the flight.
- The Select Flight portlet, which provides information about the different flights that are available.
After the Administrative Assistant clicks the Book button, the Book Flight portlet completes the task and navigates the user back to My Tasks. The Travel Request Status portlet updates to show that the request has been approved and completed.
Step 4 - Operations Representative is notified of the flight reservation
The Operations Representative tracks the status of the travel request by viewing the listing in Travel Request Status.
Technologies that are used to design the travel request workflow
The travel request scenario demonstrates one instance of a single business process application. WebSphere Portal supports BPEL-based business processes, which are created and deployed as EAR files using the WebSphere Studio Application Developer Integration Edition. For portal-based processes, the business process is one component of the business process application, which also includes task processing portlets, the task list, and task pages, at a minimum.
Note: Portlets that use the business process engine APIs are not supported in this configuration as task processing portlets. See Development environment configuration for more information about WebSphere Portal support for these types of portlets.
This section provides information about the underlying design requirements and technologies that are used in the travel request and approval scenario.
Recap of the pages and portlets that are used
In the scenario, the following pages and portlets are used:
- Travel Request
- A static, form-based portlet that enables the Operations Representative to begin the process.
- Travel Request Status
- A static portlet that the employees use to track the progress of the travel request. All employees in the scenario have access to read this portlet.
- My Tasks
- A static portlet that provides a list of tasks that have been assigned to a specific employee. In the scenario, the Manager and the Administrative Assistant use My Tasks to complete tasks specific to their job requirements.
- Approve
- The portlet used to approve a travel request.
- Book flight
- The portlet used to book the flight for a travel request.
- Flight Select
- The portlet used to select a flight and transmit the appropriate data to the Book Flight portlet using the APIs of the property broker.
- Approve Request
- A dynamically-created page containing the portlets used by the Manager to approve a travel request.
- Schedule Flight
- A dynamically-created page containing the portlets used by the Administrative Assistant to schedule the flight.
Step 1 revisited - the workflow begins
In the scenario, the Operations Representative initiates the workflow process by filling out and submitting a form in the Travel Request portlet. The Travel Request portlet uses the APIs for the process engine of WebSphere Process Choreographer (com.ibm.bpe.api package) to start each instance of the business process.
In a general sense, before step 1 can take place, a process designer must create the process including the control and data flow, the syntax of input and output messages and the semantics of the single activities contained in the process.
Steps 2 and 3 revisited - My Tasks automates the process
From a design perspective, steps 2 and 3 are the same. In the scenario, both the Manager and Administrative Assistant use My Tasks to complete the approval and flight scheduling processes.
Components of the business process application
This section introduces terms and concepts that describe the underlying technology.
- Task list
My Tasks is the task list portlet provided by WebSphere Portal to display a user's assigned tasks. My Tasks displays a title, a short description, and the state of each task assigned to the user.
At runtime, a notification is provided in the portal toolbar that informs the user when a new task has been assigned.
Clicking the the notification opens the My Tasks page, which contains the portlet, My Tasks.
task page used to complete the task. In the scenario, for example, the Manager clicks the Approve Request task, which opens the Approve Request task page. My Tasks is the only supported task list portlet for WebSphere Portal.
- Task page
A task page definition is created for each activity, or task, that requires human interaction. The task page definition is a standard portal page that contains all portlets that are required to process the work that is associated with the task. At runtime, task page instances are dynamically created based on the task page definition. In the scenario, the Administrative Assistant clicks the Schedule Flight task and a task page instance displays. The administrator is responsible for creating task page definitions that are associated with tasks. Therefore, the following standard portal mechanisms for defining pages can be used.
- Creation of the page with the portal-based configuration
- Creation of the page with the help of XML access scripts
- Task processing portlet
The task processing portlet displays on the task page to provide the functionality to process a single task. A task processing portlet uses the Task API, which provides methods to claim and complete the task as well as for setting the result. When the processing of the task is complete, the task processing portlet closes the task page and redirects the user to the My Tasks portlet. Other portlets that support the task processing portlet might appear on a task page. These other portlets might be aware of the business process, but they probably do not use the Task API.
In the scenario, the Administrative Assistant uses the Select Flight portlet to gather the flight information, and the Book Flight portlet to complete the task. In this case, the Book Flight portlet is the task processing portlet and the Select Flight portlet provides supporting information.
During process development, the portlet developer is responsible for the development of the task processing portlet. This development is based on the input or output that the portlet must consume or produce.
See also
WebSphere is a trademark of the IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
IBM is a trademark of the IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.