Common attributes for workflow activities
Each workflow activity has a set of attributes that must be configured in order for the workflow to work properly. To show the attributes menu for a node, double-click or right-click the node and then click Properties. The following attributes are common for multiple node types.
Manual activities (approval, RFI, work order) have the following common attributes:
- Activity ID
- The Activity ID is a unique identifier for the node activity. The Activity ID occurs below the node in the workflow designer and is a required field. It must be a valid JavaScript variable name, and it must start with a letter. The Activity ID cannot contain any spaces or special characters other than an underscore (_).
- Activity Name
- The Activity Name is an optional, descriptive field used for several activities in the audit logs.
- Description
- The Description is the optional, descriptive explanation of the activity.
- Join Type
- Each activity in the workflow has an attribute to define the split and the join criteria. This attribute is used to determine how the workflow engine processes multiple paths into and out of an activity. Join types define how the workflow engine processes the transitions into an activity. The Join Type is a workflow directive that synchronizes incoming transitions. The Join Type must match with a Split Type previously defined in the workflow. The following are the Join Type values that we can select:
- AND
- The activity must wait for all active incoming transition paths to be completed before initiating the activity.
Example: You have a split defined that leads to three parallel approval activities and one of the split transition conditions evaluates to “false.” Because only two of the approvals become active, only those two paths must be completed in order for the activity that is the point of join to run.
- OR
- The first path that leads to the activity that evaluates to true causes this activity to run. Because the order of transition evaluation is undefined, use the OR condition when only one condition evaluates to true.
- Split Type
- Split types define how the workflow engine processes the transitions out of an activity. The Split Type is a workflow directive that synchronizes diverging transitions. The Split Type must have a corresponding Join Type that matches its condition as the workflow progresses. The following are the Split Type values that we can select:
- AND
- All paths that leave the activity are evaluated and all paths that resolve to true are followed.
- OR
- The workflow engine evaluates transitions until it finds one that has a condition of true. That path is then followed. The remaining paths are not evaluated.
- Participant
- This attribute defines the user that is notified to respond to a request for a manual workflow activity. A Mail activity has a Recipient attribute instead of Participant. The attribute defines the recipient type for mail. For example, a recipient might be a Person entity that has an email account, an organizational role, or a group. When defining a custom recipient, the Participant object must be used within the script for the recipient field of the mail node.
- Escalation Participant
- This attribute defines the user that is notified to respond to a request for a manual workflow activity if the original participant does not respond by the time period specified in the Escalation Limit attribute. Escalation participant is an optional attribute. The escalation participant is also used if there is a failure to resolve the original participant. A Mail activity has no escalation participant.
- Escalation Limit
- This attribute specifies the time before escalation to the escalation participant. A Mail activity has no escalation limit. Participant, escalation participant, and escalation limit are only applicable for human interactive activity types like approval, mail, RFI, and work order.
- Skip Escalation
- When set, the activity does not trigger an escalation when it runs. When the participant does not respond and the escalation limit is reached, the value of Complete on Timeout determines how the activity proceeds:
.
- Not set: The activity status is set to terminated/FAILED
- Set: The activity status is set to completed/TIMEOUT
When we select this option, any existing entries for Escalation Participant are disabled.
- No Timeout Action
- When set, there is no action performed when the activity times out. It remains in PENDING state until manually completed, the process level timeout is reached, or the process is cancelled or interrupted. This option takes precedence over Complete on Timeout..
- Complete on Timeout
- When set, the activity runs to completion even if it reaches the timeout threshold. No timeout notification is sent. The postscript of the activity is run.
Parent topic: Workflow elements