IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Programming IBM BPM > Developing client applications for BPEL processes and tasks > Developing EJB client applications > Developing applications for BPEL processes

Sending a message to a waiting activity

You can use inbound message activities (receive activities, onMessage in pick activities, onEvent in event handlers) to synchronize a running process with events from the "outside world".

For example, the receipt of an email from a customer in response to a request for information might be such an event.

You can use originating tasks to send the message to the activity.

Procedure

1. List the activity service templates that are waiting for a message from the logged-on user in a process instance with a specific process instance ID.

   ActivityServiceTemplateData[] services = process.getWaitingActivities(piid);

2. Send a message to the first waiting service.

   It is assumed that the first service is the one that you want serve. The caller must be a potential starter of the activity that receives the message, or an administrator of the process instance.

   VTID vtid = services[0].getServiceTemplateID();
   ATID atid = services[0].getActivityTemplateID();
   String inputType = services[0].getInputMessageTypeName(); 
     
   // create a message for the service to be called
     ClientObjectWrapper message = 
           process.createMessage(vtid,atid,inputMessageTypeName);  
     DataObject myMessage = null;
     if ( message.getObject()!= null && message.getObject() instanceof DataObject )
     {
       myMessage = (DataObject)message.getObject();
       //set the strings in the message, for example, chocolate is to be ordered
       myMessage.setString("Order", "chocolate");
     } 
     // send the message to the waiting activity 
     process.sendMessage(vtid, atid, message);  }

   This action sends the specified message to the waiting activity service and passes some order data.

   You can also specify the process instance ID to ensure that the message is sent to the specified process instance. If the process instance ID is not specified, the message is sent to the activity service, and the process instance that is identified by the correlation values in the message. If the process instance ID is specified, the process instance that is found using the correlation values is checked to ensure that it has the specified process instance ID.

Developing applications for BPEL processes