IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Developing business processes > Building business state machines > Create a business state machine > Adding a transition to a business state machine
Adding a timeout to a transition
A timeout imposes a duration or an expiration on a state so that it will not be maintained indefinitely while waiting for an operation that may never occur. When the timeout expires, the transition on which it is defined is followed (assuming the proper conditions are met).
If a state has outbound transitions with timer events, the timers are set whenever a state is entered. For external self transitions, the timers will be reset to their full value each time the state is reentered. For internal self transitions, the state is not considered to have been left or reentered, so, the timers are not reset. To add a timeout to an existing transition, proceed as follows:
Procedure
- On the canvas, select and hover over the transition that you want to modify.
- In the action bar that appears, click the timeout icon
as shown in this image.
- In the Properties area, click the Details tab.
- Select the Type of timeout. You have the following choices:
Option Description Duration Choose this when you want transition to occur after a certain period of time has elapsed. Expiration Choose this when you want the transition to occur after a specific time and date has been reached. - Select the Implementation. You have the following choices:
Option Description Visual Choose this to use the visual snippet editor to graphically compose Java™ code. Java Choose this to write the Java code yourself. Literal Choose this to enter the required values directly into customized fields.
Results
Your newly created timeout will appear on the canvas on top of the transition that it is associated with. Refer to
"Lifecycle of human tasks" for detailed information on timeout interactions.