IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Developing business processes > Building human tasks > Setting duration values for your human task
Use business calendars within human tasks
When it comes to modeling duration values for time-sensitive aspects of your human task, you can use a business calendar to account for such variables as regular working hours, weekends, and holidays.
A period of time that does not proceed in a sequential manner is called non-contiguous. So, when we say that the business calendar can be used to model non-contiguous intervals of time, we are saying that the tool will take into consideration the fact that a timeout duration is often affected by periods when a business may be closed, or when an employee is absent.
For example, imagine putting a human task activity in a BPEL process, and then assigning it a timeout duration of two days (or 48 hours). If an instance of this BPEL process were to be instantiated on a Friday afternoon, then it would be expecting a response by Sunday afternoon: a time when the staff member to which it is assigned is away for the weekend. If however, we had modeled this timeout duration using the business calender, it would be understood that the employee would be away from the office on Saturday and Sunday, and would not expect a response to the task until Tuesday afternoon.
To use a business calendar in a human task, proceed as follows:
Procedure
- If you have not already done so, create a business calendar or import one from WebSphere Modeler. For detailed instructions on how to do this, refer to Business calendars.
- In the Properties view of the task settings, click the Duration tab.
- From the Calendar Type list, select the business calendar created or imported in Step 1.
- Using the remaining fields, configure the amount of time that this human task should wait for an action, knowing that the business calendar will compensate for all non-contiguous aspects of the interval of time. Information on how to configure these fields can be found in the topic Setting duration values for your human task
Setting duration values for your human task
Related tasks:
Create an escalation for your human task
Selecting a calendar type for your escalation
Setting duration values for your human task
Defining timer-driven behavior in a BPEL process
Notifying an event handler of an escalation
Related reference:
Details tab: business state machine editor
Duration tab: Human Task editor
Related information:
