Automatically starting the user's next task

To help your business users be maximally efficient while they are using your application, consider places in your process where you expect the same user to be completing multiple tasks in sequence.

About this task

Normally, for each task that users are assigned, they must start the task from their task list, complete the work for that task, then return to the task list for the next activity. You can save users from having to go back to the task list when the next task in the process is also assigned to them.

For example, a customer service agent might be assigned a task for opening a new customer account that is followed immediately by a task for taking the new customer's order. Instead of having the user return to his or her task list to retrieve the second task after the first one completes, you can designate that the coach for the second task opens immediately upon completion of the first task.

Procedure

  1. Open the process that you want to work with.
  2. To configure an activity to automatically start the following task, go to the Implementation tab of the first task in the sequence and select Automatically flow to next task.
    In Process Portal, if the owner of the first task is the same as the owner of the second task, the second task starts automatically when the first task is complete.
  3. In the following task, set the assignment to be the last user: select Lane from the Assign To list and select Last User from the User Distribution list in the Assignments section of the properties for the activity.

    Activities are still considered to be sequential even if they are separated by synchronous actions such as exclusive gateways or tracking points. However, there are a number of scenarios where the second activity in a sequence cannot be automatically started even if the check box is selected on the first task:

    • When the second task in the sequence is a system task.
    • When an intermediate timer event or an intermediate message event follows the first activity in the sequence.
    • When the first activity flows to multiple tasks assigned to the same user, for example in a multi-instance loop or a parallel (split) gateway.
    • If the task is being tested in the Process Inspector.
    • If the elapsed time between the end of the first task and the arrival of the token at the next task is greater than the autoflow-timeout setting. By default, the autoflow-timeout is set to 3 seconds. To change the default 3-second value of the autoflow-timeout setting, you can add the following code to the 100Custom.xml file (where new_value is the new value in seconds):
      <properties>
     <server>
          <bpd-engine>
               <autoflow-timeout merge="replace">new_value</autoflow-timeout>
          </bpd-engine>
     </server>
</properties>
      Information about modifying the 100Custom.xml file is found in the topic Creating a 100Custom.xml configuration file.