Restarting a workflow activity that fails to start

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When a workflow activity fails to start, you must change the activity state manually and restart the activity.

Symptoms

Activities in the case type do not start when they meet the preconditions that were defined for them to start.

Resolving the problem

To restart activities that failed to start, you must first put these activities into a state where they can be restarted. Then, you can restart the activities.

Process Engine or workflow system activities
To put Content Platform Engine or workflow system activities that failed into a state where they can be restarted:
  1. Open Administration Console for Content Platform Engine, click Object Stores and select your target object store.
  2. Click Search and select New Object Store Search.
  3. In the Class list, select Activity.
  4. In the Column list of the Criteria section for row A, select Activity State.
  5. In the Condition list, select Equals To.
  6. Enter 6 in the Value column.
  7. In the Column list of the Criteria section for row B, select Last Failure Reason.
  8. In the Condition list, select Equals To.
  9. Enter CmAcmError Launch Failed in the Value column.
  10. In the Properties list, select * (asterisk).
  11. Click the Bulk Actions tab and select Enable, then scroll down and select Run Script.
  12. Enter the following script: 
    function OnCustomProcess (CEObject) 
          { 
             CEObject.changeState(4194304); 
             CEObject.save(1); 
          }
  13. Click Run to run the query and the script.

Now that the activities are in a state where they can be restarted, you can restart the activities. To restart activities in Business Automation Workflow, you must use the Case REST API. You restart the activity by issuing a Restart call to the Case REST API in Poster. For example, issue a Restart call to the Case REST API with the PUT method by using the Poster AddOn for Mozilla Firefox.

The Case REST API checks the activity attributes to ensure that the activity is in a state from which it can be restarted. For example, you cannot restart an activity that is in working state or an activity that has exception other than failed to launch.
Important: Some activity types cannot be restarted and specific conditions must apply. When the action is set to restart, the activity cannot be one of the following activity types:
  • Container or Compound activity
  • Workflow task
  • Discretionary activity
In addition, one of the following conditions must be true:
  • The Content Platform Engine workflow item process completed (the value of the TaskState property is Completed).
  • The Content Platform Engine workflow item process failed to launch (the value of the TaskState property is Failed and the value of the LastFailureReason property is CmAcmError Launch Failed).
  • The Content Platform Engine workflow item process failed and then stopped (the value of the TaskState property is Failed, the value of the TaskDisabledState property is disabled_aborted, and the value of the LastFailureReason property is set to a Content Platform Engine error).
  • The Content Platform Engine workflow item process was running and then stopped (the value of the TaskState property is Failed, the value of the TaskDisabledState property is disabled_aborted, and no value is set for the LastFailureReason property).

Issue a restart call to the Case REST API with the PUT method by using the Poster AddOn for Mozilla Firefox. Enter the following parameter values in the Request form:

URL:
  1. Use a tool like the Firebug Console to find a Request URL like the following example:<PROTOCOL>://<HOST_NAME>:<PORT_NUMBER>/CaseManager/CASEREST/v1/case/993D3E31-EB4E-4646-B879-2A56055BA874?tasks?TargetObjectStore=MyExampleObjectStore&Grouping=ROD
  2. When you load the Activities tab for a case, extract the TaskId value from the JSON Response payload for the activity that wants to restart. For example, Taskid="=7A75A997-0E42-406E-AZC4-EE55D7DER9PF.
  3. Use this task ID to build the URL for your restart Request payload. For example, <PROTOCOL>://<HOST_NAME>:<PORT_NUMBER>/CaseManager/CASEREST/v1/task/7A75A997-0E42-406E-AZC4-EE55D7DER9PF?TargetObjectStore=MyExampleObjectStore&Grouping=ROD
  4. Enter the URL for your request in the URL field in Poster.
Important: The TargetObjectStore query string parameter in the URL represents the symbolic name of the target object store. The Grouping parameter is a predefined grouping identifier in which the only valid value is ROD for Required, Optional, Disabled.

Actions: The Case REST API must be run by using the PUT method.

Content Type: The Content Type of the payload must be application/json; charset=UTF-8

Content: The Case REST API to restart the activity has a payload like: { "Action" : "restart" }