Adding an activity with a new process

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This topic is shared by BAW, CP4BA. Last updated on 2025-03-13 12:15

You can add a case activity and implement it with a new process that is created locally in the same case solution as the activity. You can manage and deploy your process and case solution together.

The new process has full access to the case and activity properties.

Before you begin

Ensure that the Configure Case Integration with IBM® Business Automation Workflow task was run in the workflow Case configuration tool. For information about the task, see the topic Configuring your system for case management and its subtopics.
To add an activity with a process, you must have the following prerequisites:
  • A legacy solution created in Case Builder, which you promoted to a workflow project.
  • A new case solution that you created in Workflow Center.
  • A case type is added to the case solution.

Procedure

To add an activity with a new process:

  1. In Case Builder, open the solution that contains the case type to which you want to add the activity.
  2. Click the Case Types tab.
  3. Open the case type and then click Activities.
  4. On the Activities page, click Add Activity > Activity with New Process.
    Tip: If you want to add the process as a subactivity inside a container activity, open the container activity first. Then, click Add Subactvity > Subactivity with New Process.
  5. On the General page, specify the name, unique identifier, and description, define how the activity starts, assign the activity to a set, and select a Process Task Details Adapter.

    To define how the activity starts, choose one of the following options:

    • Automatically
    • Manually
    • Discretionally

    If you select the Discretionally option, the activity must be added to a case programmatically or by the caseworker in Case Client.

    Important: The Process Task Details Adapter is available only in Classic mode. Starting in version 26.0, when not using Classic mode, this option is hidden. For non-Classic mode solutions, use the default task management interface that is provided by the Tasks solution layout page.
    If you are using Classic mode, to select a Process Task Details Adapter, expand Process Task Details Adapter and choose an item from the drop-down list. By default, the Process Task Details Adapter page is selected when a BPM process task is opened for a parent case activity. You can create your own Task Details pages from the default Process Task Details Adapter page and add more case widgets to the page (such as the Case Information widget).
    Note: When a page is created for a BPM process activity in Classic mode, it must contain both the Task toolbar widget and the website Viewer widget.
  6. On the Preconditions page, define any preconditions that are required before the activity can start.
    An example of a precondition is when a document is filed in the case and the document is then passed to the process as an initiating attachment.
  7. On the Activity Properties page, define the activity properties.

    These properties are accessed from the new process. The properties are persisted on the content object, which is created along with the activity and is useful for when the activity can be started multiple times and the solution needs to capture some data that is specific to each process instance.

  8. Click OK and then click Save to finish creating the new activity.

Results

In addition to the new activity, Case Builder also creates the new process to implement the activity.

A content object is also created to contain the case and activity properties.

The process runs when the activity starts, which is based on the specified precondition for the activity. If you delete the case activity, the associated process is also deleted.

What to do next

Now that the new activity is created, you can view and define the new process in the designer:
  1. In Case Builder, hover the cursor over the activity with the process, and then click Open Workflow Designer.
  2. Define the process in the designer. See the topic Creating a process.
Note: Processes and services that use content objects in their implementation needs to be started from a case rather than by clicking the Run icon in the designer.

When you are done defining your process, you can commit, deploy, and test the solution.

You can also test the enhanced capability of the Case Client, which uses role-to-team mapping to detect and display both case activities and process tasks.

Note: You can use the Starts from the parent case snapshot checkbox in the configuration properties of an activity to enable different case instances of a solution to use multiple solution snapshots simultaneously.