Enabling work to be postponed and resumed at run time

If you want to enable IBM® Process Portal users to postpone and resume work at run time, you can add a postpone event to your client-side human service or heritage human service diagram. The postpone event takes effect when it is used in a human service that is implemented as a task in a process.

About this task

The postpone event halts the execution of the task and keeps the task in a suspended state until it can be resumed later. You can configure navigation options for the postpone event that indicate the intended behavior upon task postponement and determine what the user sees at run time. For example, when work is postponed on a specified task, the user can be returned to a process details user interface or to an Process Portal page if a URL is specified as a JavaScript expression.

When a postpone event is reached, the service state is saved for later retrieval and the task is returned to the inbox where it can be claimed again. Any associated coach is closed. When the task is opened later, the execution of the service resumes at the node specified by the postpone event. When you add pre- and post-execution scripts to a postpone event, the event runs the scripts before saving the execution context and before navigating to the specified URL.

To enable users to postpone work on a task:

Procedure

  1. Open the human service that you want to work with.
  2. In the Diagram view, add the postpone node:
    • In a client-side human service, add an intermediate event Intermediate Event to the diagram. The default implementation of the intermediate event is a stay-on-page event. Select the event and, in its Implementation properties, under Event Type, select the Postpone Event Icon for the Postpone Event.
      Tip: If the postpone option is not available under Event Type, switch to Overview and check your Use as setting. The postpone event takes effect when you selected Task (Service contained in a process). See Defining usage settings for client-side human services.
    • In the Diagram view of a heritage human service, add a Postpone Task The Postpone Task tool on the palette. activity to the diagram.
  3. Wire the postpone node as required.
    In a client-side human service, for example, you can connect the postpone event to the node where you want the task work to be postponed, and add an outgoing connection from the postpone event back to the node where you want work to be resumed later.
  4. (For client-side human services only) Select a navigation option for the postpone event, which determines what the user will see after the service is postponed. In the Implementation properties of the postpone event, under Event Navigation, select one of the following options:
    Table 1. Navigation options available for postpone events
    Option Description
    Default (behavior provided by the hosting UI) Go to the default page provided by the hosting user interface, such as Process Portal.
    Go to the instance details UI Go to the instance details user interface for the process instance within which the client-side human service is running.
    Go to a specified URL Specifies a relative URL to go to when the service is postponed. The URL is relative to the hosting user interface, such as Process PortalProcess Portal. Because the URL is specified as a JavaScript expression, surround any literal values with quotation marks.
    Important: Navigation occurs only if the hosting user interface provides navigation support.
  5. Click Save or Finish Editing.