What is a Task?

A task consists of one or more actions that need to be executed in order to achieve a flow object's goal. Each type of flow object can contain only one task, multiple tasks or no tasks at all.

There is a Main task and, additionally, some Optional tasks can be added. Flow objects that require human intervention can have optional tasks, such as the Interactive activity and the Grab activity. The Main task is automatically generated and the optional tasks have to be added and defined by the developer. The associated PBL-Methods will also be generated. The first task in the list is the Main task, and the order of all Optional tasks is the order in which they appear on the list within the dialog box where they are defined.

Some tasks are mandatory, which means that they should be processed before the instance can be sent to the next flow object in the business service. Additionally, a task can be defined as repeatable, which means that this task can be performed as many times as necessary until the instance moves to the next flow object.

Tasks appear in a list in WorkSpace. A WorkSpace user selects the task to run in the order that he or she chooses.

Implementation Type

Each Task contains an Implementation Type which defines how the Task is implemented and how it behaves within a business process. You can define the implementation type within a Task's properties. Not all Implementation Types are available within each task.

Using Tasks Within Flow Objects

Flow Object Number of Tasks Automatically generated Description
Begin None None .
End None None .
Global Creation 1 Yes .
Global Automatic 1 Yes .
Global 1 If it is a Method This can be a Method and therefore it is created with the same name as the flow object.
Interactive Multiple: Main and optional tasks. No The developer should define as many tasks as required in the flow object.
Automatic Main one No The developer should define as many tasks as required in the flow object. No repeatable or mandatory properties will appear for this type of flow object.
Split 1 Yes .
Split N 1 Yes .
Join 1 Yes .
Grab Multiple: Main and optional tasks. No The developer should define as many tasks as required in the flow object.
Subflow None None .
Process Creation None None .
Termination Wait None None .
Message Wait None None .
Process Notification None None .