StartprocessLink() Creating new Instance

Certified Associate Developer

I have two user Input Forms(A,B) in Process Model. Form- A Enter Data, Form-B review  the data and view the uploaded files using the StartProcesLink().

When i clicks the StartProcessLink() it opens another interface with read-only. When i complete the StartProcessLink() form it navigating back to Form-A instead of Form-B?

Noticed backend when it completes the StartProcessLink() Process instance,   Creating new instance with parent process and Old parent instance still Active.

Any inputs or is this limitation?

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Parents
  • Your explanation is very confusing, could you please elaborate it further? Few screenshots can help.

  • 0
    Certified Associate Developer
    in reply to Madhusudan Sharma

    I have two user input tasks in Process Model, Once user Completes user input task1 navigates to user input task2 there is activity chaining same user can see the user Input task2. One of the grid has StartProcessLink()  in User Input task2 . when user clicks the StartPRocessLink() saving data in database.

    • Everything is working perfect up to saving the data once Data is saved showing  "Action Completed" .flow navigating  back to userInputTask1.instead of userInmputTask2.
    • Noticed backend when it completes the StartProcessLink() Process model,   Creating new instance with parent process (the process model contains both user input tasks)  and Old parent instance still Active.

    Please let me know if you need more details

Reply
  • 0
    Certified Associate Developer
    in reply to Madhusudan Sharma

    I have two user input tasks in Process Model, Once user Completes user input task1 navigates to user input task2 there is activity chaining same user can see the user Input task2. One of the grid has StartProcessLink()  in User Input task2 . when user clicks the StartPRocessLink() saving data in database.

    • Everything is working perfect up to saving the data once Data is saved showing  "Action Completed" .flow navigating  back to userInputTask1.instead of userInmputTask2.
    • Noticed backend when it completes the StartProcessLink() Process model,   Creating new instance with parent process (the process model contains both user input tasks)  and Old parent instance still Active.

    Please let me know if you need more details

Children
  • +1
    Certified Lead Developer
    in reply to Aellavinod

    I think the real issue here is that you're misusing startProcessLink() ... there is pretty much no reason to use this from a form in a process instance in this context, as opposed to using a submit link and/or button, and in-process logic to handle what the value was for the user's click.

  • 0
    Certified Associate Developer
    in reply to Mike Schmitt

    Thanks Mike I started  using the SubmitLink() only the difference would like to know we are not seeing any issue when we use the Single interface in PM. (we are using the startprocesslink to upload Files or view complete tasks). 

  • 0
    Certified Lead Developer
    in reply to Aellavinod
    we are using the startprocesslink to upload Files or view complete tasks

    I'm not 100% clear what you're saying your use case is, but it still sounds to me as if you're using a!startProcessLink() for something that it's not really intended for.

    the difference would like to know we are not seeing any issue when we use the Single interface in PM

    Can you clarify exactly what your issue or question is?  I'm not really following here.

  • 0
    Certified Associate Developer
    in reply to Mike Schmitt

    My questions about the behavior of StartProcessLink() are not clear in the below scenarios.

    Scenario1: I have a process model with one user input task that has StartProcessLink(). When I click the link new interface opens, updates some data, clicks the SAVE button, and flows back to Main UserInputTask.

        Monitoring mode: noticed one process instance of Main ProcessModel (it has user input tasks) 

    Scenario2: I have a process model with  2- user input tasks. The second user Input task has StartProcessLink(); when I click the link, the new interface opens.   Updates some data, clicks the SAVE button, navigates back to UserInputTask -1 instead of User Input task -2.

    Monitoring mode: Noticed Two process instances for Main ProcessModel (it has user input tasks).

    Question 1: In scenario 2, why it created two instances and flowed back to user input task 2

  • 0
    Certified Lead Developer
    in reply to Aellavinod

    The result of startProcessLink is that it's supposed to navigate you back to where you started.  It sounds like your Scenario 2 might actually be a bug, which you might want to raise a case with Appian Support.  A possible explanation is that it navigates back to a particular URL, in which case it potentially would start a new instance of the process inadvertently.

    I assume this could be intended behavior OR a bug (i'm not totally sure), but in either case I believe in most such cases it's actually using the startProcessLink component in a manner it wasn't meant to be used -- if you want to do such a thing within a process and have carefully managed control of the end user experience, you would need to go with the approach i already outlined above.

  • 0
    Certified Lead Developer
    in reply to Aellavinod

    ,

    If I understand your scenario 2 correctly, then below is a possibility:

    I'm assuming that you start your process model by using a start process link in an interface. So, your browser is navigating you to the start process URL on the same page and the action opens. You're submitting your first task and the second task opens on the same page as a result of activity chaining in your process model. In this case, the browser URL does not change even when task 2 opens.

    Now in the second task, you have a link that opens a new task. So, once this new task is completed, Appian expects to land you back on the page that was last navigated in the browser. And since the last URL was a start process link, it lands you on the new process instance with task 1.