#Use Of Timer on Sub Process or in Process Flow Hi All, We have

saravanann over 10 years ago

#Use Of Timer on Sub Process or in Process Flow

Hi All,
We have a requirement wherein we invoke a service to get some data and if the service gets timed out or takes more than 30 seconds, we should skip the service calling sub process and continue the process journey.

To achieve this we used the time/rule option on the sub process exception tab and set it to 30 seconds. Upon running the flow, we found that even though the node is skipped after 30 secs, a task gets created in task list for the same user instead of continuing the journey on the record. I believe the activity chaining breaks in this case and the same is causing the issue.

We are invoking a related action to kick start the main process which in turn calls the service sub process.

Can you please suggest how can we avoid this task creation in task list and let the user continue the journey on the record itself?

Discussion posts and replies are publicly visible

0 Eduardo Fuentes
Appian Employee
over 10 years ago

forum.appian.com/.../f-207634
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Verify Answer

Cancel
0 saravanann over 10 years ago

Hi Eduardo ,
The exception flow also should go to the same UI task, but when the exception path executes the activity chain breaks and UI goes into task list.
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Verify Answer

Cancel
0 Eduardo Fuentes
Appian Employee
over 10 years ago

That's correct, Exception Flows do not support activity chaining.

You cannot skip a node and preserve the chaining.
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Verify Answer

Cancel
0 Eduardo Fuentes
Appian Employee
over 10 years ago

Maybe this is an indication of the fact that your WS node shouldn't be in the middle of the chaining. I don't think that's a best practice since it can slow down the next step in the flow and make the user feel there's slowness in the system.
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Verify Answer

Cancel
0 kumaraveln over 10 years ago

As Eduardo mentioned you can split the flow (using AND), invoke the service in parallel and make it wait for 30 secs before skipping. Mean time you take the user to the next screen displaying a message to wait for 30 secs to get recent values from the service call. They can perform other operations in the screen. Either user have to refresh the task manually by saving the form and reopening from TASKS or you can provide a refresh button or link (Which will also SAVE users work). And after 30 secs if the service call times out you can update the same message variable saying the node has been skipped.
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Verify Answer

Cancel
0 kumaraveln over 10 years ago

Also User's work in UI and service output should not override each other. They have to be modeled to update different pv's and merged.
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Verify Answer

Cancel
0 hiteshd
Certified Lead Developer
over 10 years ago

Hi,

When we split the flow and if the exception timer gets executed for the service call sub process or if it is successful, then a task gets created for the same user instead of him/her continuing on the record journey i.e the context is getting switched.

I also tried using an AND which had two inputs; one a direct connection from previous node and another one from the service sub process as timer exception.
The flow works fine when service is success and UI is displayed but if there is an exception, i am getting an error with no activity class parameter. The activity chain breaks even in this case even though i have an extra input connection to AND shape with activity chain enabled
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Verify Answer

Cancel
0 hiteshd
Certified Lead Developer
over 10 years ago

And to add to previous comment, a task is created even in the second scenario and the error is shown on the record
Cancel
Vote Up 0 Vote Down

Sign in to reply

Verify Answer

Cancel