Assignment for Unattended Smart Services

judym598

Certified Senior Developer

over 8 years ago

An application that has been in our TEST environment for several weeks recently generated an error (InvalidUserException) that was spawned when the process flow came to a 'Send E-Mail' node. I'm pretty certain the cause is due to the assignment on this node. I had it set to 'Run as whoever started the process' and I think it should be 'Run as whoever designed this process model', but I'm not sure why the error is only now showing up. The individual who started the process is not an administrator but has tested this process multiple times. Am I correct in assuming that the assignment for Send E-Mail, News Feed and Subprocess nodes should (always) be set to 'Run as whoever designed this process model' - which would be the application administrator (Administrator group) who updates/imports patches? When would it be set to 'Run as whoever started the process'? It seems as though that is the default. If i...

Node Assignment.docx

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0 judym598
Certified Senior Developer
over 8 years ago

I'm sure this has to do with a security configuration but not sure where. I'm going to check a previous version of the process model to see if I can find a difference. As for the users of the groups - nothing unusual. The administrator group is not a 'user' in the group - just the administrator. Not sure if that makes a difference.
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0 Colton Beck over 8 years ago

Seems like a reasonable place to start. Have any users been deactivated recently?
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0 judym598
Certified Senior Developer
over 8 years ago

No, but we've been moving individuals in/out of groups for testing purposes. I created a new basic user to test with and just used that user profile to test and got the same error.
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0 siddharthg837 over 8 years ago

Hi judy - does your constant cons!PSH_MAINTENANCE_EXPIRATION_NOTIFY_EMAIL_LIST, consists of list of email address or does it have list of usernames?
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0 judym598
Certified Senior Developer
over 8 years ago

It consists of 3 distinct groups - all of which have active users.
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0 judym598
Certified Senior Developer
over 8 years ago

Just retested with the basic user account I created and everything is working now. I updated the assignment to 'Run as whoever designed the process' but hadn't re-published it. That appears to have been the issue. I'd still like to understand this better. Is it better to always select that option vs whoever started the process (unless there's a good reason to select the alternative)? Thank you both for your help!
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0 PhilB
A Score Level 1
over 8 years ago

IMO always use the "whoever designed" option and deploy to test, pre-production and live etc as a service or deployment user that won't get deactivated. That way, you'll avoid the issue of processes breaking because they are running as users that have since been deactivated or, as in your case, have had their permissions changed.

You may still see issues in your development environment, though, as developers may be deactivated if they leave but will still own processes. This can be resolved by doing an export of all of the processes a deactivated designer owns, and then importing that package back into the same environment as a different developer.
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0 judym598
Certified Senior Developer
over 8 years ago

Thanks! We usually republish or export/import processes when a developer leaves as we've run into that issue before - but I will update the assignment configuration in these smart services that exist in our other processes to avoid running into this issue again.
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0 Colton Beck over 8 years ago

Glad I could help, Judy. I'm interested in the best practice recommendation for which option to choose in different scenarios. I'll post a question about that.
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0 judym598
Certified Senior Developer
over 8 years ago

Great! I'd be interested in the responses as well. I also think that the 'Run as whoever designed the process' should be the default option if that is what is generally recommended.
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