Sequential Tasks (External Forms) activity

An activity that represents a human task that must be completed by 1 or more participants in order. The activity is designed to be used as part of a loop in a process, so that the process flow returns to this activity until a sufficient number of participants have completed the task, or until some other condition ends the loop, and the process continues.


Sequential Tasks activity

Configure the Sequential Tasks (External Forms) activity

To configure the Sequential Tasks (External Forms) activity, do the procedure in this topic.

Good to Know

  • In most text fields, you can use process data variables as an alternative to literal data values.
  • Use a Standard Task activity only if you do not want the form to start the process. If you want your form to start the process, use the Start Task (eForms) activity or Start Task (External Forms) activity.
  • Some information about third-party integrations is outside the scope of the AgilePoint NX Product Documentation, and it is the responsibility of the vendors who create and maintain these technologies to provide this information. This includes specific business uses cases and examples; explanations for third-party concepts; details about the data models and input and output data formats for third-party technologies; and various types of IDs, URL patterns, connection string formats, and other technical information that is specific to the third-party technologies. For more information, refer to Where Can I Find Information and Examples for Third-Party Integrations?

How to Start

  1. On the Application Explorer screen, do one of these:
  2. Do one of these:
    • Add an activity:
      1. In the Process Builder, in the Activity Library, open the External Forms External Forms icon tab.
      2. On the External Forms External Forms icon tab, drag the Sequential Tasks (External Forms) Sequential Tasks icon activity onto your process.
    • Change an activity:
      1. In your process, double-click your activity.

Procedure

  1. Complete the fields on the General Configuration screen.
  2. Click Update Process Instance Variable Update Process Instance Variable icon.
  3. Set process data variables whose values you want to change a variable on the Update Process Instance Variable screen.
  4. Click Advanced Advanced icon > User Defined Properties User Defined Properties icon
  5. Configure user defined properties on the User Defined Properties screen.
  6. (Optional) ​When the task changes status, you can send notifications using e-mail, Yammer, Salesforce Chatter, Skype for Business, or SMS:
  7. (Optional) If you want to configure your task to show on a mobile device, click Advanced Advanced icon > Mobile View Mobile View icon.

    For more information, refer to Mobile View.

General Configuration

Specifies the basic settings for the Sequential Tasks activity.

Figure: General Configuration screen

General Configuration screen

Fields

Field Name Definition

Display Name

Function:
Specifies the activity name that shows in your process.
Accepted Values:
One line of text that can have spaces.
Default Value:
None
Accepts Process Data Variables:
No
Example:
This is a common configuration field that is used in many examples. Refer to:
  • Examples - Step-by-step use case examples, information about what types of examples are provided in the AgilePoint NX Product Documentation, and other resources where you can find more examples.

Description

Function:
Specifies an optional text description for your activity.
Accepted Values:
More than one line of text.
Default Value:
None
Accepts Process Data Variables:
No

Time to Complete

Function:
Specifies the maximum amount of time that should be allowed for the completion of the task associated with this activity before it is considered Overdue. This is a combination of a number of minutes, hours, days, or weeks.
Accepted Values:
A number of minutes, hours, days, or weeks.
Default Value:
1 Day
Accepts Process Data Variables:
Yes

External form to be associated with this task

Function:
Specifies the name of the task that shows in a participant's task list.

In most cases, for processes that use ASP.NET forms, this value also determines the file names for the .aspx form pages.

Accepted Values:
The values for this property change with the type of process you are using:
  • Generic - Does this:
    • Specifies the name that shows in the participant's Task List for this task.
    • If you create an ASP.NET project for this process in AgilePoint Developer, a new .aspx page is created for each human task with the same file name as the value of the Work to Perform property.
  • SPList - Specifies the name that shows in the participant's Task List for this task.
  • AgileForms - Specifies the name that shows in the participant's Task List for this task.

    The default value for this field is FormRender. AgilePoint recommends you change this value.

Default Value:
None, except for AgileForms processes.
Accepts Process Data Variables:
No

Update Process Instance Variable

Updates a value for a process data variable based on a specified type of event.

Figure: Update Process Instance Variable screen

Update Process Instance Variable screen

Fields

Field Name Definition

Process Instance Variable

Function:
Specifies the name of the process data variable you want to update on the basis of an event type.
Accepted Values:
  • The name of process data variable to be updated.
  • You can also use the XML variable associated with the process.
Default Value:
None
Accepts Process Data Variables:
Yes
Example:

Value

Function:
Specifies a value for the process data variable that is set when an event occurs.
Accepted Values:
Default Value:
None
Accepts Process Data Variables:
Yes

When To Update

Function:
Specifies the event that causes the process data variable to be set to your value.
Accepted Values:
  • Enter - The process goes into the activity.
  • Assign - A task is assigned to a participant.
  • Cancel - A task is cancelled.
  • Complete - A task is completed.
  • Leave - The process goes out of the activity.
Default Value:
None

Add Add icon

Function:
Creates a row to add a process data variable, value, and event.

Delete Delete icon

Function:
Deletes the selected row from the variable list.

User Defined Properties

Specifies ClientData process data variable values that are associated with a human task activity when a process runs. You can specify a set of variables as name/value pairs that are sent to your web forms. This is an alternative to sending data with URL parameters.

Figure: User Defined Properties screen

User Defined Properties screen

Fields

Field Name Definition

Name

Function:
Specifies the name for the ClientData.

The ClientData property stores data related to the human task activity. This is like defining a process data variable to store specific values.

Accepted Values:
One line of text that can have spaces.
Default Value:
None
Accepts Process Data Variables:
Yes
Limitations:

Some information about third-party integrations is outside the scope of the AgilePoint NX Product Documentation, and it is the responsibility of the vendors who create and maintain these technologies to provide this information. This includes specific business uses cases and examples; explanations for third-party concepts; details about the data models and input and output data formats for third-party technologies; and various types of IDs, URL patterns, connection string formats, and other technical information that is specific to the third-party technologies. For more information, refer to Where Can I Find Information and Examples for Third-Party Integrations?

Value

Function:
The value for the ClientData variable.
Accepted Values:
A number or a text string that can contain spaces.

You can set the value for the process data variable by using an XML value.

Default Value:
None
Accepts Process Data Variables:
Yes
Limitations:

Some information about third-party integrations is outside the scope of the AgilePoint NX Product Documentation, and it is the responsibility of the vendors who create and maintain these technologies to provide this information. This includes specific business uses cases and examples; explanations for third-party concepts; details about the data models and input and output data formats for third-party technologies; and various types of IDs, URL patterns, connection string formats, and other technical information that is specific to the third-party technologies. For more information, refer to Where Can I Find Information and Examples for Third-Party Integrations?

Type

Function:
Determines the data type for the ClientData variable.
Accepted Values:
  • string
  • int
  • bool
  • decimal
Default Value:
string

Add Add icon

Function:
Creates a row where you can specify a ClientData property.

Delete Delete icon

Function:
Deletes the selected row from the user defined properties list.