Load Balancing Task (External Forms) activity

An activity that assigns a human task to the participant with the smallest sum of assigned and overdue tasks.


Load Balancing Task activity

Configure the Load Balancing Task (External Forms) activity

To configure the Load Balancing Task (External Forms) activity, do the procedure in this topic.

Good to Know

How to Start

  1. Open Process Builder.

    For information about how to open this screen, refer to Process Builder.


    Open Process Builder
  2. In Process Builder, in the Activity Library, open the External Forms tab.

    Open External Forms tab
  3. On the External Forms tab, drag the Load Balancing Task activity onto your process.

    Drag Load Balancing Task activity

Procedure

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

General Configuration

Specifies the basic settings for the Load Balancing Task activity.

Figure: General Configuration screen

General Configuration screen

Fields

Field NameDefinition

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

Participants

Specifies the people, groups, or roles assigned to a human task.

Figure: Participants screen

Participants screen

Fields

Field NameDefinition

Details

Function:
Shows participants for the task.
Accepted Values:
  • Any user, group, or role - You can add users, groups, or roles as participants, as long as ProcessInitiator is also included in the list.
  • A process data variable.
  • ProcessInitiator - This is a process data variable for that represents a participant who completes a form to start a process instance. This value is required for start tasks.
Default Value:
  • ProcessInitiator - For start tasks.
  • None - For other tasks.
Accepts Process Data Variables:
Yes
Example:
Refer to:

Add Roles, Groups and Users

Function:
Specifies a category of participants to add to the task. The list of participants of the type you select shows.
Accepted Values:
Default Value:
Roles
Accepts Process Data Variables:
No
Example:
Refer to:

Search

Function:
Does a search based on the specified criteria.

The maximum number of participants to complete this task

Function:
Specifies the number of group members who need to be assigned as participants for a task.
Accepted Values:
  • An integer that specifies a number of participants within a group required to complete a task.
  • Unlimited Participants - Specifies that all members of a group are required to participate.
Default Value:
1
Example:
If the participant is set to a group of users, and Max number of people to complete this task is 2, then 2 members of the group actually are required to participate in the task.

Assign task to the same participants each time activity runs

Function:
Specifies if, when a activity runs more than one time during a process, the same participants must complete the task each time.
Accepted Values:
  • Selected - If an activity is runs more than one time, the same participants who took assignment the first time are also assigned the task each time after.
  • Deselected - If an activity is runs more than one time, any participants can take assignment each time.
Default Value:
Selected
Example:
Ann is part of a group, and takes assignment for a task. She rejects the task. If this field is selected, the next time the process starts this task, the same user, Ann is assigned the task. If this field is deselected, the task goes back into the pool, and anyone in the group can take assignment.

Also refer to:

Allow Task to be Released Back to Pool

Function:
Lets the task be put back in the pool to assign to a different participant.
Accepted Values:
  • Selected - Lets the task go back to the pool.
  • Deselected - The assigned participant must either complete the task, or the task must be Reassigned to a specified user.
Default Value:
Selected

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 NameDefinition

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. It is the responsibility of the vendors who create and maintain these technologies to provide this information. This includes specific business use 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, or 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. It is the responsibility of the vendors who create and maintain these technologies to provide this information. This includes specific business use 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, or 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

Create Create 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.

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 NameDefinition

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

Create Create 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.