3 Replies Latest reply on Mar 25, 2013 5:37 AM by swiderski.maciej

Data input objects - blocking a task

annah Mar 20, 2013 6:16 AM

Hi!

I need an explanation of how Data Input Objects should work in JBPM. If data input is not available should it block the task?

From what I've read here http://brsilver.com/bpmn-2-0-mystery-process-datainput-and-dataoutput/ it says:

The operational semantics of ioSpecification and inputSet say that a process or task cannot start until the inputSet data is available

So from this explanation I concluded that if I have a human task which has an association to a data input object, the task should not start until this object is available? I've tried a little example, with a simple process shown below but the human task gets activated and I only get a warning message "Could not find variable scope for variable DataInput_1 when trying to execute Work Item Human Task. Continuing without setting parameter."

What I want to achieve is that human task is activated when I insert the required data input into ksession (e.g. some data gets submitted to a system and I pass it to ksession so human task can be executed). How do I have to model the process to achieve this blocking behaviour?

Thanks!

1. Re: Data input objects - blocking a task

jamesbeam Mar 20, 2013 11:50 AM (in response to annah)

Hi. I believe we are working on a similar problem - If I understand your question. I have received a few helpful suggestions. The easiest (and ugliest) was to put an AND gateway and a signal intermediate event in front of each task. This way, the task is not reached until the signal event (new data) is added to the process/ksession. The other option, which I am working on now (a recommendation from salaboy I think), is implementing this functionality in a customworkitem - where the handler will not complete the work item until the required data is available. This way, one handler could be used to look for a message that was defined as a parameter in that workitem. This seems much cleaner to me.
hth (let me know if you have any thoughts)
-J
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2. Re: Data input objects - blocking a task

annah Mar 21, 2013 6:45 AM (in response to jamesbeam)

Hi Jim,

Thank you for your suggestions, I had the same two solutions in my mind. I guess custom handler is the right way to go.
There is so little documentation about data objects in jbpm, so I was hoping I'm just doing something wrong and that it can be modeled the way I showed above (associating a data object to a task). I'm not really sure what is the intended purpose of data object arfiacts in this case, since they don't make any difference in process execution, it seems like it is just a visual element for clarification of the process, but that's all.
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3. Re: Data input objects - blocking a task

swiderski.maciej Mar 25, 2013 5:37 AM (in response to annah)

one additional way of achieving blocking execution until something happens is to use intermediate events. As it comes to the case described I would suggest to use conditional intermediate event that will be activated as soon as defined condition becomes true - for example an object is inserted into the session.

HTH
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