BPT Custom Taskbox | OutSystems

Gonçalo Borrêga

BPT Custom Taskbox

Question

Hi,

There have been some questions around custom rules for user/group/team assignment as well as activity manipulation outside of the provided BPT's EPA (taskbox).

I'd like to share with you an example espace of how you can use BPT's API/data model to create your custom taskbox as well as add extended properties to activities or processes and have it seamlessly into your application.

I’ve tried to keep the espace as simple as possible to show only the required information. I think it is quite self explainable except for the “Inbox query” (Actions\BPM_GetUserActivities\GetUserActivities). Still, I think you won’t have to customize that query a lot (except for the filtering/ordering for which sections are commented). It already supports Multilanguage in case you are translating your activities/processes.

It uses EnterpriseManager with the Roles/Groups feature. You’ll need to import the espace to import the privileges/permission areas, create some roles that use those privileges, create some teams and give the users those roles in each team. If you check the code, the group for the activities in the Project process are assigned based on the Project’s team.

It also shows how to use an extension entity to hold some more information for the activity (in this case I’ve included an IsUrgent flag and a “Extra information” attribute (check ACTIVITY_INBOX and how it is filled in the generic Process callbacks and/or a specific activity callback)

There is also the notion of a “Session current activity”, maintained by the custom inbox and showing a section in the top right corner with the current activity information (and actions on it). Note that this is not the same as opening an activity via the BPT builtin taskbox, as the session variable that holds that information is not the same.

Hope it helps ;)
Cheers,
Gonçalo Borrêga

CustomInbox.oml

28 Jun 2010

Pedro Oliveira

Staff

Very cool!

Just had a quick look and, although it seems a bit harder to setup, it looks very useful if you need to something a bit more custom than EPA's taskbox.

Pedro

29 Jun 2010

Joop Stringer

It would be so nice to have the BPT-API available without having to use Enterprise Manager.
Move it all to EPA-taskbox eSpace or Service Center.
I also posted this on WoC.

We're using an external system for user mgt and authorization.
That way we can't (don't want to) use Enterprise Mgr.

Any suggestions ?

22 Jul 2010

Gonçalo Borrêga

Hi Joost,
The api is on EM because some of those actions actually refer to EM entities (GROUP). Anyway, you can just move them to another eSpace if you like.
I'm sure that if it is on WOC it will be reviewed and, if the API is not EM related, it can easily be moved to EPA_TaskBox, or even better, to an isolated espace (I am not using EPA_TaskBox for instance... only custom inboxes)
Cheers,

22 Jul 2010

Joop Stringer

Goncalo,

To isolate the functions in a seperate eSpace, to me, is a must :-)
Don't force organisations to implement the dragon EM if it is not used...

I've been digging a little deeper and saw in the tutorial it's using the UserMaster table from EM ...

So tell me is the default EPA taskbox responding on (system)User or on (EM)UserMaster table
If the user logs in and the taskbox should be showing tasks for the user ??

22 Jul 2010

Gonçalo Borrêga

Hi Joost,

The EPA_taskbox responds to User.
The EPA_taskbox however also supports EM Groups. Imagine you want to assign an activity to a team instead of a single user... EM's groups/roles/privileges support all these complex patterns, so EM has it's own API to assign a user to a group... EPA_Taskbox supports this and instead of showing only the logged User (System.User) activities it also shows those for the teams in which he has the required privileges.

If you want "non-EM" group assignment (or any other assignment rule beside direct System.User) you'll need to build a custom taskbox to use the BPT model to get the open activities for that custom rule.

22 Jul 2010

Joop Stringer

Gonçalo,

To me this sounds a little strange.
EPA Taskbox reacting on system.user AND on em.group

To keep it straight I think it should be reacting on
1. system.user and system.permissionarea (as I can select those in the human activity)
OR
2. em.usermaster and em.groups

Preferably I would suggest the first option. And move all (API) functionallity to a separate eSpace or combine it in the EPA Taskbox eSpace.
I will dig a little deeper in your custom taskbox. I've seen a glimpse and it looks suitable for our solution.

Joop

23 Jul 2010

Gonçalo Borrêga

Sorry I meant Joop, not Joost.
Thanks for the warning Joost ;)

23 Jul 2010

Gonçalo Borrêga

Actually it does react on all of them.
EM maps UserMaster to system.User via a foreign key and also Permission Areas to EM Privileges... so when you use EM as a user provider we are talking about the same user and permission areas/privileges

23 Jul 2010

Paulo Garrudo

Staff

I just did a review of the sample uploaded by Gonçalo.
My new sample shows how to create a custom inbox using the user provider “Users” (and not the Enterprise Manager).

CustomInbox_UsersProvider.oml

24 Oct 2012

Gonçalo Martins

Staff

Hi Paulo,

Nice initiative..This sample will help the new members of our community (mainly the ones that started working with the new user model) to understand how we can adapt and customize the BPT taskbox, according to the client needs, and of course using the new model provided by the User's eSpace.

Best Regards,
Gonçalo M.

24 Oct 2012

Gonçalo Borrêga

Great Paulo!
What if we publish it in the Forge?
It would be interesting to see it grow as a list of patterns that can be reused on common process oriented applications... I'll join the component team! :)

24 Oct 2012

Gonçalo Martins

Staff

Excelent idea Gonçalo!
That kind of list of patterns can be an excelent place to compile BPT patterns according to the best practices..
This will surelly boot the agile development using BPT in a correct and optimized way, from a simple to a complex process, driving into a faster identification of real-life problems and Workflows, with the advantage that we can reuse those well performed patterns.

Just a tip: Please write some explanations about each step of your Workflow to help a person who have to look at each pattern..

Cheers,
Gonçalo Martins

25 Oct 2012

Charles Colaco

I needed a Custom Taskbox to display Activities & Notifications
more info here.
So I extended Gonçalo Borrêga's & Paulo Garrudo's Taskbox and came up with this.

07 Apr 2014

Paulo Ramos

Staff

For anyone using Oracle, see the attachment for a corresponding version (Garrudo's eSpace will work in Sql Server only).

CustomInbox_UsersProvider_Oracle.oml

16 Apr 2014

Kilian Hekhuis

MVP

Sorry for necromancing this thread, but is there a more recent example for making a custom taskbox? The original example is from 2010 (platform 5 - does anyone even recall it?), and no doubt many things have changed (Enterprise Manager being depricated, for one).

20 Mar 2015

Paulo Ramos

Staff

Hi,

The more recent examples in this thread, submitted by Paulo Garrudo (Sql Server) and me (Oracle), should still work.

You can also check the Taskbox Plus component.

20 Mar 2015

Kilian Hekhuis

MVP

HI Paulo,

Thanks for the swift answer, I'm checking it out right now.

20 Mar 2015

Pedro Cardoso

Hello Kilian,

there's also an example of a custom taskboc on the Credit Request app, available on Forge.

Cheers
Pedro Cardos

27 Mar 2015

Raj Hasti

Hi All,

I have used the custom task box thats been uploaded in this discussion.

I triggered the BPT and a Human task has been assigned and I Opened the human task and clicked logout button in the page.

On log out I am getting error like below while executing advanced query.Not sure how to resolve.Please let me know what does this error message means any pointers are helpfull

Error:
Error in advanced query GetUserActivities in BPT_GetUserActivities in CustomTaskBox in GateKeeperAndCompliance ( SELECT {Activity}.[Id] AS IActivityId, IFNULL({Activity_Definition_Lang}.[Label], {Activity_Definition}.[Label]) AS Label, {Activity}.[Inbox_Detail] AS Detail, {Activity}.[Created] AS StartDate, {Activity}.[Due_Date] AS DueDate, CASE WHEN {Activity}.[Due_Date] IS NULL or {Activity}.[Due_Date]=@NullDate THEN 0 ELSE TIMESTAMPDIFF(day, {Activity}.[Due_Date], getdate()) END AS DaysOverdue, IFNULL({Activity_Definition_Lang}.[Inbox_Instructions], {Activity_Definition}.[Inbox_Instructions]) AS InboxInstructions, {Activity_Definition}.[Skippable] AS Skippable, {Process}.[Id] AS ProcessId, IFNULL({Process_Definition_Lang}.[Label], {Process_Definition}.[Label]) AS ProcessLabel, {User}.[Id] UserMasterId, {User}.[Name] UserName, {Group}.[Id] GroupId, {Group}.[Name] GroupName, {ACTIVITY_INBOX}.* FROM {Activity} INNER JOIN {Activity_Status} ON {Activity}.[Status_Id] = {Activity_Status}.[Id] AND {Activ ...): Could not assign 'GateKeeper1' to 'InboxItem.GroupId'... Input string was not in a correct format.

09 Apr 2017

2 replies

Last reply 09 Apr 2017

Show thread

Hide thread

Paulo Garrudo

Staff

Hi Rajasekhar,

You must understand that we are using an advanced query to get all relevant information from the database and afterward map it into 2 OutSystems structures (InboxItem and ACTIVITY_INBOX). to make sure that it's working properly, each attribute that you fetch from the database must map into the attribute of each structure using the same order. If you didn't change anything, check the sample code attached, you should have the following:

14 attributes (ActivityId to GroupName) that map into the InboxItem;
3 attributes (ACTIVITYId to ExtraInformation) that map into the ACTIVITY_INBOX.

Based on the error stack, it seems that you change some elements of the first list (14 attributes), either the SELECT statement or the InboxItem.

If you are not able to find the issue, please share with the OML file where you have the query.

Regards,
Paulo Garrudo

Rajasekhar Hasti wrote:

Hi All,

I have used the custom task box thats been uploaded in this discussion.

I triggered the BPT and a Human task has been assigned and I Opened the human task and clicked logout button in the page.

On log out I am getting error like below while executing advanced query.Not sure how to resolve.Please let me know what does this error message means any pointers are helpfull

CustomInbox_UsersProvider_10.oml

09 Apr 2017

Raj Hasti

Hi Paulo,

Thanks for the reply.I have the entities and structure as like in the OML provided by you.

I have an entity called Product and on creation of new product triggering a human activity by sending the product Id to process.

Here is the scenario where I am getting this error.

Note: I have not changed the order of attributes in Activity_Inbox not in Inbox Item also not changed any attributes.

Attaching the OML for your reference

Login in to application
Create a new product and on save call the launch process to trigger the process and assign to a role called GateKeeper.
Login using the GateKeeper role and we will see a task in the custom task box
Open the task and it goes to task details
At this time click logout
After logout try again login using the same user
After logging using the user I am getting below error.

Error in advanced query GetUserActivities in BPT_GetUserActivities in CustomTaskBox in GCMod1 (SELECT {Activity}.[Id] AS IActivityId, ISNULL({Activity_Definition_Lang}.[Label], {Activity_Definition}.[Label]) AS Label, {Activity}.[Inbox_Detail] AS Detail, {Activity}.[Created] AS StartDate, {Activity}.[Due_Date] AS DueDate, CASE WHEN {Activity}.[Due_Date] IS NULL or {Activity}.[Due_Date]=@NullDate THEN 0 ELSE DATEDIFF(day, {Activity}.[Due_Date], getdate()) END AS DaysOverdue, ISNULL({Activity_Definition_Lang}.[Inbox_Instructions], {Activity_Definition}.[Inbox_Instructions]) AS InboxInstructions, {Activity_Definition}.[Skippable] AS Skippable, {Process}.[Id] AS ProcessId, ISNULL({Process_Definition_Lang}.[Label], {Process_Definition}.[Label]) AS ProcessLabel, {User}.[Id] UserMasterId, {User}.[Name] UserName, {Group}.[Id] GroupId, {Group}.[Name] GroupName, {ACTIVITY_INBOX}.* FROM {Activity} INNER JOIN {Activity_Status} ON {Activity}.[Status_Id] = {Activity_Status}.[Id] AND {Activity ...): Could not assign 'Rajasekhar Hasti' to 'InboxItem.GroupId'... Input string was not in a correct format.

Paulo Garrudo wrote:

Hi Rajasekhar,

14 attributes (ActivityId to GroupName) that map into the InboxItem;
3 attributes (ACTIVITYId to ExtraInformation) that map into the ACTIVITY_INBOX.

Based on the error stack, it seems that you change some elements of the first list (14 attributes), either the SELECT statement or the InboxItem.

If you are not able to find the issue, please share with the OML file where you have the query.

Regards,
Paulo Garrudo

Rajasekhar Hasti wrote:

Hi All,

I have used the custom task box thats been uploaded in this discussion.

I triggered the BPT and a Human task has been assigned and I Opened the human task and clicked logout button in the page.

On log out I am getting error like below while executing advanced query.Not sure how to resolve.Please let me know what does this error message means any pointers are helpfull

GCMod1.oml

09 Apr 2017

Paulo Ramos

Staff

Hi Rajasekhar,

Like Paulo Garrudo stated, the output structure needs to match (in number of columns, data types and their order) the selected columns from the query.

Your InboxItem structure seems modified, and a clue is in the error detail - Could not assign 'GateKeeper1' to 'InboxItem.GroupId'. GateKeeper1 is the username, and this is being incorrectly assigned to GroupId, which causes the runtime error.

To solve it, just reposition (use drag&drop) the UserName attribute - it should be right after UserId.