If I could award points for this one, I would… Summary: Workflow A and Workflow B are both Global Workflows that contain User Tasks that are to be performed by the startUser The startUser is presented a User Task in Workflow A Workflow A calls Workflow B, which presents the user with a User Task in Workflow B, and then completes Workflow A calls Workflow B again, but this time, the user is not automatically presented with the User Task, and must go to their Tasks page and View the Task The requi...

Workflow, Called Workflow User Task Continuity | Developers

Workflow, Called Workflow User Task Continuity

If I could award points for this one, I would…

Summary:

Workflow A and Workflow B are both Global Workflows that contain User Tasks that are to be performed by the startUser
The startUser is presented a User Task in Workflow A
Workflow A calls Workflow B, which presents the user with a User Task in Workflow B, and then completes
Workflow A calls Workflow B again, but this time, the user is not automatically presented with the User Task, and must go to their Tasks page and View the Task

The required UX is that the user should see all these user task forms in sequence. Why would the continuity in presentation be broken the second time Workflow B is called?

Details
I’ve created a global Select Users Subprocess workflow, that includes a user task that allows the assigned user to select a list of other users for some purpose, given various parameters. This subprocess will be called from many different workflows.

In another Propose Policy workflow, I have a couple of user tasks (Steps 1-3), and then call the Select Users Subprocess with a callActivity several times (Steps 4-6) for the identification of associated users (“Proposed SMEs”, “Suggested Executive Sponsor”, etc.) with the assigned user being the same as that of the calling workflow.

In Propose Policy, Step 3:

In Select Users Subprocess (Propose Policy Step 4):

The first time I call the Select Users Subprocess (Step 4), the associated userTask form appears to the user subsequent to the previous form from the Propose Policy workflow, as if it were part of the calling workflow. The next times (Steps 5 and 6), using the exact same mechanism, the user tasks are assigned, but the forms don’t appear to the user; the user has to go to their tasks and view the task.

In Select Users Subprocess (Propose Policy Step 5):

Question: How can I provide continuity for the user who is assigned the user tasks in these two workflows?
Bonus: How do I get rid of that Task Completed message when the Select Users Subprocess finishes?

Tom Friesen

Posted 4 years ago · Edited 1 year ago·Last reply 3 years ago

16 comments

arthurburkhardt

·4 years ago · Edited

I have the opposite issue: a sidebar task generates a popup when using a callactivity

The OOTB issue resolution process creates a pop-up window from the workflow sidebar

It seems there are some changes in the workflow codebase that have introduced bugs and inconsistent behavior. I guess this will be fixed in next releases.

Tom Friesen

OP4 years ago · Edited

That’s a strange one! (While I’d love to turn on the sidebar tasks, I’m a little leery, as I’ve heard of issues with inconsistencies around global workflows.)

I suspect that you’re right, Arthur, and hope that these are issues that get worked out in upcoming releases.

arthurburkhardt

·4 years ago · Edited

tom.friesen:

While I’d love to turn on the sidebar tasks, I’m a little leery, as I’ve heard of issues with inconsistencies around global workflows

IMHO, it is well worth it. See Gratitude day - Workflow task sidebar - Developers - The Data Citizens Community (collibra.com)
I echo your concerns around reliability though, I’m surprised the feature is still in beta more than 18 months after it was introduced.

Tom Friesen

OP3 years ago · Edited

Hey Arthur,

I took your advice – in development, that is — and started to play with the task sidebar.

I agree: it is quite a nice improvement. Even when asset workflows call global workflows, it appears to stay in the sidebar. Yay!

But like you, I’ve discovered some of my workflows have a pop-up appearing after successfully displaying a task in the sidebar. Did you ever discover why or under what conditions this happens?

arthurburkhardt

·3 years ago · Edited

No…
I have quite a few surprising and frustrating issues with workflows at this time, and no clue how to solve them.

Redirecting to an asset page does not work 1 out of 10 times
mystery pop-ups from a sidebar
variables instantiated and checked in sometimes obscure ways (e.g. defining the user Expression in the first script task for the first user task)
outputCreateTermId popup that seems to decide by itself when he does not want to work

That’s the weirdest thing: it’s not clear what condition triggers anomalous behaviors…
And since it’s all “Custom workflows”, there is little support.

Tom Friesen

OP3 years ago · Edited

Ugh. The inconsistent behaviours are the worst ones to deal with. But if you want a second pair of eyes…

for the redirection, do you mean like the redirect button?
variable instantiation: I’ve only had complications with this in subprocesses lately with get/SetVariableLocal not behaving as I would have expected. Do you have something that’s reproducible that I can look at?

(I’ve just started using outputCreateTermId recently, but without issues (that I’ve noticed), so I doubt that I’d be much help with that one.)

arthurburkhardt

·3 years ago · Edited

Yes, the redirect button does not always work. I think it happens when you’ve been on collibra too long or that relogin was automatically instantiated… Anyways, you click on the redirect button, but the pop-up just closes. Multiple confirmed the bug, but since it’s a workaround, it’s not officially supported anyways, even if it is part of official collibra workflows.
Variable instantiation: no, I don’t have a reproducible one yet, because I needed to move fast on my last workflows, so I ended up duplicating forms. (see details below)

variable instantiation issues The workflow was meant to allow a start user to provide some input and assign a business steward. The selected business steward would then have the possibility to reassign to another business steward and so on. Version 1 looked like

first script:

selectedUserExpression = user(${startUser})

second script:

selectedUserExpression = role(Business Steward)

and the user task was assigned to ${selectedUserExpression}. But for some reason, the workflow would not start and the log said the user expression evaluated to null

So I ended up with duplicating.

Ugly but it works.

Tom Friesen

OP3 years ago · Edited

Hey @arthur.burkhardt,

arthur.burkhardt:

first script:

selectedUserExpression = user(${startUser})

second script:

selectedUserExpression = role(Business Steward)

and the user task was assigned to ${selectedUserExpression} . But for some reason, the workflow would not start and the log said the user expression evaluated to null

Isn’t this a case of missing quotes? Without them, the script interprets the user expression and it becomes a simple string, which would evaluate to null in the form. Double-quote the user expressions, and they’ll still be user expressions for the Candidate user expression is expecting. So…

first script:

selectedUserExpression = "user(${startUser})"

second script:

selectedUserExpression = "role(Business Steward)"

Hope that works!

ahmadalqinneh

·4 years ago · Edited

@tom.friesen not an elegant solution but conceptually, if you break out what you call Workflow B into their distinct steps so that the those workflows initiate with the appropriate user task, that should work. Good luck!

Tom Friesen

OP4 years ago · Edited

@ahmad.alqinneh.collibra.com: By “breaking out workflow B”, do you mean just folding the parts of workflow B into Workflow A? (The entire point of using the separate workflow B is to encapsulate a subprocess that is called by many different workflows.)

Also… can anyone help me understand technically why or when user tasks between two global workflows become non-contiguous?

Alexandra Jorgenson

Admin4 years ago · Edited

@tom.friesen I suggest you post a new thread with this last question - " Also… can anyone help me understand technically why or when user tasks between two global workflows become non-contiguous?"

Tom Friesen

OP4 years ago · Edited

Already did. See: https://datacitizens.collibra.com/forum/t/what-makes-user-tasks-between-workflows-contiguous-or-not/2192

ahmadalqinneh

·4 years ago · Edited

@tom.friesen I do recall experiencing this a while back, so workflow B is essentially invoked multiple times throughout the course of workflow A? And I assume you evaluate where in workflow B it should be routed to via script task?

Tom Friesen

OP4 years ago · Edited

Hi @ahmad.alqinneh.collibra.com!

Thanks for chiming in!

So, yes: the process is something like:
Workflow A has several native user tasks that get information from the startUser
Workflow A calls Workflow B, passing variable values to help the startUser suggest users for the role of SME
Workflow A calls Workflow B, passing variable values to help the startUser select user as a Leadership Backer
…etc.

While the userTask in Workflow B is dependent on the variables passed — for example, I have a different form if there are to be proposedValues for the users —, all tasks in workflow A and B have Candidate users as user(${startUser}).

Because I need these tasks to be executed sequentially (by the same user), I also use callActivity (instead of startWorkflowInstance) to call Workflow B from Workflow A.

I find it strange that the discontinuity in the presentation of the form happens only after the first call to Workflow B. Is this because of the End event of Workflow B? Something else?

Tom

ahmadalqinneh

·4 years ago · Edited

tom.friesen:

The first time I call the Select Users Subprocess (Step 4), the associated userTask form appears to the user subsequent to the previous form from the Propose Policy workflow, as if it were part of the calling workflow. The next times (Steps 5 and 6

Some more points of clarification, in the excerpt above, you mentioned that the modular component/workflow (B) is called multiple times throughout the lifecycle of the primary workflow (A) and yet represents different steps of the overall process. Is there a script task the proceeds form representing Step 4? Last time I recall seeing this was that if there was a script task in-between user tasks it would result in the described behavior.

Tom Friesen

OP4 years ago · Edited

Hey @ahmad.alqinneh.collibra.com…

Yup. A script task, an exclusive gateway, and another script task would be between the two callActivities.

Given that I need to test the user’s input between these two callActivities, what would you recommend? Is this considered an issue? Is there any way I can force continuity? (I’m up for unsupported options at this point in time, if anyone 🥷 wants to email me some unpublished API hacks… )

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