Deleting a task

Lori Dingman

I have a Grid Component that holds some properties and relationships values including the task list in an entity. When I try to delete a task that was already started, I get error "The task is not available" and we are not able to remove task. Can I add task actions like skip to Grid Component to remove a task item that has already started?

We did have a rule on An Item is Deleted, that when and skipped the task item in a BPM process, but that also throws the error, "The task is not available" since version 23.4. What is the proper way to delete a task item already started?

AppWorks Tips

Hi Lori,

I guess you crafted something like this to delete or skip a task…correct?

That left part is not something you want to do! And indeed the skip option is not a possible action to do on a grid. #FEATURE_REQUEST
Also the usage of a "Repeating group" does not help as the task actions are not available for drop-in. What you can do is use a preview panel for your task to manage the task (and its actions); like this:

About deleting a task…That's never possible directly like you want; You can complete it or skip it, and clean it with the regular maintenance of the platform. Have a read here.

//Antal

Lori Dingman

Hello,

Thanks Antal for your assistance.

I would agree with you that it can't be done in Grid, except it was working in version 22.4 and earlier for us. We had a rule for event "An Item is Deleted" that triggered a BPM that first return an entity that had a relationship to one Lifecycle Task. Then we skipped the lifecycle task by using PerformTaskAction web service. Thereby Deleting a task made sure it was skipped properly. Once we upgrade to version 23.4, it no longer worked, with error "The RequestApprovalTask XXXXXX is no longer available.

I may have to go the route where I open the task and then skip with preview screen as your suggestion above as I can no longer get this solution to work.

AppWorks Tips

Interesting, as this "PerformTaskAction" is an old service that should still be valid. And on this service call it aborts with a "The task is not available" error? I haven't use "SKIP" before, but I assume that's valid input to skip the task (like you would also click it in the UI….You can double check in de DEV-tools in runtime)

Also, this "SKIP" will not delete the task itself; you still need to clean it with regular maintenance. Do you have a stacktrace of the error you get in the logviewer/messagemap of the BPM instance?

If I have some time left this week; I'll try it out the "PerformTaskAction" for you.

//Antal

AppWorks Tips

WAIT a minute…Now I see the relation with your other BPM question!

You have an "onDelete" rule on the related lifecycleTask entity…correct? Or is the "RequestApprovalTask" an entity on its own which is related?

So, when a delete is triggered on the task (manually or automagically), you start the BPM which will "SKIP" that same task? Why? This doesn't match in my brain for a use-case?

I guess @nssmani has then indeed a valid point on the short/long lived setting! If your BPM is long-lived, I can imagine this will not work (because of a-synch. timing); In that case try short-lived to keep it within the same transaction.

//Antal

Lori Dingman

Hi Antel, The "onDelete" rule is on the RequestApprovalTask. BPM is short-lived. I tried long-lived, same error. Here's stack trace. The use case is we have a BPM that reads if any of the approvals are pending. If we don't skip, then it reads incorrectly and doesn't progress in lifecycle. Attached is stack trace. Thank you.

stacktrace.txt

AppWorks Tips

@Lori Dingman What kind of entity is "RequestApprovalTask"? Is it a related LifecycleTask entity that you access via this:

Is it possible to share a part of the project which I can import?

//Antal

Lori Dingman

Hello Antal,

Hopefully this will help. The main issue is the ApproverTask entity Read WS is not working. Error says ApproverTask is not available. You mentioned maintenance. Could that cause the issue?

AppWorks Tips

@Lori Dingman The bidirectional relation between 'ApproverTask' (I asume a separate standalone entity) and 'LifecycleTask' is not possible; You can't select the 'LifecycleTask' entity from the list of possible entities when creating a relation in 'ApproverTask'?

Is it possible to create a small reproducable project to share which I can load in my VM?

Regular cleaning is only happening on lifecycle instances, BPM instances, or LifecycleTask instances. When you say the ApproverTask is removed (and it's a entity on its own) it's not deleted via the regular cleaning tools.

//Antal

Lori Dingman

Hi Antal,

Very difficult to create project. LifecycleTask was added to the Main Entity, not Approver Task. ApproverTask has bidirectional relation with LifecycleTask.

Thanks!