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Approval List in Group Task

brvhrt

Env:
7.2.1 RHL , WFM 1.0.1.1

Requirement is simple: The author/person who started the workflow should not be able to approve the content in A group task.

We have a group task in the workflow. This group task is owned by a group A. the Person who started the workflow should be removed from that group so she/he cant not take the task and approve the content.

Here is what I did:

1- Created a datasource Java class which takes the group as a param then go over the users of that group.
2- add all the users of the group except of the user who initiated the workflow in hashMap list.

so far this is working as i am able to see the list of approvers when I call the datasource from the instantiation screen.

3- I added the datasource in the Group task sharedBy variable as a datasource variable. However, when we get to the group task we are not able to take the task and other users are getting Permission denied error. Looking at the group task sharedby variable in the debug mode shows nothing ( no value).

Thanks in advance for your help

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Comments

Rick Poulin

You misunderstood how the datasources work. A datasource allows you to pick ONE of the datasource's returned items on the instantiation screen. It does not allow you to use all returned users as the "shared by" in a group task. Only the user you selected on the instantiation screen will be allowed to take ownership of the group task.

The answer to your problem, dumb as it is, is that there's no easy way to accomplish what you want. I've always had to write an external task (PERL or Java) to calculate and set the sharedBy attributes on group tasks, where it can't simply be hardcoded $IW_USER/users/groups.

ISCBorisB

You misunderstood how the datasources work. A datasource allows you to pick ONE of the datasource's returned items on the instantiation screen. It does not allow you to use all returned users as the "shared by" in a group task. Only the user you selected on the instantiation screen will be allowed to take ownership of the group task.

The answer to your problem, dumb as it is, is that there's no easy way to accomplish what you want. I've always had to write an external task (PERL or Java) to calculate and set the sharedBy attributes on group tasks, where it can't simply be hardcoded $IW_USER/users/groups.

That's interesting...

WFT allows to set "Group for Sharing" dynamically upon instantiation. Members may be users, groups or a mix.
It's basically an Array of Arrays. The syntax I prefer in such cases is a variation of the following:

# Build group for sharing
my @gfs = ();
. . .
push (@gfs, ['user', $userID]);
push (@gfs, ['group', $groupID]);
. . .

And then

declare_task('boo',
  name => 'foo',
  type => 'grouptask',
  sharedby => \@gfs,
. . .
);

Perhaps WFM has some similar construct (Array, ArrayList, whatever) to build on the fly?

Rick Poulin

The WFM doesn't work that way. It only allows you to put "placeholders" in the group task, which must be resolved by the conclusion of the instantiation screen, otherwise you get an invalid jobspec. Those placeholders can't take multiple values either, so unless you know the exact number of users you're going to need (to put the same amount of placeholders), it's not happening.

You choices boil down to external task, or a PreProcessor class (which, IMO, is a worse option).

ISCBorisB

The WFM doesn't work that way. It only allows you to put "placeholders" in the group task, which must be resolved by the conclusion of the instantiation screen, otherwise you get an invalid jobspec. Those placeholders can't take multiple values either, so unless you know the exact number of users you're going to need (to put the same amount of placeholders), it's not happening.

You choices boil down to external task, or a PreProcessor class (which, IMO, is a worse option).

Thank you for explanations.

I use both WFT and WFM. Was kinda hoping that there is a mechanism to resolve a "placeholder" to some Object reference...
Oh, well...

J03_wip.rptdesign

brvhrt

The WFM doesn't work that way. It only allows you to put "placeholders" in the group task, which must be resolved by the conclusion of the instantiation screen, otherwise you get an invalid jobspec. Those placeholders can't take multiple values either, so unless you know the exact number of users you're going to need (to put the same amount of placeholders), it's not happening.

You choices boil down to external task, or a PreProcessor class (which, IMO, is a worse option).

Thanks a lot for taking the time to explain this. I have a couple questions regarding the the external task option:

External Task: I can do that but my question is : what would be the value(s) of the sharedBy variable that I need to set, or how to calculate and set the sharedBy attributes on group tasks. Could you share how to do that or a Snippet of code would really be appreciated

Thanks again for your time.

Rick Poulin

External Task: I can do that but my question is : what would be the value(s) of the sharedBy variable that I need to set, or how to calculate and set the sharedBy attributes on group tasks. Could you share how to do that or a Snippet of code would really be appreciated

Quickest way is to just convert your Datasource to a URLExternalTask, simply by changing the interface you're implementing and modifying the method signature as required. Then, resolve the CSGroupTask you want to modify, clear out any existing sharedBy value and reset using the List or Set of users that your datasource was previously returning.

brvhrt

Quickest way is to just convert your Datasource to a URLExternalTask, simply by changing the interface you're implementing and modifying the method signature as required. Then, resolve the CSGroupTask you want to modify, clear out any existing sharedBy value and reset using the List or Set of users that your datasource was previously returning.

I think CSGroupTask does not have addSharedByUsers method. Only WFMGroupTask has addSharedByUser method.

So I created the external task and in it I am looping through all the tasks then checking to find my group task. Once I find it, I create an instance of WFMGroupTask and assign the right task to it. So i tried to cast the CSTask into WFMGroupTask, but i think i am not doing it the right way or my strategy is wrong. Once this is resolved I am planning to get the list of users and add them to the CSGroupTask

Please let know if I am not on the right direction. Appreciate the help


WFMGroupTask wfmGroupTask = null;
try {
   CSTask[] tasks = workflowEngine.getTask(task.getId()).getWorkflow().getTasks();
 for (int i = 0; i < tasks.length; i++) {
 log.debug(  " Task Name : " + tasks.getName());
 if(tasks.getName().equals("Approver Group Task")){
 // Here I want to cast my task into WFMGroupTask
        wfmGroupTask = (WFMGroupTask) tasks;

  }

 }
}catch (CSException cse) {
   log.error(cse.getMessage());
}

Rick Poulin

Those are two completely different APIs and you can't cast between the two. You do want CSGroupTask, which has methods: addUser(), addGroup(), getSharedByUsers(), getSharedByGroups(), removeUser(), removeGroup(). You might want to check the Javadoc next time Smiley Wink

iw-home/cssdk/docs/cssdk_doc.jar

brvhrt

Those are two completely different APIs and you can't cast between the two. You do want CSGroupTask, which has methods: addUser(), addGroup(), getSharedByUsers(), getSharedByGroups(), removeUser(), removeGroup(). You might want to check the Javadoc next time
iw-home/cssdk/docs/cssdk_doc.jar

Hi rpoulin,

Thanks for your reply, I know that those are two different APIs and I almost know them by heart. Of course Javadocs is no brainier Smiley Happy

that is why I was questioning if I could cast WFM to CS object. The reason again for me going the WFMGroupTask object was that it has the addSharedByUsers.

I got it working on Friday, but I wanted to thank you for your help.

Rick Poulin

I got it working on Friday, but I wanted to thank you for your help.

No prob, HTH. Out of curiosity though, what did you get working? The cast to the other API, or the use of CSGroupTask.addUsers()?

brvhrt

No prob, HTH. Out of curiosity though, what did you get working? The cast to the other API, or the use of CSGroupTask.addUsers()?

I used the CSGroupTask. Smiley Happy