Looping n times through Nested workflows

Hi,

I'm working with TS 6.7.1 and workflow modeler 1.1 on a deployment workflow which consists of start and end events and external and nested tasks. The external task will get the workflow files and loop through N branches and for every branch, the nested task will be called and files will be attached. Once the N branch has been called and files attached to it then go to End event to end workflow.

I'm using the modeler to do this, but the how can I call the nested task and attach files to it everytime I loop through in some foreach loop in the external task?

Thanks in advance

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Jcse

Hi,

I'm working with TS 6.7.1 and workflow modeler 1.1 on a deployment workflow which consists of start and end events and external and nested tasks. The external task will get the workflow files and loop through N branches and for every branch, the nested task will be called and files will be attached. Once the N branch has been called and files attached to it then go to End event to end workflow.

I'm using the modeler to do this, but the how can I call the nested task and attach files to it every time I loop through in some for each loop in the external task?

Thanks in advance

Hi

Let me tell you what i understand..you have N branches under the main branch and a workflow(Parent WF) that is initiated by a new_job etc .what u want to do is that when wf starts it simply get total no of branches in your externals task and creates an counter on its basis(lets say u have 10 branches,so the counter=10).Now a for loop starts ,it get all files of branch-1 and simply initiate a new wf-1(child WF) and for-loop comes again check counter for current branch no,now you have stil 9 branches left,so the loop plays again get files for branch-2 and intiate a new wf-2(second child wf).similarly the process goes on till the counter does not set to 0(means all branches files has been attached to external task).At the end, the main Wf(Parent WF) will end-up and you remains with 10 child wf.

Now the solution for your problem can be possible in 2 ways--

Solution-1

write an mechanism in your external task perl script/java that will do the above mentioned procedure and your script will initiate the child workflows,In this case you need not to use Nested Task and all your child wf will work concurrently........In short your script get files for Exteranal Task,attach them and initiate the new child Wf for deployment and continues for second branch.

Solution-2

If you use Nested Task,the Exteranal Task script will be responsible to set Nested Task as NextTransitionTask(callBack in case of perl script) every time the loop executes for a branch.In this case all child wf initae one-by-one because until the child workflow will not end up (initiated by nested workflow task),the loop will not be executed for second branch........So we can say that only one child wf will
execute at a time,no concurrent execution.

Now,this is what i think,may be it can help you.

cdoloriert

Hi,

Solution-1

write an mechanism in your external task perl script/java that will do the above mentioned procedure and your script will initiate the child workflows,In this case you need not to use Nested Task and all your child wf will work concurrently........In short your script get files for Exteranal Task,attach them and initiate the new child Wf for deployment and continues for second branch.

This is the approach I'm actually using to loop through all the branches and execute the external task, but how can I get the job specification file that the CreateWorkflow() method takes? I'm working with the modeler so the workflow is *.ipm and not *.wft. I know the job specification file is an xml file. do you know how to generate the XML file from ipm extension file?

my $system = new TeamSite::WFsystem();
my $wf = $system->CreateWorkflow($wfFile);
if (!($wf->IsValid()))
{
my $wfError = $wf->GetError();
}
else
{
$wf->Invoke();
}

Solution-2

If you use Nested Task,the Exteranal Task script will be responsible to set Nested Task as NextTransitionTask(callBack in case of perl script) every time the loop executes for a branch.In this case all child wf initae one-by-one because until the child workflow will not end up (initiated by nested workflow task),the loop will not be executed for second branch........So we can say that only one child wf will
execute at a time,no concurrent execution.

This solution also seems to be appealing, but how can the nested task be set as NextTransitionTask?

I'm going to use solution 1, but I'm curious about solution 2. I'd like to solve this issue both ways because you never know if the same issue will come up in the future again.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Jcse

I'm working with the modeler so the workflow is *.ipm and not *.wft. I know the job specification file is an xml file. do you know how to generate the XML file from ipm extension file?

You can get Job Specification File following these steps:

Set Attribute debug="true" for your workflow in available_models.cfg under the Tab ADMINISTRATION-->Manage Workflows
Now Initiate Workflow,On the instantiation screen you have two radio buttons for label Debug Mode,select true and click next
The next you have a file with a green background as your final job specification file,copy it and save it as .xml extension.

This how you generate xml file from ipm file.

This solution also seems to be appealing, but how can the nested task be set as NextTransitionTask?

you can set nested task as NextTransitionTask by using a method
[HTML]
task.chooseTransition(nextTransition,comment);
where nextTransition will be the NestedTask Name and comment are its transition comment.
[/HTML]

cdoloriert

Hi,

Set Attribute debug="true" for your workflow in available_models.cfg under the Tab ADMINISTRATION-->Manage Workflows
Now Initiate Workflow,On the instantiation screen you have two radio buttons for label Debug Mode,select true and click next
The next you have a file with a green background as your final job specification file,copy it and save it as .xml extension.

So I did all that and when I ran the workflow and the code

my $system = new TeamSite::WFsystem();
my $wf = $system->CreateWorkflow($wfFile);
if (!($wf->IsValid()))
{
my $wfError = $wf->GetError();
}
else
{
$wf->Invoke();
}

the variable $wfError outputs "not well-formed at line 1 "

So I added to the first line in the xml file, but still didn't work. Perhaps I need to also add the clause but what values workflow and iww.dtd will have?

Thanks in advance.

Adam Stoller

Hi,
...
So I did all that and when I ran the workflow and the code
...
the variable $wfError outputs "not well-formed at line 1 "

So I added <?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?> to the first line in the xml file, but still didn't work. Perhaps I need to also add the <!DOCTYPE worflow SYSTEM "iww.dtd"> clause but what values workflow and iww.dtd will have?

Thanks in advance.

The code you posted does not have an XML header on the first line.

cdoloriert

Hi,

If you are talking about xml header for example:

[HTML]
[/HTML]

I don't know the values for note and Note.dtd. However, If I use the example bellow, perhaps I should create a dtd doc

[HTML]

Tove
Jani
Reminder
Don't forget me this weekend
[/HTML]

I will replace note with workflow and such for the other node elements in the workflow xml file.
Also I can create the same file in the same path the xml file is stored.
Am I in the right direction?

Thanks in advance.

Adam Stoller

Hi,

If you are talking about xml header for example:
[...]
[html][/html]

I will replace note with workflow and such for the other node elements in the workflow xml file.
Also I can create the same file in the same path the xml file is stored.
Am I in the right direction?

Thanks in advance.

Yes, I was talking about the above XML header - though I believe it should be [html]
[/html]Assuming you're talking about a WFT. Are you? What you posted looks more like a job specification file. If you're having problems with the WFT getting instantiated - it would be better to post the WFT.

cdoloriert

I needed to fix it to make a valid xml file that way TS will recognize it. I update the header to be [HTML]
[/HTML] plus I neede to place the xml file where iwwf.dtd and then from command line iwjobc and it worked.

Thank you