Actions

Task creation is one of the basic functionalities enabling the creation of instance workflows in WEBCON BPS. Tasks in the system can be created in the step configuration on a given path or as an action that can be placed e.g. on the entry to the step. This article describes the “Create a task action” action, as well as the standard method of creating a task on a path. The functionalities described in this article fully cover the basic business needs for creating and assigning tasks, thanks to the various mechanisms e.g. parallelism of execution. The “Create a task” action allows you to simplifies and optimizes the configuration – instead of configuring multiple paths directing to the same step, we can create and configure one action e.g. on the entry to the step.

WEBCON BPS Standalone is an installation of the system that operates without SharePoint. Since version 2020.1.3., new functionality that allows you to manage BPS groups and users has been added. This article describes how to create and delete BPS groups. The simple workflow has been created that allows you to submit a request for adding and deleting a BPS group. The request is sent to the accepting person who can approve or reject it. The “Create BPS group” and “Delete BPS group” actions are executed on the “Accept” path. In the “Request type” field, a user can select the appropriate action (Add/Delete). The “Registering person” and “Date” fields are automatically filled in. After selecting the “Add” option in the “Request type” field, the “New group name” field will appear on the form – enter the group name you want to create.

One of the functionalities in WEBCON BPS system is the ability of using the REST API interface. API is the basic method of data exchange between two systems and it is often used both to download data and transfer it from WEBCON BPS to other applications (e.g. data transfer to the vacation system). For more information about examples of using API see Examples of using REST API. This article describes the “Invoke REST Web service” action that allows you to use external services that provide their API. The simple workflow has been created that will return additional information about a business entity (such as KRS number or address) based on the NIP number.

In WEBCON BPS there is the option to add attachments to the workflow instance by using the standard action. This action works in two modes: adding attachments from other workflows of the current WEBCON BPS content database, selected based on the instance workflow ID – the “Based on instance ID” mode, or adding attachments from other workflows from the external WEBCON BPS content database or external attachment databases selected based on the SQL query – the “Based on SQL query” mode. The action of adding attachments allows you to copy/move attachments from any workflow instance in WEBCON BPS. Attachments can also be created based on data selected from the external database or based on the binary file content.

The article describes the use of “Change value single field” and “Change values of multiple fields” actions on the example of the business scenario of the settlement of business trips. These actions allow you to update the value of the single form field or many form fields at the same time based on data available on the form or any values from outside the form available e.g. in the database or within other processes in WEBCON BPS. The action of changing value can be defined on a path, after clicking a button or on timeout. The “Change value single field” action has been used to determine the exchange rate at which business trip expenses will be calculated. The final rate consists of two values – the average rate and foreign currency unit. The “Change values of multiple fields” action is used to when more than one value is from the same source.

Mass actions allow you to go through the path (and execute the actions that are on it e.g. starting sub-workflows) for many instances at the same time. The article describes the configuration of this action and two examples of use. To change the form field value at the Archive step, select the path (in this example – “_change value”) which redirects to the Archive step. You do not add the action to change the field value. Similarly as before, create a report with instances from the Archive step. Add a new mass action button, select the created technical path and drag the form field from the tree to the left side. Select if the field should be required and make sure that the report has a column called Step!. Drag the button to the left in the Views tab.

The item list is frequently used to store any number of data rows as opposed to other form fields. This functionality makes the actions executed on the item list differ from the standard form field configuration. This article describes the operation of the item list and the configuration of various actions related to them based on the Personnel planning workflow. The application consists of two processes: the dictionary process (with two steps and used to store the document templates) and the main “Personnel planning” process. This process allows you to define the demand for human resources and assign the specific employees to the project with an automatic valuation and generation of the relevant documents.

E-mail notifications are one of the most frequently used methods of informing employees about new tasks in WEBCON BPS system. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish from which process they were sent, because they have the same sender address. In addition, they often contain all form fields from the form – even those that you would like to avoid being sent outside the system. In such cases, WEBCON BPS offers two simple functionalities – the first one is defining the sender’s shipping address, while the second one allows you to hide the specific form fields in notifications.

WEBCON BPS can be used as an efficient document management system. This article describes how to use barcodes to scan PDF files and paper documents and have them automatically added to your WEBCON workflows' instances. 

Common business scenarios for using barcodes include:
1) Having a PDF document or a paper document, and scanning its barcode to relate it with an existing workflow instance.
2) Scanning the barcode on an attachment added to the HotFolder to start a workflow automatically.

An example of barcode use would be the contract conclusion process.  To process the contracts prepared by the contractor in WEBCON BPS, you may need to print the PDF files to sign the documents. After signing them, you can scan the barcodes on the documents. The service recognizes the contract with the barcode located in the HotFolder and attaches it to the appropriate workflow instance based on its barcode.

Read this article for configuration details.

The speed of creating/updating sub-workflows depends on many factors such as the type of the form, the amount of data/actions/rules, the speed of response from external sources, server load or overall performance. When trying to update tens of sub-workflows the maximum execution time (timeout) may be exceeded. The case below shows us how can we deal with this problem by using only the standard WEBCON BPS functionalities. You can create a queuing mechanism that will update ten documents at a time.