Task Notifications
When a user is assigned a task in Process Automation the system can automatically send out a notification via mail to the user.
To activate notifications in a user task, simply right-click on the task and turn on notifications under User task
The standard message sent to the user will look like this:
| Subject: You’ve got a new task regarding Anders in your inbox in Process Automation |
| Hello You’ve got a new task regarding "InstanceName" in your inbox in Process Automation. Task: Do something in Application. Follow this link to show the task. This is an automatic notification message, you cannot reply to it. |
Configure your own notifications
You can also configure a custom message. Click on the pencil symbol,
this opens the Edit notification window.
If you want to create more advanced notification messages, you can look at the example below.
You can use HTML code to create better-looking notifications and add process information with dollar signs ($).
Before you start writing HTML code in the Message window click on </> button to activate HTML view.
Standard notification message example (in HTML)
<html>
<body>
<p>Hi</p>
<p> You’ve got a new task regarding <b>$activity.name$</b> in your inbox on <b>$site.name$</b>.</p>
<p>Task: <b>$task.name$</b> in <b>$application.name$</b>.</p>
<p><a href='$task.links.show$'>Follow this link to show the task.</a></p>
<p><i>This is an automatic notification message, you cannot reply to it.</i></p>
</body>
</html>
The maximum length for an email subject line is 255 characters.
Variables
For a full list of variables, see the article Variables.
Reminders
The notification can send up to three reminders to the user depending on what you choose in the Reminder drop-down.
Three reminders
- Every 24 hours (every day at the time at which the task arrived)
- Once a day (every day at 7 AM CET)
- Weekly (every week at the day and time at which the task arrived)
- Monthly (every month at the date and time at which the task arrived)
- Every Monday (every Monday at 7 AM CET)
- First every month (the first day of every month at 7 AM CET)
One reminder only
- On deadline
- One day before deadline
- One week before deadline
- One month before deadline
Multi Instance Task
Multi Instance is a loop-type feature that will repeat a task for multiple performers where the number of performers might be different for each instance.
If you instead want a task to trigger multiple times based on the number of values selected in a multi-select field, read the article Multi Instance Send Task.
When the instance reaches the multi instance task, Process Automation will look at the role that is configured on it, or on the lane, and at which users and groups are configured on the role. Every single user in the role, at the time, will be assigned a copy of the task. Each user will see the task in the list My Tasks and will be able to open the task, see the content in it and complete it. When every single user has completed their task and there are no more multi instance tasks waiting to be completed, the entire multi instance task will be completed and the instance will continue to the next activity.
All the performers' tasks will be identical and contain the same data set.
How to assign a specific task to several performers
1. Create a lane and add a role for the members you want to repeat the task for
2. Add the task you wish to repeat
3. In the task settings, open the Loop type tab and choose Multi instance.
The selection Is sequential is not yet supported for process application execution.
When to use a multi instance task
Multi instance tasks are useful when you want a set of people to take part in and/or evaluate the same information and data before continuing the process. For example, if you want every department manager to read and approve a new security policy before the policy is sent to the entire company.
If you connect a form (Data Object) to the task, every user will see the same form in their individual tasks. It is not recommended that you make the form editable because if several users open the task at the same time the form will be locked by the first person to open the task and the others will receive a message saying "locked by user". We recommend you connect forms that can be read only so that users are not confused by locked messages.
Task deadlines
If your process is depending on the user tasks being completed on time you can add Task deadlines. The deadlines can help the users prioritize their tasks and get an overview of their performance when looking at lists.
The task deadline is a process setting and will affect all instances in the application. If you need to set a deadline on a specific instance, you'll need to add the variable field instance.deadline or instance.deadlinedate to your form.
How to set Task deadlines
1. Double-click on the task and open the User Task settings section, there is a setting called Deadline which can be turned on and off.
2. Turning on the setting and configure the settings: [Number] [Time unit] [According to] [Action] at [Time]
These are the selections you can use:
Number
Any number
Time unit
- Minutes
- Hours
- Days
- Weekdays
- Weeks
- Months
- Years
According to
- After
- Before (this setting can only be used with the action Form field)
Action
- Task created
- Instance created
- Other task created
- Other task completed
- Form field
Time
The Time setting is not mandatory and the default value depends on the action creation/completion time.
If you use the time unit Hours or Minutes the time can not be set.
When to use Task deadlines
Task deadlines can be used when you have processes where it is crucial that the user tasks are completed on time. One example is if you have commitments towards your customers, for instance, that a response must be sent back to the initiator within a certain amount of time after that a support ticket is created in your IT help desk process.
Assign Roles
If you want to specify performers per instance you can use Assign Roles. This function forces the performer of a specified task to assign one or more roles for the upcoming tasks.
The function is set on either a sequence flow that is connected from a User Task or on the task itself.
How to use Assign Roles
Assign roles on a sequence flow
- Double-click on a sequence flow that is connected to a user or manual task.
- Open the User experience tab
- Specify one or more roles under the Assign roles section.
Assign roles on a task
- Double-click on a task
- Open the User task tab
- Specify one or more roles under the Assign roles section.
Tasks with the Assign role setting can't be completed from lists.
How to complete the assign role task
Assign roles on sequence flow
When the performer of the task before the sequence flow with the Assign role function set completes the task, they will get a question to assign the specific role to one or more performers before completing the task.
This can be done both in the task view and when completing tasks in lists.
Assign performer through task view:
Assign performer dialog through list actions:
Assign roles on tasks
If the assign role function is set on a task, a section is shown at the bottom of the Task view when performing the task.
Browse the performers and complete the task.
This can only be done from the Task view.
When to use Assign Roles
Assign roles can be used when you want to set the performer in a role per instance. This is helpful in many scenarios, for example, if you have a process that contains a dispatcher role that is supposed to delegate cases to different handling officers. Another example is if you have a project process where you want to assign the project team for each specific project.
Use Assign Roles together with Role Mapper to filter the possible performers depending on a chosen value in a form field.
Assign Roles on Sequence flows
Use Assign Roles on sequence flows when you have multiple flows out from a task (or connected gateway) and where you only want to assign roles for the one sequence the task decides to follow.
Assign Roles on Tasks
Use Assign Roles on Tasks when you only have one sequence flow out from the task and you want the user to make the assignment directly in the task overview.
Performers Filters
To filter among performers depending on previous performers in a role assigned to a task or a lane use Performers Filters.
There are three different filters:
- All - default setting that gives all performers in the assigned role permission to perform the task(s)
- * Previous - the role is filtered according to the previous performer.
- * All previous - the role is filtered on all previous performers
These filters may impact other role assignments. For example, the Previous filter will overrule any other role or lane assignments, like in the example below.
How to add a Performers Filter
1. Double-click on the lane or task you want to add a filter to. The settings panel opens.
2. Open the Roles settings, and the Performers Filter selections are shown. Mark the preferred value and the filter will be automatically saved.
When to use Performers Filters
Performers filters are used to assign who will be the performer in a certain role when there is a group of potential performers. For instance, in the process example above where customers can create support tickets, you want to make sure that the customer who created the ticket is the one who will get the task to Complement ticket information if needed. In this case, you should set the performers filter to Previous, which means that the performer of the Complement ticket information task will be the same performer who previously acted in the specific role.
If the performers filter All would be set in the example above, all clients would have received the task to Complement ticket information. If you have more than one client, this is probably not preferred.
If the performers filter Previous performer is applied to a task and you share it with a user that was not originally configured as one of the users who can perform the task, there is a possibility that the process will get stuck. The reason for this is that the Previous filter overrules any other roles assigned to the task. So even if a user from outside the pool of authorized users completes the task, they will then be considered the previous performer and will be assigned the task in the future instead of it being assigned to the previous performer within the pool of authorized users.
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