Human Task Properties
When you add a Human task to a workflow, the task properties appear on the Properties view of the workflow.
You configure options on the following tabs:
- •General tab. Set the name and text description for the Human task.
- •Participants tab. Identify the business administrators who can participate in the task.
- •Data source tab. Identify the database connection name and the database resource that contains the Mapping task output.
- •Task distribution tab. Determine the size and composition of task instances.
- •Notifications tab. Identify the users who receive email notifications when the Human task is complete, and write the email text.
- •Input tab. Set the variables that identify the input data for the task.
- •Output tab. Set the variables that provide the final status of the task to the workflow.
- •Advanced tab. Set the task recovery strategy.
General Tab
The General tab identifies the Human task. Enter a name and an optional description for the Human task. You can also open the Human task from the General tab.
The following table describes the options on the General tab:
Property | Description: |
|---|
Name | The name of the Human task. |
Description | Optional. The description of the Human task. |
Task | A link to the Human task repository object. Click the Task link to open the Human task in the Developer tool. |
Participants Tab
Use the Participants tab options to identify one or more business administrators for the task instances that the Data Integration Service creates for the Human task. A business administrator can also work on the task instances in the Analyst tool.
The following table describes the option on the Participants tab:
Property | Description |
|---|
Name | Name of the user or group that you identify as a business administrator for the Human task. To select a business administrator, click Select. |
You can assign business administrators to the Human task, and you can assign business administrators to a step in a Human task. A business administrator on a Human task can perform task management actions on any task instance that the Data Integration Service creates for the Human task. A business administrator on a step can perform task management actions on any task instance that the Data Integration Service creates for the step.
A business administrator on a Human task can also complete all of the task instances associated with the Human task in a single operation. To complete the tasks, the business administrator runs the infacmd wfs completeTask command on the command line.
Data Source Tab
Configure the options on the Data Source tab to identify the tables that contain the task data.
The following table describes the options on the Data Source tab:
Property | Description |
|---|
Connection | The database connection name for the database that contains the Mapping task output. |
Resource | The name of the database table that contains the Mapping task output. The user who performs the task connects to the database and works on the data in the table. You can select a database table synonym as the resource if the table resides in an Oracle database or an IBM DB2 database. |
Task Distribution Tab
Set the options on the Task Distribution tab to create instances of the Human task. Use the task distribution options when you want to assign a task to multiple users. You can create task instances of equal size, or you can create task instances based on the data in a column.
The following table describes the options on the Task Distribution tab:
Property | Description |
|---|
Enable task distribution | Enables options to create multiple instances of the Human task. If you clear this option, the workflow processes a single instance of the Human task. |
Divide task by number of items | Creates task instances with the number of records or clusters that you specify, or creates the number of task instances that you specify. |
Divide task by data value | Creates task instances based on the values in a column that you select. You select the column from the data source that the Data Source tab identifies. When the workflow runs, the Data Integration Service creates a task instance for each set of records that share a common value in the column. You identify the users or groups who can work on the task instances, and you specify a value to associate with each user or group. You can optionally associate each user or group with a range of numeric values or date values. The workflow assigns the tasks instances to users or groups based on the associations that you define. Identify the users or groups who will work on the task instances in the following ways: - - Enter the users or groups to a grid, and enter the column values to associate with each user or group.
- - Import the user or group names and the column values from a reference table in the Model repository.
- - Import the user or group names and the column values from a local delimited file.
- - Connect to an external database table that contains a list of user or group names and a list of data values.
When you connect to an external database, you can update the list of users, groups, and values independently of the workflow configuration. The Data Integration Service reads the table when the workflow runs.
Optionally, you can identify a user or group to receive task instances that contain records that do not meet the task distribution criteria. |
Notifications Tab
Set the options on the Notifications tab to notify users or groups when the Human task is complete. The workflow sends an email notice to the users or groups that you identify.
Before you can configure a Human task to send emails, an administrator must enable and configure the Email Service in the Administrator tool.
The following table describes the options on the Notifications tab:
Property | Description |
|---|
Task Events | Lists the types of status change for which a user or group can be notified. At the workflow level, you can select the Complete option. |
Recipients | Lists one or more users or groups to notify when the Human task is complete. |
Subject | Lists the contents of the subject line for the email notifications. You can edit the subject line. |
Mime Type | Specifies the content type for the email. Select one of the following values: - - Plain. Send a message in plain text.
- - HTML. Send HTML content. You can include lists and hyperlinks in HTML content.
The HTML view provides basic a HTML structure by default. If you edit the HTML, you cannot restore the default structure. |
Message | Displays the html tags that define the email content. Type the body text for the message between the <body> tags. |
Preview | Displays the email content as it will appear to the recipients. |
Input Tab
Human task input is the data that passes into the Human task from a workflow variable.
The Input tab shows a single option named Number of items processed. Use the option to set the exceptionLoadCount variable.
The exceptionLoadCount variable stores the number or records or clusters in the database table that you specify on the Data Source tab. The variable indicates the number of records or clusters that are processed in the Human task.
Note: You do not set input parameters on a Human task.
Output Tab
Human task output is the data that passes from a Human task into workflow variables. Human task outputs include general outputs. General outputs include output data produced by all tasks such as the task start time, end time, and whether the task successfully ran.
When you configure a Human task, you specify the task output values that you want to assign to workflow variables on the Output tab. The Data Integration Service copies the Human task output values to workflow variables when the Human task completes.
For example, a Human task produces a start time output value that indicates when the Data Integration Service started running the task. The workflow cannot directly access the Human task output data. To use the data in the remainder of the workflow, you assign the start time output to a workflow variable that you name HumanTaskStartTime. Then you use the HumanTaskStartTime workflow variable in an expression for a conditional sequence flow. The Data Integration Service runs the next object in the workflow if the Human task started before the specified time.
Advanced Tab
The Advanced tab for a Human task includes the task recovery strategy.
A Human task specifies a restart recovery strategy. The restart option is read-only. The Data Integration Service always restarts an interrupted Human task when a workflow recovers.
If the workflow is not enabled for recovery, the Data Integration Service ignores the task recovery strategy.
Create Task Instances