Opening Step Processors

When a user (workflow participant or Tracker) opens a step assignment, a pop-up window opens that contains the Step Processor UI.

The following items are discussed here:
  • How the correct Step Processor is selected for display
  • How the URL for the Step Processor UI is supplied to the web application.

Before a Step Processor can be opened it must be registered and added to the workflow. For information, see Adding a Custom Processor to the Workflow.

Note: Information that is used for the algorithm and the URL is provided by the VWAttributeInfo class.

Algorithm Used for Opening a Step Processor

The algorithm that is used for opening a Step Processor is as follows:

  1. Attempt to use the current Web application (defined by either the applet or HTML page) to retrieve the Step Processor location and URL template. See the "Supplying the URL for a Step Processor" section. If the result is null, proceed to the next step.
  2. Attempt to use the current Web application setting to retrieve the location, URL template, and web server base URL information in the following order: user preferences, isolated region, and global setting. If a suitable data set cannot be found, proceed to the next step.
  3. Iterate through the remaining registered Web applications to find the first available set of location, URL template, and Web server base URL information. Region settings override global settings. If a suitable set cannot be found, proceed to the next step.
  4. If you open the step processor from an applet, use the supplied Java™ Step Processor. Otherwise, the application does not have enough information to open a Web page.

    If you open the step processor from an HTML page, the isolated region's default Step Processor is used.

Supplying the URL for a Step Processor

When a Step Processor is launched, a corresponding URL is constructed (by using the default URL template or your own URL template). The construction occurs as follows (in sequential order):

Note: Based on the registered settings, the following items much match for the same Web application:
  • The Web server URL
  • The location of the Step Processor JavaServer Pages (JSP)
  • The URL Template
  1. Web Server URL. The current web server URL if it is the same Web application. If it is a different Web application, the registered settings are used.
  2. Location. The current location if it is the same Web application. If it is a different Web application, the Step Processor information values are used.
  3. Queue name (passed in).
  4. Work object number (passed in).
  5. Step name (passed in).

An example of a completed URL, is as follows:


http://your _server/eprocess/stepprocs/java/mystep/step_main.jsp?queueName=Inbox&wobId=FA3454543AD231FDD3453&stepName=Test

where mystep is the parent directory and step_main.jsp is the Step Processor's (View) JSP page.