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Determining the Workflow Action Constructs

This task is a step in Process of Planning a Workflow Process.

There are several ways to effect actions in a workflow. With a workflow process action, data is taken as an input, then a transformation takes place, and data is produced as output. When planning to build a workflow process, you should be able to identify the main actions the workflow process includes and the type of action constructs that are required.

About Data Manipulation With a Workflow Process

A workflow process operates on business objects and business components. Typically, a workflow process is associated with a single business object. Within the context of these data layer objects, data is created or updated as the workflow process executes. The main types of data a workflow process manipulates include:

  • Business component data.
  • Process property data.
  • Siebel Common Object data.

A process property can be thought of as a local variable that is active during execution of the workflow process instance. The process property can be used as input and output to the various steps in a process. With a workflow process, there is a set of predefined process properties that are automatically generated when you define the workflow. One example of these predefined process properties is the Process Instance Id.

About the Main Action Types In a Workflow Process

Table 11 describes the main Action Types.

Table 11. Description of Actions in Siebel Workflow
Action Type
Description
When Useful
Limitations

Business Service Step

A workflow step that invokes a method of a business service.

The business service can be a prebuilt Siebel service or a scripted business service.

When you must execute a potentially complex, but reusable set of logic.

Creating and destroying business services can be expensive. Overhead can be reduced through caching.

Incorporating too much logic within a business service can limit the business service's reusability and the transparency of the workflow.

Siebel Operation Step

A workflow step that performs inserts, updates, and queries against Siebel business components.

When you must execute simple record operations within the workflow.

While it is possible to update multiple records based on a search specification, it is not possible to retrieve and iterate through a set of records such that subsequent workflow actions can execute for each record.
The Business Service Step

The Business Service step executes predefined or custom business service methods. Typical predefined business services used include Assignment Manager requests, notification through the Communications Server, server requests, and integration requests from Siebel EAI. Custom business services can be written in Siebel VB or eScript. When defining a Business Service step, you must specify the business service, the business service method, input arguments and output arguments. Input arguments are passed in a process property, business component data, or a literal value.

Some commonly used business services for workflow processes include:

  • Outbound Communications Manager.
  • Synchronous Assignment Manager Requests.
  • Server Requests.
  • Business Rule Service.
  • Report Business Service.
  • Audit Trail Engine.
  • EAI business services, such as EAI Siebel Adapter, EAI XML Converter, and so forth.
  • FINS Data Transfer Utilities and FINS Validator.

For more information, see About the Business Service Step, and Predefined Business Services.

If your business requirements require specialized functionality, you can create a custom business service for the specific activity. Business services can be defined in Siebel Tools or in the Siebel client administration screens. For more information, see Integration Platform Technologies: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration.

The Siebel Operation Step

The Siebel Operation step allows you to perform database operations such as Insert, Update, Upsert, Query, Delete, NextRecord, PreviousRecord, and QueryBiDirectional. The Siebel Operation step is based on a single business component. Once you have defined the Siebel Operation step, you can use the Search Specification child object to locate the records you need to manipulate.

Examples of Siebel Operation steps include creating an Activity record when a new SR is opened, or updating a comment field if an SR is open too long.

For more information, see About the Siebel Operation Step.

    
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