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About the User Interact Step

The User Interact step provides you a way to configure the flow of Siebel views within an application. Siebel Workflow guides users through a specified flow of Siebel views based on the user's actions, or executes a specified set of actions. This flow can be modified as business conditions change.

The User Interact step can take process properties as input arguments. In this way, you can dynamically set view names as you design your interactive workflow process. The view name property is set in the View property, an unbounded picklist, of the User Interact step.

User Interact Step Behaviors

User Interact step behaviors include:

• Sends a request to the Siebel Web Engine to build the view, then brings up the required view in the user session.

  Only one view can be built at a time. You cannot combine a User Interact step with another action, such as bringing up a message box or building another view simultaneously. You also cannot combine a UserInteract step with the invocation of a task.

• Waits in the memory of the user session for a run-time event to resume processing. In cases where there is no run-time event defined, the workflow process continues to the end.
• If, after a User Interact step, the user manually navigates out of the view, the workflow process remains in the memory of the user session. The process is deleted when the user session is terminated or when another workflow process is instantiated in the same user session.
• Automatically queries the primary business component of the workflow's business object if it is not already in the executed state. The query searches for a record for which the ID matches the value of the Object Id property.
• Is resumed after a User Interact step only if the ID of the record on which the run-time event registered in the conditions defined on the connector match the value of the Object Id process property.

User Interact Step Restrictions

Restrictions when configuring a User Interact step include:

• A workflow process running in the Workflow Process Manager server component must not contain User Interact steps. That is, if the workflow is running in background mode or in batch mode, it cannot include User Interact steps. In this situation, if the Workflow Process Manager encounters a User Interact step, an error results.
• The User Interact step is only supported if the process is invoked through a script or run-time event and the process is run locally in the application object manager.
• It is not possible to use an interact step in a workflow process to move to a view and invoke the Search Center.

Defining a User Interact Step

You define a User Interact step in the Process Designer in Siebel Tools.

To define a User Interact step

Perform the procedure described in Adding a Step to a Workflow Process with the following modifications:

1. Use the picklist in the User Interact View property to specify the view name to which you must navigate the user.
2. In the Description property, enter a description of the purpose of the User Interact step.
3. If the User Interact step includes conditional logic, see Defining Conditional Logic for a User Interact Step.

Defining Conditional Logic for a User Interact Step

Conditional logic can be defined on a User Interact step. This involves establishing conditional logic on one or more connectors emanating from the User Interact step. For more information, see About Conditional Logic on a Branch Connector.

Defining a Run-Time Event With a User Interact Step

Branches emanating from a user interact step in an interactive flow must be associated with a run-time event.

If the mode property for the workflow process is set to Interactive Flow, and the workflow has a User Interact step that does not have a run-time event defined on the outgoing branch, it results in an error during validation. To avoid this error, the Workflow Mode property for the workflow process should be changed to 7.0 Flow if the run-time event is not required or not used in the user interact step. For more information, see About the Workflow Mode Property.

Using a User Interact Step to Create Substitute View Names

You can associate view names with process properties so that they can be set dynamically at run time. You do this by assigning a view name to the run-time value of a process property.

To associate a view name with a process property to set view names dynamically at run time

In the User Interact View property of a User Interact step, type the following string: [&ProcessPropertyName].

The Workflow engine recognizes this string and assigns the view name at run time.