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Task Step

A task step is a child object of a task. Each step represents a particular action performed as part of a task. Each task contains several steps. Similar to a workflow process, a task can contain the following types of steps:

• Business Service step
• Decision Point step
• End step
• Siebel Operation step
• Start step

A task can also contain steps that are unique to the Task UI application, and that are not part of workflow processes, as follows:

• Commit step
• Error step
• Subtask step
• Task View step

As in the Process Designer, the Task Designer provides connectors (branches) and error exceptions. As with designing workflow processes in the Process Designer, in the Task Designer you define conditions and values associated with steps.

An average task flow might have ten to fifteen steps, although the tasks you implement may vary greatly in length.

For general information on how to configure task steps, see Editing Task Flows.

Task Step Descriptions

The Task UI framework provides the following types of task steps:

• Business service step. A step that calls a business service. See About Business Service Steps.
• Commit step. A step that explicitly commits the temporary task data to the Siebel database. See About Commit Steps.
• Decision point. A branch step that determines the direction through the task based on input. See About Decision Points.
• End step. Completes the task and commits the temporary task data. See About End Steps.
• Error step. A step that presents a custom error message to the end-user. This step provides the same function as the Stop step used in the Siebel Workflow application. See About Error Steps. (For more information about Siebel Workflow, see the Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide.)
• Siebel Operation step. A step that performs a Siebel Operation. See About Siebel Operation Steps.
• Start step. The step that begins a task. See About Start Steps.
• Subtask step. A step that calls another task. See About Subtask Steps.

  NOTE:  For information on subtasks, see Subtasks.

• Task View step. A step in which the user interface interacts with the end user. See About Task View Steps.

About Business Service Steps

A business service step allows you to call a business service, which executes predefined or custom actions in a task flow. See Best Practices for Invoking Business Services for more information.

About Commit Steps

A commit step is a step that explicitly commits the task data stored in temporary storage to the Siebel database. You can use commit steps to transfer all data stored in the temporary storage to the Siebel database while you are in the task, before the task is completed. When the task is completed, the End step commits the temporary data to the Siebel database. For more information on the conflict detection and resolution scheme during the commit, see Conflict Detection and Resolution. For information on how to configure commit steps, see Configuring Commit Steps.

About Decision Points

A decision point is a step that evaluates conditions on outgoing condition branches to determine the next step to be executed. For more information, see About Branching.

About End Steps

An end step instructs the Task UI run-time framework to end the task instance, and commit all temporary data to the Siebel database. Each task flow must contain only one end step.

For more information on the conflict detection and resolution scheme during the commit, see Conflict Detection and Resolution. For information on how to configure end steps, see Configuring Start Steps and End Steps.

About Error Steps

The error step provides a mechanism for the taskflow developer to instruct the Task UI engine to display a localized error message to the end user. This functionality is typically needed when an error message returned from a business service might not be clear enough for the end user. The error message is displayed in a modal pop-up window and the last-displayed task view becomes the active step. Execution of an Error step before the first View step in a task is successfully displayed causes cancellation of the task.

An error step can be used in an exception branch, or as part of the normal task flow processing logic to handle expected errors. For instructions on how to work with Error steps, see Configuring Error Steps. For more information on error handling, see Error Handling.

About Siebel Operation Steps

A Siebel Operation step performs operations such as Insert, Update, and Delete on a business component in a task's instance of a business object. See Configuring Siebel Operation Steps for more information.

About Start Steps

A start step is the initial step in a task. For more information, see Configuring Start Steps and End Steps.

About Subtask Steps

A subtask step allows you to invoke a separate task within a task. In contrast, the task invoked by a subtask step is a task in which the Is Subtask property is set to TRUE. Generally, you create the subtask first before adding the corresponding subtask step to the main task flow. A task definition can have one or more subtask steps.

Similarly to the Workflow subprocess step, you can pass information into and out of a subtask through the input and output arguments. Input arguments allow you to populate task properties in the subtask with information from the parent task. For instructions on how to work with subtask steps, see Configuring Subtask Steps. For information about subtasks, see Subtasks.

About Task View Steps

A task view step presents a user interface view to the end user. It allows the end user to view the application data that the task is working on, and provide user input when necessary. It also allows the end user to control task execution and navigation by providing a task playbar applet with navigation buttons (for example, Next and Previous). For more information, see Task View Step and Configuring Task View Steps.