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Passing Parameters to and from Workflow with the Workflow Process Manager Business Service

The Workflow engine can be invoked programmatically, that is, by calling a business service. The Workflow Process Manager business service is a standard Siebel business service used for this purpose. When you run a workflow process by invoking the Workflow Process Manager business service, you can pass inputs to Workflow, and in some cases, obtain outputs from Workflow.

Passing Inputs to Workflow

The input property set is required to contain a property named ProcessName, which specifies the name of the workflow process to be run. In addition to the ProcessName property, you can put other values, such as strings, numbers, and property sets, into the property set. These values will be passed to the workflow process by the Workflow Process Manager business service.

Simple data type process properties (such as String, Number, and DateTime) that are marked In or In/Out will be initialized if the input property set has a property (in the top-level property set) with a name matching the name of the workflow process property. The value of such a property in the input property set will initialize the value of the matching workflow process property.

Hierarchical data type process properties that are marked In or In/Out will be initialized if the input property set has a child whose property set Type field contains a string matching the name of the hierarchical workflow process property. If such a match is found, the matching child (and everything below the child) in the input property set is copied into the process property.

Passing Outputs from Workflow

Not all workflow processes that are started programmatically return outputs. For example, an interactive workflow process may be programmatically started, but since it can pause, the output from the call to start the workflow process may reflect the state at an intermediate point. For this reason, only workflow processes that are guaranteed to run to completion in one call, that is, service flows, should be expected to provide output in the output arguments of the call into the Workflow Process Manager business service.

Output arguments follow the same convention as input arguments. Simple workflow process properties (such as String, Number, and DateTime) that are marked Out or In/Out will appear as properties on the top-level property set. Hierarchical process properties will appear as children of the output property set. Hierarchical process properties can be located by examining the Type field of the child, which will match the workflow process property name.

Example Scripts

You can use scripts for invoking Workflow programmatically and for passing parameters. Example scripts are provided in the following sections:

• Example Script: Invoking Workflow Programmatically and Constructing an Input Property Set
• Example Script: Defining Property Sets for the Input Property Set
• Example Script: Constructing Property Sets
• Example Script: Assembling Properties and Child Property Sets into the Input Property Set
• Example Script: Invoking the Workflow Process Manager Business Service and Passing It the Input Property Set