Sample Scenario One

A customer might decide to implement a custom workflow so that users can request access to a particular resource, that workflow should check out the User view to allow a change to be submitted to it (pending the appropriate approval). In this example, the only information that probably must be available is the Identity Manager User portion of the view so that the waveset.resources list and the accountInfo object can be updated appropriately. In this situation, use the TargetResources option when checking out the User view to check out only the Identity Manager User portion of the User view with an option map similar to the following:

<map>
   <s>TargetResources</s>
   <list>
      <s>Lighthouse</s>
   </list>
</map>

You can reduce the size of the User view in the WorkItem view. Work items are the objects that represent a task assigned to an individual such as an approval, a delegation, or simply an interruption in a workflow to allow a user to input additional information. Custom workflows create approvals and interact with forms through manual actions. In short, a manual action copies all Workflow variables that are in the scope of the current <ManualAction> element. In addition to the task context, into a variables object within the WorkItem object. In terms of approvals, you rarely need the full User view and context variables. As a result, consider reducing the WorkItem size by specifying the ExposedVariables argument when defining a ManualAction.

The <Exposed Variables> element tells the workflow exactly which variables are necessary to capture in the WorkItem for subsequent processing. Remember that if a single workflow supports multiple approvers, Identity Manager will create multiple work items (one for each approver).