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Siebel Business Process Designer Administration Guide > For Developers: Understanding How Workflow Processes Are Designed > Invoking Workflow Processes >

Invoking a Workflow Process from a Run-Time Event

Workflow Processes integrates with the Run-time Events engine to provide a simplified event mechanism for automating business processes. This mechanism:

  • Allows real-time monitoring of events
  • Minimizes the need for scripting and workflow policy invocation

The following types of events are possible:

  • Application
  • Business Component
  • Applet

NOTE:  For more information about run-time events, see Siebel Personalization Administration Guide.

In order to use a run-time event to invoke a workflow process, you use Siebel Tools to configure buttons on applets.

To create a button that invokes a workflow process

  1. From Siebel Tools, configure a button on an applet and specify the MethodInvoked property. For more information, see Using Siebel Tools.
  2. To enable the button, override the PreCanInvokeMethod property. Next, edit the server script and compile your changes to the Siebel repository file. The following example is specific to Siebel VB:

    Function WebApplet_PreCanInvokeMethod (MethodName As String, CanInvoke As String) As Integer

    If MethodName = "<Name>" Then

    CanInvoke = "True"

    WebApplet_PreCanInvokeMethod = CancelOperation

    Else

       WebApplet_PreCanInvokeMethod = ContinueOperation

    End If

    End Function

  3. Define a workflow process. To invoke this workflow process from a button click, specify a run-time event in one of the following ways:
    • To start this workflow process, specify the run-time event on the Start step on a Condition branch.
    • To resume this workflow process (if it has been paused) from a button click, specify the run-time event in a User Interact step or a Wait step on a Condition branch.

      The fields values are described in Table 15.

Table 15.  Run-time Event Field Values
Field
Value

Event Object Type

BusComp

Event

PreInvokeMethod

Event Object

Name of the business component on which the applet that contains the button is based.

Sub Event

Name of the method set in step one. The Sub Event name must be unique.

Event Cancel Flag

True. If this flag is not checked, the error "The specialized method <Method Name> is not supported on this business component" will result when running the workflow process.

NOTE:  If users click the button when there are no workflow process instances waiting, they will receive the error message "Cannot resume process <Process ID> for object <Object ID>". You can prevent this error by requiring users to run a workflow process in order to access this view. For example, you can set up a workflow that includes the User Interact step. You can handle the error by defining an Error Exception branch or error process.

  1. After you create the workflow process, activate the process and reload personalization. To reload personalization:
    1. From the application-level menu, choose Navigate > Site Map > Administration - Runtime Events > Events.
    2. From the applet menu, select Reload Runtime Events.

      You must reload personalization after activating a workflow process that registers any run-time events in order for the process to take effect.

    
Siebel Business Process Designer Administration Guide