Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide > Adding Workflow Process Steps > Adding Steps and Connectors >

Adding a Wait Step

The wait step is a type of workflow process step that pauses a workflow process for a specific amount of time or until an event occurs. You can pause a workflow process instance for seconds, minutes, hours, or days.

If a workflow process includes a wait step, then it is persistent, by default.

You can use the wait step for testing and development. Unlike the Siebel operation step, you can use the wait step without affecting business component data. For an example, see Defining a Run-Time Event in a Many-to-One Relationship.

To add a wait step

1. Make sure the Workflow Mode property of the workflow process is set to Interactive Flow.

   For more information, see Setting the Workflow Mode Property.

2. Add a wait step to a workflow process.

   For more information, see Adding a Step to a Workflow Process.

3. Make sure the wait step is chosen in the Process Designer.
4. In the MVPW, define input arguments and output arguments for the wait step.

   For more information, see Using Process Properties.

   If you define a duration argument that is greater than 60 seconds, then you can use minutes or a larger unit of measure so that Siebel CRM refreshes business component data. If you use minutes or higher, then Siebel CRM resumes the workflow process from the Workflow Process Manager. If you use any duration other than seconds, then Siebel CRM considers the workflow process as persistent.

Resuming a 7.0 Workflow Process

If you set the Workflow Mode property of a workflow process to 7.0 Flow, then you can set the SleepMode input argument to one of the following values to determine how the wait step resumes the workflow process:

• Local. Siebel CRM resumes the workflow process in the session that started this workflow process.
• Remote. The Workflow Process Manager server component on the Siebel Server resumes the workflow process. Siebel CRM runs a component request for the Workflow Process Manager according to the time that the Duration input argument of the wait step specifies.

If you set the Workflow Mode property of a workflow process to something other than 7.0 Flow, then Siebel CRM ignores the SleepMode input argument. For more information, see Setting the Workflow Mode Property.

Setting the Processing Mode Property of a Wait Step

If you configure Siebel CRM to use SetFieldValue to start a workflow process, then it is recommended that you set the Processing Mode property to Local Synchronous. SetFieldValue can occur without committing data. Setting the Processing Mode to Remote Synchronous or Remote Asynchronous when using SetFieldValue might result in a workflow process that runs out of process, which means that Siebel CRM runs in a completely different thread and probably at a different time. In this situation, the workflow process cannot access data that Siebel CRM has not committed. It cannot access all the current runtime data. For more information, see Server Requests Business Service.