5.1 About Tasks

Oracle APEX creates tasks that are used to approve or reject items. If you have an appropriate role, you can interact with tasks by leaving comments, claiming, or completing the tasks.

Developers can set up applications to include tasks by using the Approvals Component functionality. The Approvals Component deals with all aspects of human approval in Oracle APEX.

As a user, you primarily interact with two areas in the Approvals Component:

1. Unified Task List - A summary of your tasks that functions like an inbox.
2. Task Details Page - A page that displays information specific to an individual task.

Tasks are created according to a task definition configured by the application developer. This ensures that each instance of a specific type of task (for example, an approval tasks for an employee's proposed job change) goes through the same approval process. The task definition specifies who is able to participate in specific types of tasks.

The actions you can take with tasks depend on the role you have as a task participant.

• About Task Participants
  Task Participants can take action on tasks. A participant can be a potential owners, actual owner, initiator, or business administrator.
• About Task Actions
  Task actions are any operations that you can do on a task instance, including claiming, approving, and rejecting.
• About Task Details
  The task details page displays information about a specific task instance.

5.1.1 About Task Participants

Task Participants can take action on tasks. A participant can be a potential owners, actual owner, initiator, or business administrator.

You must be named as a task participant to update or modify individual tasks. There are multiple roles involved with task participation. You can be a:

• Potential Owner - Can claim unassigned tasks, becoming the Actual Owner of those tasks. Tasks can have multiple potential owners.
• Actual Owner - Can make changes to assigned (claimed) tasks, including approving or rejecting the task.
• Task Initiator - Can update the priority of tasks that you initiated. Can also cancel tasks that you initiated (if configured).
• Business Administrator - Can manage tasks created by a specific task definition, including adding new potential owners (if configured).

The exact configuration of a task depends on the specific application, but every task definition specifies at least one potential owner and one business administrator.

As a potential or actual task owner, your responsibility is to claim tasks, and then approve or reject them.

As a business owner, your responsibility is to oversee tasks for a specific task definition, and delegate or reassign them as needed.

5.1.2 About Task Actions

Task actions are any operations that you can do on a task instance, including claiming, approving, and rejecting.

Depending on your role and the task state, you can perform various actions on tasks. Complete, Errored, or Canceled tasks cannot be updated.

Table 5-1 Task Actions by Role

Action	Initiator	Potential Owner	Actual Owner	Business Administrator
Claim	No	Yes, if task is Unassigned.	No	No
Complete (Approve/Reject)	No	Yes, either directly from the Unified Task List, or from the Task Details page by Claiming the task and then completing it.	Yes, either directly from the Unified Task List, or from the Task Details page.	No
Delegate	No	No	Yes	Yes
Release	No	No	Yes	No
Cancel (if enabled)	Yes	No	No	No
Add Potential Owner (if enabled)	No	No	No	Yes
Add Comment	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Set Priority	Yes	No	No	Yes

See Also:

About Task States and Transitions in Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide

5.1.3 About Task Details

The task details page displays information about a specific task instance.

The task details page displays information about a specific task instance. This information may be different than the information displayed on the Unified Task List, and is configured on an application by application basis.

For example, say you use the Sample Approvals App to put in a salary change request for Allen from 1600 to 1800. The My Requests Unified Task List displays "Salary Change for Allen from 1600 to 1800"and indicates the task is assigned to Jane, due six days from now. However, clicking on the task title to access the task details page provides more information about the task, including the priority of the task, the user who initiated the task, the percent change this salary request represents, a graph indicating Allen's salary changes over time, comments on the task, and the history of the task.