5.1 About Tasks

You can use tasks to approve or reject items. Depending on your role, you may be able to interact with tasks by leaving comments, submitting additional information, or updating due dates.

Developers can use the Approvals Component to add tasks to applications. The Approvals Component deals with all aspects of human approval in Oracle APEX.

As a user, you usually 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 Due Dates
  Developers can specify the due date for tasks. If a task has a due date, it may expire after that due date. Expired tasks may renew automatically.
• About Task Participants
  Task Participants can take action on tasks. A participant can be an initiator, owner, or business administrator.
• About Task Actions
  Task actions are any operations that you can do on a task instance, including editing the task details, approving or rejecting the task. or leaving a comment on the task.
• About Task Details
  The task details page displays information about a specific task instance.

5.1.1 About Task Due Dates

Developers can specify the due date for tasks. If a task has a due date, it may expire after that due date. Expired tasks may renew automatically.

Developers can configure tasks to have Due Dates. If the actual owner for the task does not complete the task before the due date, the task may:

1. Stay in the owner's task list. The task is Overdue, and the owner can approve or reject the task at any time.
2. Expire. The task is Expired and is no longer visible in the initiator's task list or the owner's task list. The business administrator can see expired tasks by selecting Show expired tasks, and can renew the task.
3. Renew. The original task is Expired, and APEX automatically creates a new task with a new due date. After the task is automatically renewed a certain number of times, the task expires and does not renew automatically.

The business administrator can renew tasks that have expired or tasks that have already reached their maximum number of renewals. See Renewing a Task for more details.

5.1.2 About Task Participants

Task Participants can take action on tasks. A participant can be an initiator, owner, or business administrator.

You must a task participant to update or modify individual tasks. There are multiple participant roles:

• As a Task Initiator, you can cancel your tasks, or update your task's priority. The actual owner of the task may ask you to provide more information about the task.
• As a Potential Owner, you can claim unassigned tasks to become the Actual Owner of those tasks. Tasks can have multiple potential owners. You cannot claim tasks that you initiated.
• As an Actual Owner, you can make changes to tasks you own, including requesting more information about the task from the initiator, delegating the task, approving the task, or rejecting the task. You cannot act as an owner on tasks you initiated. You cannot approve or reject tasks you initiated.
• As a Business Administrator, you can manage tasks for a specific task definition by updating the task's priority, changing the task due date, adding new potential owners, or renewing expired tasks. Any changes you make only impact the individual task. You cannot modify the underlying task definition.

Each task has at least one potential owner and one business administrator.

5.1.3 About Task Actions

Task actions are any operations that you can do on a task instance, including editing the task details, approving or rejecting the task. or leaving a comment on the task.

You can perform various actions on tasks. The actions you can do depend on your role and the task state. For example, you can't update tasks that are already completed, errored, or canceled. You also cannot approve or reject tasks that you initiated.

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	Yes	No	No	No
Add Potential Owner	No	No	No	Yes
Add Comment	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Set Priority	Yes	No	No	Yes
Request Information	No	No	Yes	No
Submit Information	Yes	No	No	No
Update Due Date	No	No	No	Yes
Renew	No	No	No	Yes, if the task is expired. Tasks can be manually renewed as many times as needed.

See Also:

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

5.1.4 About Task Details

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

The task details page shows information about a specific task instance. This information is more detailed than the information shown on the Unified Task List.

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 task priority, the user who initiated the task, the percentage change this request represents, a graph indicating Allen's salary changes over time, comments on the task, and the history of the task.