20.14.1.1 About Task Definitions

Task definitions include task type, parameters, participants, parameters, and actions.

Task Definitions

Task Definitions contain information about tasks including deadlines, expiry settings, and notification settings. Task definitions exist on the application level in the Shared Components section, and are made up of task settings, participants, parameters, and actions:

• Task Type - Defines whether the task is an approval task or an action task.
• Settings - The general configuration options for the task, including the default priority for tasks, the task detail page URL, and the task deadline settings.
• Task Definition Participants - Users that have permission to act on individual tasks. Participants can be:
  • Task Initiators, who can start new tasks or provide more information about existing tasks.
  • Potential Owners, who can claim unassigned tasks. Tasks can have multiple potential owners.
  • Actual Owners, who can make changes to their assigned tasks, including requesting more information about the task, approving, rejecting, or completing the task, and updating the parameters of the task.
  • Business Administrators, who can renew expired tasks, reassign tasks to new owners, remove existing potential owners, cancel tasks, or update the task priority.

  Note:

  You can define a vacation rule procedure that determines how to handle vacation rules for participants.
• Task Definition Parameters - Attributes for a task that contain information about the task. These parameters can be visible on the task details page, and you can configure whether or not a parameter is editable after the task is initiated.
• Task Definition Actions - Possible events that can happen when specific criteria are met. Available actions are:
  • Claim
  • Complete
  • Delegate
  • Update Comment
  • Update Priority
  • Update Parameter
  • Release
  • Cancel
  • Create
  • Request Information
  • Submit Information
  • Before Expire
  • Expire

You can update a Task Definition any time. Updates do not change existing tasks, but are applicable to new tasks.

Vacation Rules

A vacation rule is a PL/SQL procedure that returns additional alternate participants. You can define a vacation rule at the task definition level or the application definition level. If you define a vacation rule at the application level, it applies to all task definitions in the application.

Tip:

A vacation rule defined at the task definition level overrides a vacation rule defined at the application level.

APEX evaluates vacation rules at runtime:

• On task instance creation: APEX executes the vacation rule to see if alternate participants are returned by the procedure for any participants of the task. If so, APEX adds the alternate participants to the list of existing task participants.
• On task instance delegation: APEX checks whether a vacation rule exists for the task. If so, APEX delegates the task to the first alternate participant returned by the procedure.