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## 20.14 About Tasks

Use tasks to create items for users to approve or action.

Human Tasks in APEX are items that need to be actioned by people, rather than activities performed by a script or automation. There are two types of tasks available:

- Approval Tasks, for tasks that can be approved or rejected. The user who owns the task evaluates the information in the task, and then either Approves or Rejects the task. A task that asks a manager to approve or deny a laptop request for an employee is an approval task.
- Action Tasks, for tasks that need to be actioned. The user who owns the task performs the action requested in the task, and then Completes the task. A task that asks an employee to fill in a self-evaluation is an action task.

Because the task component contains a data model, when you configure tasks, you focus on the details and customization for a specific type of task. You can set up task owners and administrators at design time or determine them dynamically at runtime based on data related to the task.

APEX provides the following building blocks for tasks:

- Task Definition - A shared component used to configure task parameters, participants, actions, and due dates.
- Unified Task List - A page type in the Create Page Wizard, used to create a summary of tasks that functions like an inbox.
- Task Details Page - A page that shows details for a specific task, which can include metadata, history, comments, and actions.
- Human Task - Create and Human Task - Manage - Page processes that create and act on task instances in your pages.
- the `APEX_HUMAN_TASK` API package - Used for creating, retrieving, and managing tasks programmatically.

By customizing these building blocks, you can create custom tasks specific to your application or shared across many applications. Once you create the task definition, unified task list, and task details page, you add the task definition to a page as a Human Task - Create page process. When the process activates, the task engine creates the task from the task definition.

Users can view and take action on their tasks in the unified task list. Based on the user action, the task state changes. For more on task states, see About Task States and Transitions.

Tip:

By default, approval tasks do not allow the user who initiated the task to complete the task. However, you can change this behavior in the task definition settings.

- About Task States and Transitions
  Learn about the task lifecycle in the Oracle APEX approval component.
- Example: Approval Tasks and Action Tasks
  View the approvals component and action tasks functionality in the Sample Workflows, Approvals, and Tasks app.

Parent topic: Managing Workflows and Tasks