Work on Processes

You can work on a process from the process instance details window.

In the Tracking page, click a process to open its process instance details window. You can do the following from the process instance details window:

• View Process Details
• Work with Activities
• View Process Audit
• Post and View Comments
• Upload and View Documents
• View Process Data
• View Process Information
• End Dynamic Processes and Activities

View Process Details

You can view details about your process in the process instance details window.

To view process details:

1. From the process list in the Tracking page, click the process whose details you want to view.
2. In the resulting process instance details window, the title bar displays the process name and the application name to which the process belongs. You can click the Close button to exit and return back to the Tracking page.
3. You can view the process state and the date of creation.
4. If required, you can change the state of the process. Click Actions on the top right to display the process state transition options. The options available in the list depends on the present state of the process and the process itself. For example, an In Progress structured process can have the options - Terminate and Suspend, whereas an In Progress dynamic process can have the options - Terminate, Suspend, and Complete.
   See About Process States.
5. If there are milestones and stages defined for a dynamic process, expand Milestones and Stages to view details about them.

   The progress bar at the top shows the status of the dynamic process instance.

   • Click a milestone in the status bar to view details about the milestone.

     
     Description of the illustration milestone-details.png

   • View details about stages. You can view the number of available, active, and completed stages.

     
     Description of the illustration stage-details.png

Work with Activities

You can work on task activities associated with the process from the process instance details window.

To work on an activity:

1. For a structured process, expand Actionable Activities. The activities that you can take actions on are listed under it.
   1. Click Open on the activity to display and open the form associated with the activity.
   2. Edit and fill required information in the form.
   3. If you want to save the form and submit it later, click Save.
   4. To submit the form, click Submit. If it is an approval form, click Approve or Reject.

      Note:

      When you submit the form, any validation issues are displayed at the top. You can expand the banner to see the list of errors. Click an error to navigate to the corresponding control where the error occurs.
   5. Click Cancel to exit the form and return back to the process instance details window.
2. For a dynamic process, expand Activities. All open, running, and completed activities are listed under it.
   1. Click the Actions icon (three dots) on a completed activity to open and view the form associated with the activity.
   2. Click the Actions icon (three dots) on a running activity to open the form associated with the activity and perform certain actions. For example, you can terminate or suspend a service task activity. Click the Actions button on the form and select an option from the drop-down list.
   3. Click the Actions icon (three dots) on an available human task activity to open the form associated with the activity. You can perform actions such as the following on the form.
      1. View the form.
      2. Edit and fill required information in the form.
      3. If you want to save the form and submit it later, click Save.

      4. Submit or approve/reject the form

         Note:

         When you submit the form, any validation issues are displayed at the top. You can expand the banner to see the list of errors. Click an error to navigate to the corresponding control where the error occurs.
      5. Click Cancel to exit the form and return back to the process instance details window.
   4. You can search for an activity by clicking the Search icon and entering the name of the activity in the search field.
   5. Use the Filter by Stage drop-down list to filter activities by a stage.
   6. Click Filter/Sort to choose which activities to display (Activated, Running, or Completed) and to sort the activities by stage or status.

Note that non-actionable activities such as service tasks and milestones are displayed under Audit. See View Process Audit.

View Process Audit

You can view the audit details of the process instance from the process instance details window.

To view the audit details:

1. Expand Audit.

   A list of actionable activities such as human tasks and non-actionable activities such as stages, milestones, and service tasks are displayed.

   
   Description of the illustration audit.png

2. To search for an activity, click the Search icon and enter the activity name in the search field . You can also sort the list of activities in ascending or descending order by activity name, completed date, or duration.
3. Click Open next to an activity to open the activity details window.
4. Expand History to view the audit details of the activity.
   
   Description of the illustration audit-activity-history.png

Post and View Comments

You can post and view comments for the process instance under Comments in the process instance details window.

To post a comment:

1. Expand Comments.
2. Enter the comment in the field provided to write the comment. Note that it has a limitation of maximum 2000 characters.
3. Click Post.
   The comment added is displayed below the comment field.

Upload and View Documents

You can upload documents and view uploaded documents related to your process in the process instance details window.

To upload a document:

1. Expand Documents.
2. In the Drag and Drop field, click Add. In the resulting pane, select a file from your local system.
   Optionally, select a file in your local system, and then drag and drop it into the field.

The file uploads and is displayed below the Drag and Drop field. To delete the file, click Delete next to the file.

View Process Data

You can view data for a dynamic process under Data in the process instance details window.

Expand Data. All data objects configured for the process are listed under it. Click the data object to view its payload data.

For example, the image below shows the payload data for formArg.

Description of the illustration dp-data.png

View Process Information

You can view detail information about a process under More Information in the process instance details window.

Click More Information to see details such as the status of the process instance, the instance Id, the application it belongs to, and the date and time it was created.

Description of the illustration more-info.png

End Dynamic Processes and Activities

Occasionally, you may need to end a dynamic process and all its associated activities and linked processes.

To end a dynamic process in runtime

Note that only users with Manage permission can terminate a dynamic process and its activities. See Users, Groups, External Applications and Permissions.

1. From the process list in the Tracking page, click the dynamic process that you want to end.
2. In the resulting dynamic process instance details window, click Actions to display the available dynamic process state transition options.

3. Click Terminate.

   Note that terminating the dynamic process will:

   • Terminate the dynamic process instance
   • Terminate the process execution
   • Terminate the human task activities

4. In the Terminate dialog that displays:

   • In the Comment field, enter a reason for ending the dynamic process.

   • If you want to end child processes (structured process activities) linked to the dynamic process, ensure to select the Terminate associated child processes check box.

     
     Description of the illustration terminate-dp.png

     You can also end child processes linked to a dynamic process with REST APIs by setting the terminateChildInstances property flag to true. See Perform an Action on Process Instance in REST API for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Process Automation.

5. Click Terminate.

To end a dynamic process activity in runtime

1. From the process list in the Tracking page, click the dynamic process whose activity you want to end.
2. In the resulting dynamic process instance details window, expand Activities.
3. Click Actions for the activity that you want to end, and then choose Terminate.

   
   Description of the illustration terminate-dp-activity.png

   A dialog prompting you to confirm the termination appears.

4. In the Confirm dialog, click OK.

   If you want to end child processes linked to the activity, ensure to select the Terminate associated child processes check box, before confirming the termination.

Alter the Flow of a Process

You can alter the flow of a running or suspended process instance by moving its execution from the current activity to another activity in the flow. Additionally if an activity in a process instance is failing due to errors in the value of the data objects and instance attributes, then you can modify them and retry running the current activity again.

Note the following:

• You can alter the flow of only structured processes.
• You must have Manage permission for a process application to alter the flow of a process instance.
• You cannot alter the flow of a terminated or completed process.

To alter the flow of a process instance:

1. From the Workspace navigation menu, click Tracking to open the Tracking page.
2. In the Tracking page, click the process instance for which you want to alter the flow.
3. In the process details window, click the Actions drop-down field and choose Alter Flow.

   
   Description of the illustration alter-flow-1.png

   The process instance is suspended and the Alter Flow window of the process instance opens.

4. In the Reason field, enter a suitable description for altering the flow of the process.
5. Move the process execution from a current activity to another activity in the process flow.

   For example, you have a process instance with User Task 1, User Task 2, and User Task 3. The normal flow of the process will be that once User Task 1 completes, the process moves to User Task 2 and then to User Task 3. But for some specific reason you want to skip User Task 2, and want the process to move directly to User Task 3 from User Task 1. You can do so by using the Alter Flow action to move the process execution from the current activity (User Task 2) to the new activity (User Task 3) in the process flow.

   1. Note that by default the current activity of the process instance is displayed in the Current activities drop-down field.
   2. In the New activities drop-down field, choose the activity to which you want to move the process execution from the current activity. It is possible to move either forward or backward in the process flow depending on your requirement. So you can choose an activity that is either before or after the current activity in the process flow.

      
      Description of the illustration alter-flow-2.png

6. Modify the data attributes of an activity.
   Sometimes a process instance may go into faulted state due to some wrong data attribute being passed into a data object for an activity. In this case, using the Alter Flow action in runtime you can rectify the data attribute error and restart the activity by resuming the process.
   1. Click Change data.
   2. In the resulting window, you can see the data objects associated with the process instance.
   3. Click the data object which has an error and update its attributes to rectify the error.

      
      Description of the illustration alter-flow-3.png

7. Click Resume to restart the process instance with the changes.
   You get a confirmation that the Alter Flow action was successful.

You can also alter the flow of a process instance by using REST APIs. See Alter Flow REST API Endpoints.