Over the last few years, we have been working hard to bring together what was originally two separate products into a powerful workflow offering that can help you automate a wide spectrum of use cases, ranging from straight through processing, to user centric processes, to case management which can encompass them all.
With the release of Business Automation Workflow 24.0.1.0, we added another key piece to that puzzle with the ability to add task list layouts to your case projects that are based on client-side human services (CSHS); the UI framework common to all areas of the product.
I have talked in the past about being able to use CSHS for your case pages such as Add Case and Case Details, as well as the case list page we added last year.
The task list layout joins the case list as another default solution layout you can add as one of the tabs that is always visible to the case roles you assign it to. Let's look at the steps needed to add it to your case project.
In Case Builder, start by heading over to the Layouts tab. This is where you will find the list of your solution layouts that you can assign to the roles in your project.
Click the Add Layout button and give your new page a name like "Tasks". From the templates dropdown menu, select Tasks as the CSHS you want to start from. A copy of the default task list CSHS will be added to your project and you now have the ability to customize it as you want.
Now that the new Tasks CSHS is part of your project, you need to associate with one or more case roles so that it appears as one of the static layouts that is always visible in the tabs displayed at the top of the client application. To add the new layout to a role, you can click the link in the Associated Roles column to quickly navigate to the case roles configuration.
Click on the role you want to expand it and show its configuration. Select the Solution Layouts tab and use the Assign Layout button to add your new Tasks page. Notice that the default Tasks layout is also available in the menu, but by creating your own copy like we did, you are able to customize it.
Deploy your changes and click the play button to see your new page in action.
If you are familiar with the BAW Workplace application where users have unscoped access to all their process tasks, the new task list will look familiar to you. The task list UI view is actually a common component shared from the Workplace Toolkit. When you start from the default Tasks layout, the list is configured to be scoped to only the tasks that originated from the solution.
The list is also configured with two default saved searches that are always available and can't be changed or deleted by the end user. The user can click the filter icon at the top right of the list to apply a search or create their own.
The first default search will be applied when the solution is launched and will show the user any tasks assigned to the role/process team they are currently in. The second search shows the tasks assigned directly to the user or ones they have claimed but not yet completed.
From this window, end users can also create and save their own searches and choose what data to display in the task list columns.
Let's look at custom page itself. Using the Process Designer, you will see your CSHS listed in the User Interface section.
The default CSHS flow is pretty straightforward.
The CSHS input variables contain the information the task list UI view needs to display the correct tasks.
The default searches we talked about above are preconfigured using the On Load event handler. The event handler JavaScript code includes these searches and can be customized to do things like reorder them or add your own.
You can also customize the page itself with whatever UI views you want. For example, for users in a certain role, you might add the Manage Roles button and configure it using the input variables we mentioned before.
One important thing to consider when using this new CSHS layout is that it only supports BAW process tasks and does not display tasks from the classic FileNet processes. If your solution still includes those, you will need to continue using the classic Tasks page for roles that need to see them.