You can programmatically invoke human-centric long-lived
processes that were created in Workbench using these client applications:
The long-lived process that is invoked is named
FirstAppSolution/PreLoanProcess
. You
can create this process by following the tutorial specified in
Creating Your First LiveCycle Application
.
A human-centric process involves a task that a user can respond
to by using Workspace. For example, using Workbench, you can create
a process that lets a bank manager approve or deny a loan application.
The following illustration shows the process
FirstAppSolution/PreLoanProcess
.
The
FirstAppSolution/PreLoanProcess
process accepts an
input parameter named
formData
whose data type is XML. The
XML data is merged with a form design named
PreLoanForm.xdp
.
The following illustration shows a form that represents a task assigned
to a user to approve or deny a loan application. The user approves or
denies the application by using Workspace. The Workspace user can
approve the loan request by clicking the Approve button shown in
the following illustration. Likewise, the user can deny the loan
request by clicking the deny button.
A long-lived process is invoked asynchronously and cannot be
invoked synchronously due to the following factors:
-
A process can span a significant amount of time.
-
A process can span organizational boundaries.
-
A process needs external input in order for it to finish.
For example, consider a situation where a form is sent to a manager,
who is out of the office. In this situation, the process is not
complete until the manager returns and fills out the form.
When a long-lived process is invoked, LiveCycle creates an invocation
identifier value as part of creating a record. The record tracks
the status of the long-lived process and is stored in the LiveCycle
database. Using the invocation identifier value, you can track the
status of the long-lived process. In addition, you can use the process
invocation identifier value to perform Process Manager operations such
as terminating a running process instance. (See
Terminating Process Instances
.)
Note:
LiveCycle does not create an invocation identifier
value or a record when a short-lived process is invoked.
The
FirstAppSolution/PreLoanProcess
process
is invoked when an applicant submits an application, which is represented
as XML data. The name of the input process variable is
formData
and
its data type is XML. For the purposes of this discussion, assume
that the following XML data is used as input to the
FirstAppSolution/PreLoanProcess
process.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<LoanApp>
<Name>Sam White</Name>
<LoanAmount>250000</LoanAmount>
<PhoneOrEmail>(555)555-5555</PhoneOrEmail>
<ApprovalStatus>PENDING APPROVAL</ApprovalStatus>
</LoanApp>
XML data passed to a process must match the fields located in
the form used in the process. Otherwise, data is not displayed within
the form. All applications that invoke the
FirstAppSolution/PreLoanProcess
process
must pass this XML data source. The applications created in
Invoking Human-Centric Long-Lived Processes
dynamically
create the XML data source from values that a user entered into
a web client.
Using a client application, you can send the
FirstAppSolution/PreLoanProcess
process
the required XML data. A long-lived process returns an invocation identifier
value as its return value. The following illustration shows client
applications invoking the
FirstAppSolution/PreLoanProcess
long-lived
process. The client applications send XML data and get back a string
value that represents the invocation identifier value.
