Record process instances as they execute at run time and
then play them back to observe the behavior of the process:
Recording and playing back is useful for testing process versions
in the development environment before performing formal testing
in a staging environment.
Note: If your process includes no operations or includes
only an event start point, you need to add the Decision Point operation
to the process diagram so that process Input variable values are
recorded.
Process recordings are saved on the LiveCycle Server so that
they are available to other developers running other installations
of Workbench.
Before testing process versions by recording and playing them
back, you should validate them. (See Validation reports.)
The following procedure describes the tasks that you perform
to record process executions and play them back:
Enable recording for the process version. (See Enabling and disabling recording.)
Record and playback a process when invoking a process. (See Invoking processes directly.)
Invoke the process version. (See Invoking process versions.)
Play back the recorded process instance. (See Playing back process recordings.)
Delete recorded process instances that you no longer need.
(See Deleting recordings.)
Disable recording for the process version. (See Enabling and disabling recording.)
Note: In case an endless loop is executing in a process
instance, for each process instance a maximum of 250 operation executions
can be recorded. This limitation preserves server resources in the
event of an endless loop.
Enabling and disabling recordingEnable recording
for a process version to record the execution history of the process
version. While recording is enabled, a new recording is saved each
time the process version is invoked. Disable recording when you
no longer want to record process executions.
Note: Recording uses resources on the LiveCycle Server,
and reduces performance. You should record only in development environments.
When recording is enabled for a process version, the icon for
the process version in the Processes view includes the image of
a red recording button in the upper-right corner .
When you create recordings for a process version and then make
changes to the process version, the recordings are still available
for playback.
To enable recording, the process version must be activated.
Keep in mind that you can also enable record process executions
when invoking a process. (See Invoking processes directly.)
To enable or disable recording for a process version: In the Applications view, right-click the process version
and click Record And Playback > Start Recording or Record And
Playback > Stop Recording. If a process version has recording
enabled, recording is automatically stopped if the process is deactivated.
If the process version is open, you can right-click
an unused area of the process diagram to access the commands.
Invoking process versionsWhen recording is enabled for
a process version and you invoke the process version, the execution
of the resulting process instance is recorded. You can invoke process
versions directly by using Workbench or using the endpoints that are
configured for the process service:
Invoking processes directlyYou can invoke process
versions from within Workbench for testing purposes. Invoking directly
is useful for focusing only on the process version functionality.
After focusing on the process version, you should perform tests
that mimic usage scenarios that are expected in the production environment.
(See Testing using realistic scenarios.)
When you invoke process versions directly, specify values for
input variables. The results of the process execution appear in
a dialog box. The information that the dialog box provides depends
on whether the process version is long-lived or short-lived:
- Long-lived:
- The dialog box indicates the identification of the process
instance. (See also Short-lived processes and long-lived processes.)
- Short-lived:
- The dialog box indicates the values of the output variables
for the process instance.
If you invoke a process version
multiple times, you can either use the same values for input variables
or specify different values.
Keep in mind that you can optionally
record process executions and play them back when invoking a process.
To invoke a process version directly:In the Applications
view, right-click the process version and select Invoke Process.
Specify values for the input variables of the process version.
Required values are denoted with an asterisk (*):
If you previously invoked the process version directly, the
input variables are automatically configured with the previously-used
values.
To change all existing values, click Reset to remove the
values and then specify new values.
(Optional) To record process executions, do one of the following:
Short-lived process: To record process executions and play
them back, select Enable and Playback Recording.
Long-lived process: To record process executions, select
Enable Recording.
Click OK.
If the process
version is open, you can right-click an unused area of the process diagram
to access the Invoke Process command.
Invoking processes using endpointsInvoke
process versions to execute them and create process instances. You
can invoke process versions by using various tools that LiveCycle
provides:
LiveCycle programming APIs and EJB, SOAP, and remoting
end points.
Watched Folder or Email endpoints.
Workspace and TaskManager endpoints. (For information about
processes that integrate with Workspace, see Designing human-centric processes.)
After you activate a process version, EJB, SOAP, and Remoting
endpoints are automatically created for the process version’s service.
You must manually create Watched Folder, Email, and Task Manager
endpoints by using Applications and Services.
For more information about creating endpoints, see “Managing
Endpoints” in Applications and Services Administration
Help.
Playing back process recordingsPlay back
recorded process instances to observe the behavior that occurred
at run time. When you play a recording, the associated process version
is opened in playback mode:
As you play the recording, you can see the value that process
variables contain after each operation was executed. This information
is valuable for troubleshooting unexpected behavior.
Opening recordings in playback modeOpen recordings in
playback mode so that you can see the routes that were followed
at run time and to play the recording.
Note: You cannot edit process maps when they are open
in playback mode.
To open a recording in playback mode, you select the recording
from a list of existing recordings. The list provides the following
information so that you can identify the recording that you are
interested in:
- Process Instance ID:
- The unique identification of the process instance that was recorded.
- Recording Started:
- The date and time when the recorded process instance was
invoked.
- Process Version:
- The number of the process version, and the date and time when
the revision was saved.
Recordings are associated with the
revision of the process version that they are made with. When you
open a recording that was created with a prior revision of a process
version, the process diagram appears as it did for that revision.
For
example, after you create a recording for a process version, you
add an operation to the process map and save the changes. The recording
that you created is associated with the previous revision of the
process version. When you open the process recording in playback
mode, the process diagram appears without the operation that you
saved in the latest revision.
You need to be assigned
the Process Administrator role or have the Process Recording Read/Delete
permission to play and delete recordings. Contact your LiveCycle
administrator, or use Administration Console to set these permissions.
To open a recording in playback mode:In the Applications
view, right-click the process version to play a recording for and
select Record And Playback > Play Process Recording.
Select the recording to play and then click OK.
If the process version is open, you can right-click
an unused area of the process diagram to access the Record And Playback
commands.
Playing recordingsPlay recorded process instances
to observe process behavior at run time. When playing, you can see
variable values at each operation, and information about any errors
that have occurred. (See Interpreting recordings.)
When playing recordings, the progress line indicates the current
state of the process instance during execution:
Ticks on the progress line represent the operations that
executed at run time.
The direction of progress is from left to right. The first
tick on the progress line represents the process before it is executed.
The slider on the progress line indicates the current state
of progression. The tick where the slider is positioned represents
the last operation that completed executing. This operation is also
highlighted on the process diagram.
For example, a progress line that includes five ticks indicates
that four operations executed at run time. If the slider is located
at the third tick during playback, the second of the four operations
has completed executing.
You can either play the entire recording or manually step through
the recording. Manually stepping through the recording allows more
time for observing variable values at each operation.
To play the entire recording:Click the play button .
While
playing, the pause button appears instead of the play button.
To pause playback at a tick, click the pause button .
To manually step through the recording:To advance
to the next tick, click the step forward button or
click the next tick on the progress line.
To move to the previous tick, click the step backward button or
click the previous tick on the progress line.
Interpreting recordingsVisual indicators on the process diagram provide information
about the results of the process execution:
Routes that were followed during execution are highlighted
in green. Routes that were not followed are blue.
As you play or manually step through the recording, the last
operation that completed executing is highlighted. The color of
the operation indicates the success of its execution:
Red indicates that an error occurred during execution.
Use the Variables view to see the run-time values of variables:
The values correspond with the current state of execution
during playback.
Variables whose values changed are highlighted in green.
Variables are highlighted only at the steps that cause a change
to occur.
Values of simple data types appear on the view. Values of
complex data types are displayed in a separate dialog box.
If a variable value is a document, you can open the document
in the application that it is associated with. For example, if your
operating system associates XML files with a web browser, then XML
files open in the web browser.
If a variable is used to store form data and the form location,
you can open the form and see the form data.
The Variables view also shows information about any errors that
occurred during execution. Errors in the view are highlighted in
red. The columns contain the following information:
- Name:
- Contains Error.
- Type:
- The type of error and the error message.
- Value:
- An ellipsis button that opens an Error dialog box that shows
the error message and stack trace. Use this information to determine
the cause of the error.
If no errors occurred during execution,
no Error row appears in the Variables view.
To see variable values during playback: When the
recording is playing, see the value in the Value column of the Variables
view. For complex data types, documents, lists, and maps, click
the ellipsis button to see the data or open the document . Right-click a variable and select Copy to copy
the value of the variable. You can paste the value in an email message
for communicating with other developers.
To see details about errors:In the Error row on
the Variables view, click the ellipsis button in the Value column .
Click Details to see the stack trace.
Deleting recordingsYou can delete
recordings at any time when you no longer need them.
You need to be assigned the Process Administrator role or have
the Process Recording Read/Delete permission to delete recordings.
Contact your LiveCycle administrator, or use Administration Console
to set these permissions.
To delete a recording:In the Applications view,
right-click the process version for which you want to play a recording
and select Record And Playback > Delete Process Recordings.
Specify the recordings to delete:
To delete
all recordings, select Delete All Recordings.
To delete one or several recordings, select Delete The Recordings
Selected Below, and select the recordings to delete.
Click OK.
Customizing record and playback behaviorSeveral preferences
can be configured that control some of the behavior of the record
and playback features. The following table describes the preferences
that you can configure.
Preference
|
Default value
|
Description
|
-Dcom.adobe.workbench.recordings.remove_on_save
|
false
|
Controls whether recordings for a process
version are removed when the process version is saved.
A
value of true keeps recordings that are associated
with prior revisions of process versions.
|
-Dcom.adobe.workbench.recordings.remove_on_delete
|
true
|
Controls whether recordings for a process
version are removed when the process version is deleted.
A
value of true removes all recordings for a process
version when it is deleted.
|
-Dcom.adobe.workbench.playback.max_recordings_to_display
|
100
|
The maximum number of recordings that are
listed when selecting recordings to delete or play.
|
-Dcom.adobe.workbench.playback.animation.milliseconds_to_delay
|
2000
|
The amount of time, in milliseconds, that
the slider pauses at a tick on the progress line when playing recordings.
|
-Dcom.adobe.workbench.unsupported.audit.maxNumberOfStepsToLoad
|
250
|
The maximum number of steps for each recording
that can play back.
|
To configure preferences, modify the workbench.ini file. Each
line in the file contains a preference setting in the following
format:
preference_name = value
For example, the following preference setting specifies that
recordings for prior revisions of process versions are saved:
-Dcom.adobe.workbench.recordings.remove_on_save=false
The workbench.ini file is located in the [install directory]/Adobe
LiveCycle Workbench 11/Workbench directory, where [install directory] is
the location where you installed Workbench.
Note: If the -Dcom.adobe.workbench.recordings.remove_on_delete
preference is set to true, but you remove a process
version by deleting the process archive in the Administration Console,
the recordings for that process are not removed. To remove the recordings,
stop and start the Audit Workflow DSC component. (See Stopping components and servicesand Starting components and services.) This action will remove all the
recordings you created.
To customize record and playback behavior:Open the
workbench.ini file in a text editor.
Modify the values of preferences as required.
Save workbench.ini and restart Workbench.
Limiting storage space used for recordingsTo conserve space on the LiveCycle Server’s file system,
you can limit the amount of process recording data that is stored.
You can configure the following properties of the AuditWorkflowService
service:
- maxNumberOfRecordingInstances:
- The maximum number of recordings that are stored. When the
maximum number is stored, the oldest recording is removed from the
file system when a new recording is created. This property is useful
if you tend to create many recordings and you want to remove old recordings
automatically.
- maxNumberOfRecordingEntries:
- The maximum number of data entries that can be stored for
each recording. Data entries are information about operations in
the process. Several entries are stored for each execution of an
operation, such as whether the operation started, whether the operation
completed, and whether the route that leads to the operation is
complete. This property is useful when processes can include many
operation executions, for example, when an endless loop is encountered.
The
AuditWorkflowDSC component provides the AuditWorkflowService service. Use
the Components view to configure the service properties. (See Editing service configurations.)
Processes can also be designed to
minimize the storage space used for recordings:
Use
counters in loops to limit the number of loops that are executed.
(See Loops.)
Segment your processes using subprocesses and enable recording
only for the subprocesses that you are testing. (See Process designs for reuse.)
Configuring server memory for large recordingsPlaying recordings of processes that include many variables
or many operations can require the use of large amounts of memory
on the LiveCycle Server. When the LiveCycle Server becomes destabilized
when you try to play a process recording, the Java Virtual Machine
(JVM) that hosts the application server can require more memory
than it is allocated. Also, you may need to restart the computer
that hosts the server to establish stability.
To increase the memory that is allocated to the JVM, configure
the -Xmx option of the JVM that runs the application server. For
example, if the current option is -Xmx1024m, change
the option to -Xmx1280m to increase the maximum amount
of allocated memory by 256 MB.
The following table lists links to LiveCycle documentation that
provide information about how to configure JVM options on your application
server.
|
|
|