How to use the Portal Client

The main difference between the Workflow Web Client and the Workflow Portal Client is that the Portal Client can show the users several different views of the Workflow data on a single portal page. If you have already used the Workflow Web Client, most of the Portlet Client views will already be familiar to you.

The following sections describe the functionality available in the List and Action portlets, and highlights the differences from the Web Client.

The List Portlet

The list portlet provides the users with control over which lists they view (process templates, process instances, work items and activity lists). They can perform actions on the objects displayed in a view, and can also specify which user ID is used to log onto the Workflow system.

Logon

The Portal Client uses the Portal Server's Credential Vault to associate a Workflow User ID and password with the user logged on to the Portal Server. This allows single sign-on behavior so that the credentails stored in the vault are used to log the user on to the Workflow system transparently, as soon as the users opens a portal page containing Workflow portlets. This mechanism allows a user to have different user IDs for the portal and for Workflow.

To enable the Portal Server to use the Credential Vault, the credentials have to be entered once. This is done the first time a user navigates to a page that uses Workflow portlets. In one of the available List Portlets a view similar to the Web Client's logon screen is shown. The user must enter a valid Workflow user ID and password.


After entering this information, it is stored in the credential vault and a new Workflow session is started. All future logons to Workflow are done automatically using the stored credentials. If a logon attempt should fail, it is assumed that the credentials are no longer valid, and the logon view is presented again to allow the user to enter new values.

Whereas the Web Client allows the user to log on to any Workflow system, the Portal Client only allows users to log on to the Workflow system that is specified in the PortalClient.properties file. After the user has been logged on successfully, the Workflow user ID and Workflow system (or system group) where the user is logged on is displayed in the List Portlets below the refresh and help buttons. In the following figure, the different user IDs for the Portal Server and for the Workflow system are highlighted.




Selecting a view

Like in the Web Client, a user can select which lists they view using the navigation drop-down list. This can always be seen in the upper-left corner of a list portlet. In the upper-right of a list portlet are buttons to refresh the portal view and to display help. The following figure shows the 'List of lists' view, which shows which list views are available.





Worklist View

The action buttons in the worklist view of the Portal Client provide the same functions as the worklist in the Web Client. The only difference, as with all action buttons in the Portal Client, is that once an action is triggered the list view is not replaced, but the appropriate view is generated in one of the free action portlets.




You can get more information about a work item, in the form of hover help, by placing the mouse pointer over the icons for description or instance name.


Process Instance List View

This view of process instances offers the same functionality as in the Web Client. You can start, suspend or terminate/delete process instances by clicking on the appropriate button. From the instance list you can also trigger the processes monitor being displayed in an Action Portlet.




A description for an instance can be displayed as hover help, by placing the mouse pointer over the description icon.


Process Template List View

The Portal Client's process template list view offers the same actions as in the Web Client. Process Instances can be created or created and started, and Process Templates may be deleted. In contrast to the Web Client, the description of a template is only shown in the hover help for the information symbol.




List View Error

If you click a button to trigger an action when no suitable Action Portlet is free, an error message is displayed, as shown in the following figure.




Note: It is only possible to trigger actions in instances of Action Portlets on the same portal page. Therefore it is mandatory to have at least one Action Portlet and one List Portlet available on each portal page that will offer Workflow facilities.

Action Portlet

The Action Portlets are used to perform the functions that were triggered in one of the List Portlets.

Free Action Portlet

When an Action Portlet is not being used, it is free for processing actions.

If the Action Portlet has been customized, it can only be used to display particular action types. This means that it is possible to get the "No free Action Portlet available..." message when there are free Action Portlets, but none of them are suitable for the command that was triggered by the user.

Completing a Work Item

If you have successfully started an action, you will see the necessary information displayed in a suitable Action Portlet. This allows you to work on a checked-out work item, and to enter data in the input fields for createAndStartInstance actions. An example is shown in the next figure.

When you complete the action in an Action Portlet, it becomes free again.

Customizing an Action Portlet

You can determine which types of actions can be displayed in an Action Portlet by clicking on the edit button in the upper right corner of the portlet. As shown in the following figure, by setting or clearing the check boxes you can restrict which commands can be handled by that particular instance.

By making a particular Action Portlet the only one that is enabled for a particular command, you can force this action to always be displayed in the same portlet. If more than one free Action Portlet is suitable for a particular command, it is not possible to specify which Portlet will be used first.



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