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About operations

To provide custom processing in a workflow, a software developer can create applications that are used to complete specific steps. These applications can be step processors used directly by workflow participants or automated processes that complete steps without participant intervention. If a function within an application requires input from or provides output to the workflow, values corresponding to the input and output parameters must be defined in any workflow steps that use the function.

To identify the parameter values needed to use a specific function in a step, the system administrator uses the Process Configuration Console to define an operation that corresponds to each function. Operations are defined on the work queue or user queue that the application containing the function will access when the workflow is running. The definition of the operation includes the operation name, and, for each parameter, the parameter name, data type, and data flow direction (Read, Write, or Read/Write). The details of an operation definition must match those same details in the function definition.

To use a function at a step in a workflow, in the step definition the workflow author selects the appropriate work queue or participant and the corresponding operation, then assigns values to each required parameter.

TIP It is possible for the workflow administrator to define an operation and its parameters on any queue, including user queues.

See Operation usage example.