Generally, operations correspond to specific tasks. For example, a loan
approval workflow might include a step for printing payment coupons. An
automated process named LoanPrint could complete this step; within LoanPrint,
a function named Coupons contains the code to print the coupons. The following
are the general tasks necessary to use the Coupons function in a workflow
definition:
A software developer
creates a program (LoanPrint) that contains a function named Coupons.
The Coupons
function includes input parameters named cust_name and payment_amount
and an output parameter named loan_number. (The function accesses an external
database of customer records, finds the next unused loan number, and assigns
that loan number to the current loan application. This loan number will
be passed to the workflow.)
The application
developer configures the LoanPrint program to monitor the LoanApps work
queue.
In Process Configuration Console,
the system administrator defines a LoanApps work queue with an operation named
Coupons. The Coupons operation requires the following parameters:
Name
Type
Access (data flow direction)
cust_name
String
Read
payment_amount
Float
Read
loan_number
String
Write
In the parameter definitions, Read indicates that
a data value that passes from the work item to the operation. Write indicates
that a data value is generated by the operation and then passed to the
work item.
In Process Designer,
the workflow author creates a workflow map that includes a step called PrintCoupons.
The author defines the PrintCoupons step to go to the LoanApps work queue;
in addition, the author selects the Coupons operation for the step and defines
the operation parameters as follows:
Name
Type
Expression
cust_name
String
ApplicantName
payment_amount
Float
MonthlyPayment
loan_number
String
LoanNumber
In the parameter definitions, ApplicantName, MonthlyPayment,
and LoanNumber are all data fields defined for the workflow. The above
example indicates that the Coupons operation will use the value in the
ApplicantName data field as input for the cust_name parameter; similarly,
MonthlyPayment will be input for payment_amount. In addition, the LoanNumber
data field will hold the value output by the loan_number parameter.