Working with Queues

A Process queue is a database structure that holds work items that are waiting to be completed for a specific step in the workflow. There are four types of Process queues:

As indicated, all work items for a particular step in a workflow reside in either a User queue or a Work queue. The work items in a queue may be Step Elements (records consisting of helper data and user-defined parameters), Work Objects (each work object is a BLOB that consists of system fields, helper data, and user-defined fields — Note that the queue contains the actual work object BLOB), or Queue Elements (each Queue Element contains system fields that describe the work item and its state at a point in time). Queue Elements are normally used for display purposes. For example, to enable a user to query a queue and display a list of work items in that queue, you would typically customize the User Inbox to query and retrieve that queue's Queue Elements.

At a minimum, required User Inbox operations on queues include:

Once the work items have been retrieved and displayed, the user can select a retrieved work item and open it (it will be either a Step assignment or a Tracker assignment). For information, see Selecting and Opening a Work Item.