Running a microflow that contains a unique starting service

A microflow can be started by a receive activity or a pick activity. The starting service is unique if the microflow starts with a receive activity or when the pick activity has only one onMessage definition.

Why and when to perform this task

If the microflow implements a request-response operation, that is, the process contains a reply, you can use the call method to run the process passing the process template name as a parameter in the call.

If the microflow is a one-way operation, use the sendMessage method to run the process. This method is not covered in this example.

Steps for this task

  1. Optional: List the process templates to find the name of the process you want to run.

    This step is optional if you already know the name of the process.

    ProcessTemplateData[] processTemplates = process.queryProcessTemplates
    ("PROCESS_TEMPLATE.EXECUTION_MODE.EXCECUTION_MODE_MICROFLOW",
     "PROCESS_TEMPLATE.NAME",
      new Integer(50),
      null);

    The results are sorted by name. The query returns an array containing the first 50 sorted templates that can be started by the call method.

  2. Start the process with an input message of the appropriate type.

    When you create the message, you must specify its message type name so that the message definition is contained.

    ProcessTemplateData template = processTemplates[0];
    //create a message for the single starting receive activity
    ClientObjectWrapper input = process.createMessage
                               (template.getID(),
                                template.getInputMessageTypeName());
    DataObject myMessage = null;
    if ( input.getObject()!= null && input.getObject() instanceof DataObject )
    {
      myMessage = (DataObject)input.getObject();
      //set the strings in the message, for example, a customer name
      myMessage.setString("CustomerName", "Smith");
    }
    
    //run the process
    ClientObjectWrapper output = process.call(template.getName(), input);
    DataObject myOutput = null;
    if ( output.getObject() != null && output.getObject() instanceof DataObject )
    {
      myOutput  = (DataObject)output.getObject();
      int order = myOutput.getInt("OrderNo");
    }

    This action creates an instance of the process template, CustomerTemplate, and passes some customer data. The operation returns only when the process is complete. The result of the process, OrderNo, is returned to the caller.

Related concepts
Queries on business-process and task-related objects

Terms of use | | Broken links

Last updated: Mon Mar 27 18:04:06 2006

(c) Copyright IBM Corporation 2005.
This information center is powered by Eclipse technology (http://www.eclipse.org)