The Task Management template displays a list of workflow tasks that are either assigned to or claimable by other users. It provides filters to find tasks and users, and controls to either reassign a task to a different user, or unassign it, returning it back to the pool of claimable tasks.
The article extras let you control which workflow processes and which users can be managed by the template, as well as being able to construct a range of filters.
Note that as with the Self Service template, workflow processes need to be indexed in the platform's search. The IndexWorkflowProcesses Scheduled Tasks needs to be run once to build the search collection (once built the collection is kept up to date by the workflow worker).
Page Title and Content
The Task Management template displays its title and content, including inline elements, in the same way as the Default template.
Filters
Filters are set up in the article extras. They determine which users can be managed by the template, control the process instances that will be returned, and provide controls that you can use to filter tasks.
Groups and Users
In the article extras, select the user groups that can be managed by the template. Only tasks assigned to or claimable by users in the chosen groups will be returned. The groups and users automatically populate the Group/User drop-down filter on the article.
For example, this article has been set up to manage two groups:
Those groups and the users in them appear as filters:
The groups appear first and a list of users second. If a user is in more than one of the groups, they will still only appear once in the list. Selecting a group or a user from the filter will only display tasks assigned to or claimable by them.
Users in Multiple Groups
The Task Management template is designed to display all of the tasks a user is eligible to work on.
Workflow process tasks are usually set up to be claimed by user groups. If a user is in multiple groups, the template will display all of the tasks a user is able to claim via any group, not just those selected in the article extras.
For example, the user TIMG is in a group called SUPPORT and a group called DEVELOPERS. If the SUPPORT group is set in the article extras, the template will display all tasks for TIMG, even those he is eligible to work on via his membership of the DEVELOPERS group. However, because the DEVELOPERS group isn't set to be managed by the article, you won't be able to manage those tasks (see Assignee below for more information). You can filter out these tasks using a Process Variable filter.
Select the Processes to Display
This list box displays all of the currently deployed process models in the workflow engine. Select the processes you'd like to appear on your article. You can use Ctrl-Click or Shift-Click to select more than one. If you don't select any none will appear.
Process Variables Filter
When building filters the variable names and values should be entered in lowercase, the ANDs and ORs in UPPERCASE
You can further restrict the tasks shown by the template so that it will only show tasks for instances that have variables with certain values.
Note that this filter is used to restrict the instances shown for the processes selected above, you must select processes before applying a filter.
Filter expressions have the format
The filter also lets you construct more complex expressions using ANDs or ORs with named variables and values. For example, you could select the "case management" process, and then write an expression to only show cases of a certain type.
This expression would only return tasks for processes that have a type of complaint or a type of feedback:
This expression would only return complaints that also have an escalated status:
Process Variables Filter - Front End
When building filters the variable names and values should be entered in lowercase, the ANDs and ORs in UPPERCASE
Once the template has been set up to only show tasks for the process instances you want, you can also build filters that will appear in a drop-down on the article.
The processes you have selected will automatically be added as options in the filter. You can edit these or remove them.
Simple Filters
Start by building some simple filters. This example shows Task Management set up to work with Case Management. Each filter will display one case type:
Each item in the list has a display value and an expression:
Which has generated the following drop-down options:
Remember, you can use any process variable to construct a filter! We've seen great examples using locations, postcodes and case statuses.
More Complex Expressions
You can also build filters using AND or OR expressions. In this example a single item in the drop-down would display a variety of waste-related tasks:
Creating Multiple Filters
To make adding multiple items easier, press the "Add multiple" button. This lets you enter the name of a single process variable, then a comma separated list of possible values:
Which will automatically generate the following list of items:
You can then edit each item individually to tidy up the display values.
The Tasks Table
The table of tasks displays the following information.
Task/Process
This column includes the task description (as set in the workflow model), the process instance business key, and the description of the process model. You can sort tasks alphabetically, either ascending or descending, by clicking on the column title.
Created and Due Dates
These dates are those of the task, not the process itself. You can sort tasks by date by clicking on the column titles.
Assignee
The drop-down in this column displays who the task is currently assigned to or, if not assigned to anyone, the unassigned option. The groups and users in the drop-down are taken from the task's candidates set in the workflow model.
In some situations the drop-down won't be present, and instead you'll see the name of the current assignee or the text "Unassigned".
If you only see the name of the assignee, that means the task can't be reassigned. This is most likely because there are no other candidates for the task.
If the task is unassigned, but there are no options to reassign it, the Task Management article extras probably haven't been set up to manage the candidate groups of the task. This can happen when a user is in more than one group - you can see all of that user's tasks, but are not allowed to manage all of the groups they are in.
Pick the user you would like to assign the task to, or the unassigned option, then press the "Assign/Unclaim" button to submit your changes. The tasks will be assigned to the new user, or returned to the pool of claimable tasks ready to be picked up by candidates using the Self Service or User Requests templates.
Audit Log
The Task Management template writes an audit log using the platform's history service. A new history is added for each task that gets assigned or reassigned, with relevant information written into the history's subject:
{
"id": "196f7581-756c-48bc-8edc-6c0a883ee22f",
"labela": "Template log",
"labelb": "c76465c0-4f8b-4c56-abb5-fd361cac6ac1",
"labelc": null,
"labeld": null,
"labele": null,
"created": 1626335004390,
"lastupdated": 1626335004390,
"sealed": true,
"subject": {
"private": false,
"templateName": "taskmanagement",
"articleID": 1865,
"description": "Re-assigned task 623201 from stevew to adame",
"subsiteName": "staff",
"event": "Task Management",
"userId": "TIMG"
}
}
Where:
- labela - always "Template log"
- labelb - a unique ID generated by the site framework
- created/lastupdated - the time of the assigning/unassigning
- templateName - always "taskmanagement"
- articleID - the ID of the article that was used
- description - one of
"Unclaimed task <taskID> from <userID>" ,"Assigned task <taskID> to <userID>" ,"Re-assigned task <taskID> from <userID> to <userID>" - subsiteName - the name of the subsite the article was published on
- event - always "Task Management"
- userId - the user who performed the assigning/unassigning/reassigning
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