Forums » Interstage BPM Studio

• Ivar Alexander

  
   

  April 25, 2011 9:47:09 AM PDT

  Hi,
  
  I want to alert / notify a users manager if a task is not completed by its due date. If i use the Escalate Task action, i have to specify which user to assign it to, or specify a UDA from where to get the users name.
  
  I want to set up an escalation based on the users manager. How can I do this?
  
  Also... I want the choice of keeping the task assigned to the original user, but simply to notify the users manager (again, I cannot predict who the manager is at design time).
  
  Please help! Thanks.
  

  Author: Ivar Alexander
  Attachment:

• Neal Wang

  

  • 30 posts
   

  April 25, 2011 10:06:53 AM PDT

  Hello bakaivar,
  
  It looks like instead of the escalate task action, your looking to execute java actions at the conclusion of the timer. The first method would be to determine who the manager is at design time( this is determined by some logic up to the user), and then once the users manager is determined, you can use the SendEmail notification action to the users manager.
  
  Neal
  
  

  Author: Neal Wang
  Attachment:

• Ivar Alexander

  
   

  April 25, 2011 10:16:25 AM PDT

  Thanks Neal.

  You talk about "some logic"... What would that logic look like? Lets take an example of a group consisting of Engineers (Shamim, Sameer, and Kumar). I want the logic that will give me the Engineers' manager (Keith) name. Remember... as a process designer, I don't know how many users are in the group, or who will be in the directory at run time. Can you be explicit about what logic can be used to figure out the manager's name? Thanks.
  
  Also... I am talking about the Escalate Task action, not the Send Email action. Can you please give me an answer in the context of the Escalate Task action. I am struggling to see how to use this action. Thanks.
  
  

  Author: Ivar Alexander
  Attachment:

• Neal Wang

  

  • 30 posts
   

  April 25, 2011 10:48:51 AM PDT

  Well,
  
  When I mention logic, you need to program a method to determine who the manager is at that time. For example lets say your task's due date is in 2 months, however Keith might not be the manager at that time, then who would it go to? I'm assuming it would go to Shamim, however we don't know, it would have to be determined in a method.
  
  We need to have a java method that determines who the manager is, for example WhoIsManager(Engineer_Group). Not sure how to code it exactly. That method would then return who the manager is and his email, and then you can assign that to an UDA which would could be passed on to to the EscalateTask action.
  
  
  
  

  Author: Neal Wang
  Attachment:

• Ivar Alexander

  
   

  April 27, 2011 2:20:16 PM PDT

  Thanks Neal. I am still unclear about which API's i can call to achieve this. Can you tell me specificaly an API for getting the manager of a group of users? Lets take a simple example of using the Interstage BPM internal directory. How can I access this, and what API can I call to do this? Thanks.

  Author: Ivar Alexander
  Attachment:

• Ivar Alexander

  
   

  May 5, 2011 12:54:15 PM PDT

  Hello... ? Can anybody help me with this...?

  Author: Ivar Alexander
  Attachment:

• admin admin

  
   

  May 9, 2011 3:34:51 AM PDT

  Assuming you are using v11.x, there is a tenant system property for you to record the user's manager.  The next step is how to retrieve this value when the due date expires.

  
  

  See the description of this property:

   ManagerAttribute

  Initial value: manager

  The value of this parameter specifies the name of the attribute that will hold the user ID of a user's

  manager. While the initial value of this parameter is manager, it can be changed to any other name

  that indicates a supervisory reporting relationship. For example, you can change this to

  ReportingManager or Supervisor as per your organization's requirements.

  The value specified here should also be included in the RequiredUserAttribute parameter, with

  the cacheoption.Forexample,ifthe ManagerAttributeparameterhasthevalue ReportingManager,

  include ReportingManager:cache in the RequiredUserAttribute parameter.

  Also refer RequiredUserAttribute on page 62 and TeamAttribute on page 66.

  To be able to retrieve organization hierarchy information, and use it to get information, (for example,

  about a user's subordinates and their work item status) you must specify either of ManagerAttribute

  or TeamAttribute properties.

  Use only either of ManagerAttribute or TeamAttribute properties, not both. If both properties are

  specified, only the TeamAttribute property is used.

  Author: null
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• Ivar Alexander

  
   

  May 9, 2011 7:31:36 AM PDT

  CY suggested:
  

  One solution is to create a generic action in which you will determine who to send the alert to.        

  
  

  Author: Ivar Alexander
  Attachment:

• Ivar Alexander

  
   

  May 9, 2011 7:32:07 AM PDT

  CY suggested:

  The manager relationship is typically static, not going to change often at runtime.

  Below is the screenshot of my installation configuring to use Fujitsu Active Directory, where the custom field, manager, is automatically populated with my manager’s user ID.  With this ID, you can look up the email address.

   

  Your next challenge is how to retrieve this manager’s email address in your due date escalation action.

  Author: Ivar Alexander
  Attachment:

• Ivar Alexander

  
   

  May 9, 2011 7:32:51 AM PDT

  Sorry, I don’t get how this will help me…

   

  Can you elaborate how this can help me design a process that will automatically escalate a workitem to a users manager if the workitem has not been completed within a certain amount of time?

  Author: Ivar Alexander
  Attachment:

• Ivar Alexander

  
   

  May 9, 2011 7:33:22 AM PDT

  CY suggested:

  Step 1: IBPM supports the custom field called manager as part of the user profile.  This fields stores the login ID of the manager.

  Step 2: With the login ID, you can reverse look up or construct the email address of the manager.

  Step 3: You can implement to call IBPM model API to consult the directory adapter of the manager’s ID, although it is not advised to call Model API directly from java action; however, I think in this case it is okay as we are only using the directory adapter module.  Unfortunately, I checked the ServerEnactmentContext, there is no method available to retrieve the value of the manager field stored in the user profile.

   

  Author: Ivar Alexander
  Attachment:

• C.Y. Chen

  

  • 33 posts
   

  May 9, 2011 9:37:09 AM PDT

  sample code for retrieving a given userID's manager emails.

  Note that it if possible that a user reports to more than one manager; thus, the return emails could be more than one.

  
  

  private String[] getManagerEmail(String loginID, String loginPassword, String userIDforManager) throws Exception {

  String[] managerEmails = null;

  DirectoryServices ds = null;

  String[] managers = null;

  ProfileProp[] profileProps = null;

  Vector managerEmailsVec = new Vector();

  try {

  ds = WFObjectFactory.getDirectoryServices(this.session, loginID, loginPassword);

  managers = ds.getManagers(userIDforManager); // retrieve manager of this user

  for (int i=0; managers != null && i < managers.length; i++) {

  profileProps = ds.getUserAllPropList(managers);

  for (int j=0; profileProps != null && j < profileProps.length; j++) {

  String[] propValues = profileProps[j].getValues();

  for (int k=0; propValues != null && k < propValues.length; k++) {

  if (propValues[k] != null) {

  String curValue = propValues[k];

  if (curValue.indexOf("@") != -1) {

  managerEmailsVec.addElement(curValue);

  log("manager email = " + curValue);

  }

  }

  }

  }

  }

  managerEmails = new String[managerEmailsVec.size()];

  for (int n=0; n < managerEmailsVec.size(); n++) {

  managerEmails[n] = (String) managerEmailsVec.elementAt(n);

  }

  } catch (Exception ex) {

  }

  return managerEmails;

  }

  Author: C.Y. Chen
  Attachment: