The Absence Request process is deployed in Intalio|BPMS Server by default. It fully implements a simple workflow scenario, where an employee submits an absence request that then needs to be reviewed by a manager for approval. This document describes how to run the Absence Request process.

Scenario

Michael Smith logs in Intalio|BPMS Workflow web UI to submit an absence request. The request is then routed to Emily Williams, his manager, who may review Michael's request and approve or reject it.

About the screenshot: you may click on any screenshot to see it in full size in a pop-up window (you may need to disable your anti-popup tool, if you have any)

Execution

To start the process, first make sure that Intalio|BPMS Server (both PXE and Tomcat) are up and running.

Launch your web browser.

Go to http://localhost:8080/ui-fw/login.htm (assuming you are using the default configuration). This should show the login screen as in the screenshot below:

Login with the user 'examples\msmith' and password 'password' (without quotes). This should display the following screen, where Michael can access all tasks that are assigned to him (there should be none if you run this for the first time).

Note that the screen may look slightly different if you are using older versions than 4.2.

Michael wants to submit an absence request. Click on the Processes tab to access the list Michael is authorized to start. Click on "Examples - Absence Request". This should display the form for Michael to submit an absence request (this may take a long time the first time you run it, depending on your machine performance), as in the following screenshot.

You may enter any information you feel like in this form, or simply click the "Auto-Fill" button at the top of the form to automatically fill the form with pre-defined values. The red exclamation mark shows required fields and automatically disappears when you type a valid value. Once you have filled the form, you may scroll down and click the Submit button to submit your request.

After a few seconds or less - depending on your machine - the form should disappear and the task list refreshed. If this does not occur after more than 30 seconds, make sure that you did not leave any mandatory field empty, as the tool will not submit your form unless all fields are considered valid.

 

You may now click the Logout button at the top. We will now act as Emily Williams, Michael's manager. From the login screen, login with the username 'examples\ewilliams' and password 'password' (without quotes). Similarly, this takes you to Emily's task list. This time, you should see one task assigned to Emily in the task list (if the task has not shown up yet, you may need to click Refresh at the top, depending on your machine performace and how quickly you managed to access the task list for Emily). Click on "Absence Request requires Manager approval" in the task list to display Michael's request as in the screenshot below:

Scroll down, until you find the radio buttons where you can decide to either accept or reject Michael's request. You may also change the contact information for the person to contact in Michael's absence and add additional comments. Then click the Complete button to submit your decision. The form should again disappear and the task list refreshed. The task should no longer appear in the task list as it is now completed.

The AbsenceRequest process now sends a notification to the employee with the Manager's decision:

1. Log out.
2. Log back in as 'examples\msmith' (password is 'password')
3. Click the Notifications tab. You should see a notification with the decision from the manager as in the screenshot below.
4. Click Dismiss to remove the notification from the list.

This completes the Absence Request scenario. In this example, we have used three forms supported by Intalio|BPMS Workflow: one form for Michael Smith to trigger the Absence Request process; a second form for Emily Williams to perform a task initiated by the Absence Request process to notify Emily of Michael's request and wait for Emily's decision to accept or reject the request; and a third form to notify Michael of the final decision<<process>>

Monitoring

You may monitor the execution of any process from the console:

1. Go to http://localhost:8080/bpms-console/ and login (default username/password is admin/changeit).
2. Click on "INSTANCE" at the top of the page to access the list of running process instances.
3. Click on the specific instance you wish to monitor. This gives you all information about the specific instance you selected.

The following screenshot shows information for a AbsenceRequest process instance that is waiting for the manager to approve or reject the absence request (the green shape shows the running task).

You may also click on the Data tab to view all process data information (variables) and the Events tab to access the list of all events that occurred when processing this instance.

Implementation

The Absence Request process is fully designed in Intalio|BPMS Designer in the attached <<process>>. The forms had been hand coded before the Form Editor was released but are still used in order to show how hand coded forms may still be integrated with processes. It is indeed not required to use the Form Editor to integrate forms with business processes, as this example shows. To import it in Intalio|BPMS Designer:

1. Go to File > Import...
2. Select 'Existing Projects into Workspace'
3. Click the radio button 'Select archive file'
4. Click the Browse button next to it to locate the provided zip file.
5. Click Finish.

This creates an AbsenceRequest project in the Process Explorer. You can double-click on AbsenceRequest.bpm to open the process diagram. The diagram is fully implemented and can be deployed. To run this version of the process, you will also need to:

1. Click on Deploy Project to Intalio|BPMS Server button in tool bar.
2. Make sure you select all runtime files while exporting to Intalio|BPMS Server.
3. Also verify & check "Deploy processes" choice before click on Finish button.
   
4. Then you can start this process from the Workflow UI similarly to the instructions above.

Please note that the forms have been hand coded in XForms, i.e. not created with the embedded Form Editor. As a result, it is not possible to edit them in the Form Editor, even though it is still possible to integrate them into the AbsenceRequest process.