The ActivityA specific step in a process. It will be the user interface for that step (web form or a screen), for example, the Leave Application (screen interface or web form) will be the first Activity in the Leave Requisition process. The Leave Application Authorization will be the second step or Activity in the Leave Requisition process. One Process can have multiple activities. Configuration Wizard is a tool that will help you to set up the primary properties, for example, the name, the creation type of the activity, the notification, escalation, tracking and triggering as well as the style of the form or the screen. This wizard enables you to configure the properties as discussed for Activities in the Process Groups, Processes, and Activities section.
The General tab shows the basic Activity options.
| Activity ID | Auto-generated activity number. |
| Index | Auto-generated index number. |
| Standard Time | The time that the activity should take to be completed in hours. |
| Name | Unique system activity name. This needs to be a global unique name. It is suggested to use the auto-generated initial characters and just edit the last part with the activity name description. |
| Hyperlink | Defines the URL for a custom page that would be loaded instead of the Activity. |
| Event Create | |
| Event Create ID | Auto generated ID. Leave the default for the Visio editing environment. |
| Routing Type | This specifies the various routing options that are used to support workflow patterns. More information: Click here
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| Routing Group | This specifies the Business Groups, Roles, or dynamically generated groups that activities of cases are routed. |
| Activity Description | |
| Dynamic | A dynamic description includes a variable from a previous a step in the process to make the name contextual. An example for a dynamic versus static description could be Leave Application for Keith Miller versus Leave Application. The dynamic description makes it easy to recognize transactions in To Do lists, etc. The controls on the right to the dynamic description shows field variables from previous steps and make the mapping easy. |
| Static | This name appears on the diagram and is the default if no dynamic name is specified. It is also used in reporting and performance dashboards. |
| Controls | This allows controls to be drag and dropped onto the Dynamic area to help construct the definition for the activities Dynamic Description. |
The Advanced tab shows additional notification and escalation options, including behavior and styling settings.
| Notification | |
| Notify New | This property specifies whether a notification should be sent to the user when it is routed to their Tasks.
Note: The Notification Service is not needed for this notification as it is sent by the XMWorkspace. |
| Notify Outstanding | If an activity is triggered with a due date, and the user that has to respond to the activity has not done so by the due date, the Notification Service will send an e-mail to remind the user on the due date. This property is not applicable to First Activities. |
| Type | |
| The email address of this user. This is the email address that will be used by XMPro to send email notifications to. Therefore, it is important that it is a valid email address. | |
| SMS | The text message address of this user. This is the e-mail address that will be used by XMPro to send text message notifications. Therefore, it is important that it is a valid address.
Note: Only applicable for text message servers that receive instructions from mail servers. |
| Workspace Enabled | This indicates if the activity is available in the main XMWorkspace. If it is set to false it will not be visible to any users. |
| Offline Capable | This indicates if the activity is capable of running in an offline mode. |
| Mobile Enabled | This indicates if the activity is available in the XMMobile workspace. If it is set to false it will not be visible to any users though the XMMobile workspace. |
| ACM Enabled | This indicates if the activity is available in the main XMWorkspace, for Case actions. If it is set to false it will not be available. |
| Escalation | |
| Interval | This property specifies the frequency between notifications. It is measured in hours. |
| Number | This property specifies how many notifications should be sent before the activity gets escalated. |
| Tracking | |
| Allow Tracking | A Boolean value that specifies whether this activity can be tracked or not. If this property is set to True, the user starting the process can track the process in the Tracking menu in the XMWorkspace. The activity can also be seen in the history of the next activity when the user accesses it using the Tasks menu. |
| Allow Value Tracking | A Boolean value that specifies whether this activity’s values can be tracked or not. If this property is set to False and the Allow Tracking property is set to True, the user starting the process can track the process in the Tracking menu in the XMWorkspace, but the user cannot click on the activity in the tracking to see the values entered in that activity. The same applies to the history displayed when an outstanding activity is accessed from the Tasks menu. |
| Display History | A Boolean value that specifies whether this activity will display the history of the process when the user accesses it from the Tasks menu in the XMWorkspace. |
| Triggering | |
| Auto Parameterization | A Boolean value that instructs the activity to scan the query string for object values when loading for the first time. This feature is handy when launching XMPro from external applications. It only applies to First Activities. A typical example will be when calling an activity from a third-party program using a standard link. If this property is set to True for the activity you are calling, you can specify the link to be: [main site url]/processitem.aspx?g=1&id=1&objectname=value&objectname=value It is important to note that you need to call the object names using its exact names. |
| Inherit Values | A Boolean value that specifies whether Inherit Values should be switched on or not. If Inherit Values is set to True, and an activity gets called more than once in the same process, the activity will remember and display the values entered by the user the previous time the activity occurred in the process. |
| Auto Load Next | A Boolean value that specifies whether the next business event of the same process should be loaded automatically from the user’s action list or To Do list (in the end User Interface) once the previous one is completed. |
| Styling | |
| Render Style | Specifies the rendering style to be used for the activity options are:
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| JavaScript File | Specifies the JavaScript file name to use for the current activity to hold the custom client-side event handlers.
Note: The file must be located in the /scripts/custom subfolder of the site. |
| Trigger Style | Specifies which render style will be used for triggers. (Dynamic Button, Button, CheckBox, or None.) |
| Stylesheet | This property stores the path to a custom XSL stylesheet that should be used for this activity. This path is relative to the Transfer custom directory on the IIS server.
Note: If this property is omitted, the activity will use the default stylesheet, also called XMPro Fast Forms. This is an advanced feature, and should not be used if you are not comfortable with the XSL technology. Most of the activity customization should be done through the CSS stylesheets. Note: If you want to create your own stylesheet, make a copy of the Activity.XSLT stylesheet, make your changes, and save it. |
How to use the Activity Configuration Wizard
- Once you have dragged-and-dropped, your first activity onto the canvas in your Work Area, then the Activity Configuration Wizard will open automatically with the General tab opened. Alternatively, right-click your first Activity on your Visio Diagram.
- Click XMPro Wizard. The Activity Configuration Wizard will open.Provide the Name of the Activity. This Name uniquely identifies the Activity.
- If you want to load a custom web page instead of this Activity, provide the URL in the Hyperlink field.
- The Routing Type determines who can access the Activity.
- The Routing Group specifies the details for the Creation Type of this Activity.
- The Dynamic field allows you to provide a more dynamic description including obtaining values from a data source.
- Static is a short description for this Activity.
- Current Data and Current User controls are by default available on all Activities.
- Click Show All or deselect if you do not want to show these objects.
- Click Advanced tab.
- Specify the type of Activity Notification (Notify New or Notify Outstanding) and by Email or SMS.
- Specify the Escalation Interval, for example, three hours and the Number of Notifications prior to Escalation.
- Triggering options include Allow Parameterization, Inherit Values, and Auto Load Next options.
- Styling determines the screen layout, for example, the number of columns on the screen or form, the type of Render Style, Trigger Style, Javascript File and or Stylesheet, if applicable.
- Click OK.
- On the ribbon, click the File tab then click Save or press CTRL+S to save your activity.
The next step will be to place Objects (Fields) on your Activity (form or screen).
Refer to the Fast Fields section.