Launch a workflow inside a UserService and redirect to the initial selection.

Launch a workflow inside a UserService and redirect to the initial selection.

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Article ID: KB0073974

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Updated On:

Products Versions
TIBCO EBX All versions from 5.8.0.

Description

In this article, we will explain how to launch a workflow inside a user service, that will redirect to the initial selection (where the user service was launched from) at work item completion.
Before reading this article you should be aware of the UserService API.
Please see links in "reference" section.

You can use this method to launch a workflow:

  • Directly in the EBX user interface, from a Services or Actions menu
  • From a perspective action, in which case the setAvailableAsPerspectiveAction method has to be called in the service declaration

We will use a workflow publication named "BasicWorkflow" and configured it to open the first task at launch in its model configuration:

User-added image

Issue/Introduction

Launch a workflow inside a UserService and redirect to the initial selection.

Resolution

Workflow manager component

The workflow will be launched in a a new navigation context in a separate sub-session, namely, a UIHTTPManagerComponent or Web Component. 

Documentation: https://docs.tibco.com/pub/ebx/5.9.8/doc/html/Java_API/com/orchestranetworks/ui/UIHttpManagerComponent.html

User-added image

There will be one header per session:

  • Main session: label of the UserService
  • Sub-Session: Workflow breadcrumb

UIHTTPManager component declaration:

LaunchWorkflowService.java
// Retrieve the ProcessLauncher and launch the workflow
         
Repository repository = context.getRepository();
Session session = context.getSession();
WorkflowEngine engine = WorkflowEngine.getFromRepository(repository, session);
ProcessLauncher launcher = engine.getProcessLauncher(PublishedProcessKey.forName("BasicWorkflow"));
ProcessLauncherResult result = launcher.launchProcessWithResult();
WorkItemKey workItemKey = result.getWorkItemKey();
 
  
//Creation of the UIHTTPManagerComponent that will open the work item
             
UIHttpManagerComponent managerComponent = writer.createWebComponentForSubSession();
managerComponent.selectWorkItem(true, workItemKey);
managerComponent.setCloseButtonSpec(UIHttpManagerComponent.CloseButtonSpec.CROSS);


In the user interface, that component will be inside an iframe HTML object.

LaunchWorkflowService.java
// Iframe construction
 
String iFrameURL = managerComponent.getURIWithParameters();
String iFrameId = "myIFrame";
String jsFnListenerName = "syncIFrameToWorkspace";
 
writer.add("<iframe ").addSafeAttribute("id",iFrameId).addSafeAttribute("src","").addSafeAttribute("frameBorder", "0").add(">").add("</iframe>");
 
// Iframe dynamic "resize to workspace" function declaration
 
writer.addJS("function ").addJS(jsFnListenerName).addJS("(size) {");
writer.addJS(" var iFrameEl = document.getElementById(\"" + iFrameId + "\");");
writer.addJS(" iFrameEl.style.height = size.h + \"px\";");
writer.addJS(" iFrameEl.style.width = size.w + \"px\";");
writer.addJS("}");
 
writer.addJS_addResizeWorkspaceListener(jsFnListenerName);
 
// Setting the iframe URL
 
writer.addJS("document.getElementById(\"").addJS(iFrameId).addJS("\").src = \"").addJS(iFrameURL).addJS("\";");


Iframe documentation: https://docs.tibco.com/pub/ebx/5.9.8/doc/html/en/user_interface/coding_recommendations.html#UICustomDevRecommendations_HTML_iFrames

Redirection manager component

We will also implement another sub-session web component which will be used to redirect the web page to the parent session when the Accept or Reject button is pressed.

At the end of the workflow manager component, we want to redirect to the redirection manager component:

LaunchWorkflowService.java
managerComponent.setRedirectionURI(redirectionComponent.getURIWithParameters());


Here is the implementation of the redirection manager component:

LaunchWorkflowService.java
// Creation of the redirection UIHTTPManagerComponent
 
UIHttpManagerComponent redirectionComponent = writer.createWebComponentForSubSession();
redirectionComponent.selectNode(repository.getReferenceBranch().findAdaptationOrNull(AdaptationName.forName("TestNewLaunchWorkflow")), Path.parse("/root/table")); //select a node where the redirection service is executable
redirectionComponent.setService(ServiceKey.forName("RedirectionService"));


This component will launch another user service, in which we will call a Javascript function of the parent HTML object.

That parent object will be the container of the sub-session, which is in the parent session.

Being in the parent session, we can then redirect the page to any URL.

We choose to redirect to the URL that corresponds to the initial selection.

Here is the implementation of the redirectionService JSP:

RedirectionService.java
writer.addJS("ebx_getContainerWindow().parent.redirect();"); //Call JS function of the parent
 
 
// FOR VERSIONS BELOW 5.9.0, use this instead:
         
//writer.addJS("parent.redirect();");


Javascript redirection function declaration:

LaunchWorkflowService.java
writer.addJS("function redirect() {window.location.href='"+sc.getURLForEndingService()+"'}");

Additional Information

User services documentation:

Knowledge base article:

Attachments

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