Process Name to be stored and used dynamically from DB?

BenHayat

I need to create a BO (table) that stores different attributes. In one of the attributes, I need to store a "Process Name" that exists in the system.
Then during execution, when Aware reads the objects (records in the table), I want to get the "Process Name" stored in the attribute and pass it to Aware to execute that process at runtime. The process may also require parameters which are also stored in other attributes.

This way, the execution flow is dictated at runtime and not design time.
Any ideas how to go about this that Aware can consume a "Process Name" from an attribute than a "Static" name created at design time?

BLOMASKY

I have not tried it, but can you use the AwareApp.startProcess javascript function? That is assuming you are running this from a button click (or somewhere you can have an onclick function.

Bruce

BenHayat

BLOMASKY wrote
I have not tried it, but can you use the AwareApp.startProcess javascript function? That is assuming you are running this from a button click (or somewhere you can have an onclick function.

Bruce

It's a process that needs to loop through these objects and each object (depending on the process name stored in the attribute), will call the NAMED process. So basically, I'm allowing users to create their own a list of tasks/processes in the system that they can tailor to their own needs. Almost creating a sequential workflow. The parent process might get kicked off initially from a button or nightly process, but the parent process is the one that needs to start those child processes that are stored in DB.

This feature will provide a very powerful advantage to Aware.

tford

What's the advantage of this over conditional process logic?

BenHayat

tford wrote
What's the advantage of this over conditional process logic?

This a dynamic way of adding/removing processes into the system as "Resources" that users can select from and build their own list of executable processes.
And I might end up offering 200 to 300 different small processes that will end up to do a complete job for every user. If I make it statically, I have to have that many "IF" statements which is an ugly and time consuming code. All we need is to pass an attribute value as process name in one line of code, and it could server regardless how many processes I have and never have to maintain it.

pureist

BenHayat wrote
I want to get the "Process Name" stored in the attribute and pass it to Aware to execute that process at runtime.

Is START PROCESS of no use?

Doesn't it run the process whose name is the value of an attribute?

START PROCESS object_name.attribute_name will run the process named in attribute_name?

BenHayat

pureist wrote
BenHayat wrote
I want to get the "Process Name" stored in the attribute and pass it to Aware to execute that process at runtime.

Is START PROCESS of no use?

Doesn't it run the process whose name is the value of an attribute?

START PROCESS object_name.attribute_name will run the process named in attribute_name?

I've never used START PROCESS. Can it be invoked within another process? This process which needs to use object attribute for it's process name has be invoked from a parent process and not from a menu action.

rob_h7

Yeah you can use it in a process rule.

START PROCESS BONAME.AttributeName (the attribute with the process name in it).

BenHayat

rob_h7 wrote
Yeah you can use it in a process rule.

START PROCESS BONAME.AttributeName (the attribute with the process name in it).

I'll give it a shot. Thanks Matt & Rob;

BenHayat

I didn't know "Start Process" existed. Again, Thanks Matt;
This command will help me reduce a large amount of code by building a special BO to contain logic info and process names and dynamically run it at runtime. :mrgreen:

From the User guide.

You can also run a process by using the START PROCESS action. The advantage of using this action is that you can specify the name of the process to run dynamically – for example:
START PROCESS SomeObject.ProcessName
The name of the process to run is stored in the ProcessName attribute of the SomeObject object.

BenHayat

I'm not at my Aware development system currently. But have a question related to "START PROCESS".

Does START PROCESS support passing parameters to calling process incorporating "USING" Aware's commad, like we do when we statically call a process and use "USING"?

Thanks!

ACDC

START PROCESS only starts the process by name, all the logic must be in the process that is started.

I use this extensively, it's really brilliant, for example, a number of my business objects have a Text Attribute that contains a unique process name for exporting documents, it's done differently in each object and also some of the same objects could be different based on type. This lets me group the objects and then run a single process using START PROCESS ObjectGroup.ExportDoc(containing processName) - When this runs each process is fired independently - a very simple way of managing complex processes

BenHayat

ACDC wrote
- a very simple way of managing complex processes

EXACTLY!
I have to deal with "Parameter passing" in a different way.