Tasks

Tasks are sub-processes that can have their own assignments, statuses, actions and so on. You add tasks to the process either as an action or automatic action. Tasks cannot exist without a parent process.

The best way for you to ensure that users complete all of the tasks in a process is by adding a precondition to the process. For more information about preconditions, see Preconditions.

Creating tasks

Before you can add a task to a process, you must first create the task. You create tasks in the same way as you create processes. Tasks must have a Start and End status.

To create a task:

1. In Process Designer, on the Processes tree, select the Task folder, then on the Actions list, click New Process.
   A new process appears in the Task folder
2. Set up the task as you would a process.
   For more information, see Creating a new process.
3. Validate and activate the task as you would a process.
   For more information, see Validating and activating processes.
4. Click .

You cannot use tasks as standalone processes: they cannot exist without a parent process.

You can set an activated task to be the default task by selecting it and clicking the Set as Default action. Its icon changes to . The default task is the task initially specified in a process when you create an action or automatic action of type Add Task. You can have only one default task; we recommend that you choose the task that you use most often.

Linking a task to a process

You can design your process to create tasks either manually or automatically.

To create a task from a process:

1. From the Toolbox, drag Action Instance or Automatic Action Instance onto the workspace.
   The Select Action dialog appears.
   
2. Select the required action, then click OK.
   The task appears in the process.
3. If you want to set up a different task lifecycle from the default task, then in the Properties grid, alongside Default Process, select the required task from the list.
4. Click .