If synchronization does not work, make sure that the time zone is set correctly on the server where your Windchill solution is installed.

•The URL Robot executes a URL to communicate with another server, for such purposes as initiating various Info*Engine tasks or providing information necessary to complete workflow tasks. It can initiate an operation or retrieve status information to be collected in a string variable. HTML links to binary objects, such as graphics, can be retrieved, although the objects themselves cannot.

You can specify the results of a failure by the robot to execute the URL. The following list of error codes may be helpful.

○400 Bad Request: Request has not been recognized by the server, because of incorrect syntax. Request should not be repeated.

○401 Unauthorized: Request requires user authentication. Under normal usage, the URL robot does not support authentication. Request should not be repeated.

○403 Forbidden: Request has been recognized but the server has refused to honor it. Authentication was not the reason. The request should not be repeated.

○404 Not Found: Server has found no match for the Request-URI. May be temporary or permanent. Repeat of request may be appropriate.

○500 Server Error: Server has encountered an unexpected condition, which prevents it from fulfilling the request. Repeat of request may be appropriate.

○501 Not Implemented/Internal Error: Server does not support the functionality required to fulfill the request. Request should not be repeated.

○503 Service Unavailable: Server is temporarily unable to handle the request. Repeat of request may be appropriate.

○504 Gateway Timeout: Server has not received a timely response from the upstream server specified by the URI. Repeat of request may be appropriate.

For more information on error messages, see the Internet standards at W3C HTTP RFC ( http://www.w3.org ).

Declaring Variables

When you define a process, variables can be used within transition condition or automatic routing expressions. Variables can be either global (applicable to the process itself) or local (applicable to an assigned activity or a subprocess).

Note

When the Windchill 8.0 out-of-the-box change management workflows are run in Windchill 10.x, the user will see the activity variables in the task details page that are defined in the 8.0 workflow templates instead of the activity variables that are defined in the 10.x workflow templates.

Variables can be declared as any Java type or as any Windchill class. The only restriction is that the variable must be serializable. If the variable is typed as a Windchill business object, attributes of that object can be referenced through standard getter APIs. Variables can be declared as follows:

•Visible or invisible

•Required or optional

•Read only or read/write

•Resettable or static

Variable values can be initialized from parent process variables when an activity or subprocess is started and can also be copied into parent process variables when the activity or subprocess is complete.

Note

Although you can declare a workflow variable to be any Java type or Windchill class (provided it is serializable), PTC encourages you to consider the following guidelines:

•Workflow variables are composited within a ProcessData object, which in turn, is persisted in the Oracle database in a BLOB column. If the persistent signature of a BLOB object changes after it is stored in the database, an error may be thrown at the time it is retrieved from the database and de-serialized; therefore, PTC recommends that workflow variable types be restricted to the following:

○java primitives

○Evolvables

○Persistables

Evolvables provide methods to handle changes in their persistent signatures. Persistables are stored in workflow variables as ObjectReferences (not the fully inflated object).

•Persistables should not be composited within another class as this may lead to data inconsistency or corruption. Doing this will also lead to a wt. pds.NotEvolvableException during migration.

•Persistables may be an element in a java.util.Vector (this is because the Vector class receives special handling by the WfVariable class), but this should be avoided if possible. Use of a CachedObjectReference or ObjectReference pointing to a persistable is the preferred practice.

•AWorkflow Variable can contain, composite, or otherwise encapsulate a ObjectReference to a persistable as necessary.

For information on the Windchill evolvable classes and interfaces, see the PTC Windchill Customization Guide.

Defining an Assigned Activity

An assigned activity is a task that gets assigned to a specific user or group of users when an instance of this process definition is running. When you define an assigned activity, you specify a task that the selected user is to perform as part of a workflow process. The task is then added to the user’s Tasks table.

For more information, see the Tasks help.

The assigned activity properties are described in the sections that follow.

Defining a Subprocess

A subprocess, or proxy process, can be included as a node of a parent process.

For more information about creating a proxy process, see the Workflow Template Administration help.

The task assignments that are generated from an activity defined in the proxy process will not display roles that have been defined in the parent process (the outer process nodes). However, activities that are defined in the parent process nodes display a list of all roles used anywhere in the (outer) workflow process.

This means that an assignee of an activity that belongs to a proxy process won't be able to modify the participant roles that belong to the parent process. However, the assignees of activities that belong to a parent process can modify the participant roles that belong to the proxy process.

Roles are defined in the outer process activity nodes on the Role Setup tab. The Set Up Participants table (accessed from the Tasks table of the assignee) will display roles based on the permissions that are granted by the workflow administrator in the Role Setup tab of the workflow process.

For example, if the Approval Process workflow is selected when defining the proxy process, only the roles that are defined in the Approval Process workflow will display in the generated task assignments of the activities in defined in the proxy process. The task assignments that are generated from the outer process activity nodes will display all of the roles that have been defined anywhere in the outer process (also referred to as the parent process), plus all the roles that are defined in the inner process (in this example, the Approval Process).

For more information about defining roles and specifying permission for each role, see the workflow help.

Set a deadline for the proxy process by clicking the Deadline tab. For more information, see the workflow help.

To map variables, click the Variable Mapping tab. For more information, see the workflow help.