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Work with task pages

WebSphere Portal uses dynamic task pages that provide user interfaces in which the current states of the associated business processes are displayed. You can customize the default task page, add additional dedicated task pages as needed, and control how the portal redirects users to other pages when current tasks are completed and the task pages are closed. Before you modify the default configuration of the task page, be certain to verify that the automated setup task for process integration has completed successfully. Also consider having one or more process templates installed on the WebSphere Process Server. Having a process template installed and deployed on the integrated process server allows you to see and work with the portlets that support process integration: Task List, My Processes, and Task Processing. Some preliminary work with these portlets will help you determine what adjustments you might need to make to the default configuration of task page containers (parent pages) and task page instances (child pages) that display the Task List and Task Processing portlets. Understanding portal page hierarchy and page management is also an important prerequisite.

WebSphere Portal uses dynamically opened task pages to render the individual user interfaces for human tasks.

The individual task page instances are opened by creating a dynamic copy of a corresponding task page definition and passing the current task reference to the portlets on the dynamic page. A task page definition consists of some existing portal page identified by a custom unique name. The custom unique name of the task page definition to be used for a specific human task can be specified in the WebSphere Integration Developer tool, when the business process is defined, as described in Developing custom user interfaces for process integration, Enabling business processes for the portal.

If no unique name is specified, the portal uses the unique name ibm.portal.DefaultTaskPage.

This unique name directly maps to the default task page definition that is automatically created when you enable process integration by running the appropriate setup task. Any existing page in the portal can be used as a task page definition, but typically you create additional task page definitions under the Task Page Definitions page label in the hierarchy of portal pages.

To work with the task pages for the business process applications, complete these steps as needed for the portal environment:

  1. Customize the default task page:

    1. From the main menu, click Administration > Portal User Interface > Manage Pages.

    2. Navigate to the Task Page Definitions label located at Content Root > Task Page Definitions.

    3. Edit the page layout by adding additional supporting portlets to the default task page, modify page properties, and set access permissions by clicking the corresponding icons on the default Task Page, ibm.portal.DefaultTaskPage.

    4. You can manage each task page as you do other portal pages: adding page labels, URLs; and editing page status, page properties, page layout, user permissions to work with the task page, and so on.

      You need to assign the appropriate access to users who will need to work with a task page. Although user access to the objects of a business process application (process templates, process instances, task templates, task instances) is controlled by process server authorization, the task page definitions and the portlets on those pages are protected by portal access control.

  2. Add a new task page definition.

    1. From the main menu, click Administration > Portal User Interface > Manage Pages.

    2. Navigate to the Task Page Definitions label located at Content Root > Task Page Definitions.

    3. Click New Page and specify the details and the unique name of the new task page definition.

    4. Edit the page layout to add the portlets required to complete the tasks using this task page. If you do not have a custom-coded, dedicated Task Processing portlet for the tasks related to this task page, you should place the Task Processing portlet on this page to allow users to edit the task output data and complete the tasks.

    5. Ensure that your business processes reference the new task page using the unique name specified in Step c.

  3. Add a parent page for the new task page. A parent page will contain the dynamic task pages opened from this Task List portlet. Users are taken to these task pages when they open their tasks.

    Parent pages of task pages are generally called extension nodes.

    1. Create a portal page or label and assign it a custom unique name.

    2. Enable the portal page or label a parent page of a task page by opening a command prompt, changing the directory to profile_root/ConfigEngine, and typing the following command:

      ConfigEngine.bat action-enable-page-as-extension-node-wp.dynamicui.config -DWasPassword=password -DPageUniqueName=task_page_parent_page_name

      ConfigEngine.sh action-enable-page-as-extension-node-wp.dynamicui.config -DWasPassword=password -DPageUniqueName=task_page_parent_page_name

    3. Disable a parent page of a task page by typing the following command:

      ConfigEngine.bat action-disable-page-as-extension-node-wp.dynamicui.config -DWasPassword=password -DPageUniqueName=task_page_parent_page_name

      ConfigEngine.sh action-disable-page-as-extension-node-wp.dynamicui.config -DWasPassword=password -DPageUniqueName=task_page_parent_page_name

    To use a newly created parent page of a task page, the parent page must be referenced by a Task List portlet, as described in Working with business process applications, Using task lists.

  4. To change the default behavior for redirecting users to pages after a task page is closed, modify the WP ConfigService property DynamicUIManagerFactoryService. By default, when a user completes a task in the Task Processing portlet, that task page is closed. The user is redirected to the page containing the Task List portlet from which he or she opened the task page. However, different results might occur:

    • If the user closes the task page by clicking the X, a sibling task page is displayed, if it is available.

    • If a sibling task page is not available, the user is redirected to the extension node itself, that is, the parent page of the task page.

    You can modify the behavior of the latter case by defining the custom unique name of the page that should be used instead of the extension node page in the DynamicUIManagerFactoryService. The pattern for the property value is extensionNodeUniqueName.defaultRedirectPage.

    For example, to edit the default extension node ibm.portal.MyTasks.defaultRedirectPage, specify the value of the unique name of the page where you want users to be redirected.

You need to assign the appropriate access to users who will need to work with a task page. Although user access to the objects of a business process application (process templates, process instances, task templates, task instances) is controlled by process server authorization, the task page definitions and the portlets on those pages are protected by portal access control.


Parent topic:

Customize process integration


Related concepts


Prepare to develop process applications


Related tasks


Use task lists