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T
23-Emerald IV
TomU23-Emerald IV
23-Emerald IV
October 25, 2017
Question

Workflow Task Notifcation Questions

  • October 25, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 7177 views

I am working on customizing the workflow task notication templates and have a few questions.

 

1.)  Why does the activityNoficationURL method not get put in comments but all of the other methods do?  (It will fail if placed in comments.)  [Red Box]

 

2.)  Where is the extra condition "notification" for activityAttributes documented.  [Blue Box]

 

Workflow Task Template 01.png

 

3.)  How do I get just the task URL without all of the extra garbage?  [Orange Boxes]

Workflow Task Template 02.png

 

4.)  Why does the task list the process name instead of the task name?  Is this controlled by a preference?  If not, can the process name itself be changed?  (I'm already dynamically changing the task name.)

 

Workflow Task Template 03.png

 

Thanks!

    3 replies

    H
    HerwigSchwarz13-Aquamarine
    13-Aquamarine
    September 27, 2018

    Haha, I was about to ask nearly exactly the same questions.

     

    I usually switch to "notification=true" now because it is missing this stupid hyperlink to the workflow process, which is usually confusing the assignee.

    What a shame one can't configure the text properly.

     

    But further below that block I put all the really interesting stuff for the customer. Using getActivityVariable varName="messageBody". The variable messageBody can be created in each workflow task differently.

    If the variable is not there at all no excpetion is thrown, it is just left blank in the mail.

     

     

    avillanueva
    23-Emerald I
    avillanueva23-Emerald I
    23-Emerald I
    November 13, 2018

    Its been a while since I used template processors. Did you overwrite the PTC supplied processor or did you create your own? Those other method calls, are those yours or are they part of the PTC default.  Where is the template processor called out? which property file?

    T
    23-Emerald IV
    TomU23-Emerald IVAuthor
    23-Emerald IV
    November 13, 2018

    I'm afraid I don't know anything about template processors.  I was just modifying the templates here:

    • Windchill\codebase\templates\workflow
    • Windchill\codebase\templates\workNotification

    The help documentation talks about how to do this:

    http://support.ptc.com/help/windchill/whc/whc_en/#page/Windchill_Help_Center%2FWCCG_BusLogicCust_WorkflowAdmin_EmailNotif.html

     

    As far as renaming the promotion request and the tasks, I'm doing that in the workflow itself:

    // get promotion request attributes
    number = ((wt.maturity.PromotionNotice)primaryBusinessObject).getNumber().toString();
    // change name of promotion request
wt.maturity.PromotionNotice pn = (wt.maturity.PromotionNotice) primaryBusinessObject; 
wt.maturity.PromotionNoticeIdentity promotionNoticeIdentity = (wt.maturity.PromotionNoticeIdentity) pn.getIdentificationObject(); 
promotionNoticeIdentity.setName("Promotion Request " + number); 
wt.fc.IdentityHelper.service.changeIdentity(pn, promotionNoticeIdentity);
    // rename task
wt.workflow.engine.WfActivity myActivity = (wt.workflow.engine.WfActivity)self.getObject();
myActivity.setName("PR-" + number + " Design Check");
myActivity = (wt.workflow.engine.WfActivity) wt.fc.PersistenceHelper.manager.save(myActivity);

    (Both of these code blocks were copied from other community posts.)

      avillanueva
      23-Emerald I
      avillanueva23-Emerald I
      23-Emerald I
      November 14, 2018

      I do, it starting to come back. The class that generates the email is wt.workflow.worklist.WfTaskNotificationProcessor, called out in service.properties files. This has all the methods that the PTC help document specified.  They are all public methods that take in parameters, local and an output stream. They create a string and pass the local, the output stream and the string to a processValues method.

       

      So, if I cannot make do with the OOTB methods, I can extend their class and write my own. I would need to replace their method in the service.properties file and it should run all of the OOTB method plus any custom ones I created. 

       

      Users simply want to be able to look at the email and know if they need to take action without having to log in. The issue is made even worse when the task gets completed by another user, navigating to the task gives you the not found error message. I would pay hard cash to someone who fixes that. Either way, I can create an alternate link so if that link is gone, they can still find out what the hubbub was all about. 

        J
        James621-Visitor
        1-Visitor
        November 19, 2018

        Don't have any answer. I was just trying to add special instructions, cause regular instructions field is limited by 4k characters.

         

        Only here to say that this is horrible, really horrible. How am I supposed to translate the labels and change 'Due Date' to DD.MM.YYYY format?

         

        General_en_US.html

        <html>
<!-- bcwti
 --
 -- Copyright (c) 1997, 1998 Windchill Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 --
 -- This software is the confidential and proprietary information of
 -- Windchill Technology. You shall not disclose such confidential information
 -- and shall use it only in accordance with the terms of the license
 -- agreement you entered into with Windchill Technology.
 --
 -- ecwti
 -->
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=Windchill> <!-- beginSubject --> </SCRIPT>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=Windchill> <!-- getActivityName --> </SCRIPT>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=Windchill> <!-- addText text=" - " --> </SCRIPT>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=Windchill> <!-- getPrimaryBusinessObjectName --> </SCRIPT>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=Windchill> <!-- endSubject --> </SCRIPT>
<head>
 <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=Windchill>
 <!--
 getStyleSheetProps
 -->
 </SCRIPT>
</head>

<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=Windchill> activityNotificationUrl </SCRIPT>
</font>

<hr size="1" color="#40637A">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=Windchill> <!-- activityAttributes --> </SCRIPT>
</font>

<hr size="1" color="#40637A">
<BR>
<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" style="font-size: 0.9em;">
<tr><td align="left" valign="top" nowrap><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>
Special instructions:&nbsp;
</b></font></td></tr><tr>
<td align="left" valign="top"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=Windchill> <!-- getProcessVariable varName="special_instructions" --> </SCRIPT>
</font></td></tr>
</font>

</body>
</html>

         

        Result:

        wch_email_1.PNG

        T
        23-Emerald IV
        TomU23-Emerald IVAuthor
        23-Emerald IV
        November 19, 2018
        I think you'd have to either turn off that section and build your own (another workflow variable) or possibly do like Antonio suggested and build your own template processor. Either way, it's very difficult to customize these email notifications.


        J
        James621-Visitor
        1-Visitor
        November 20, 2018

        Hi Tom,

         

        Thanks for the reply. I'm not really sure about the template processor approach. I've tried to look at the class wt.workflow.worklist.WfTaskNotificationProcessor with Eclipse, but it doesn't expose anything usefull.

         

        task_processor.PNG

         

        No clue where to look for service.properties mentioned by @avillanueva.

         

        Additional workflow global variable is out of question. The infomation needed is already there with the workflow object. I don't see any good reason to copy it into a global var, it only makes things too complicated, especially in cases where writing to a workflow global var simply fails.

         

        Btw, what i also found out is, when the workflow global var retrieved in General_en_US.html using getProcessVariable is null, then the e-mail task notification sent to the user is completely blank. It gets sent with the subject of the email and nothing else.

         

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