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Defect? Cancelling a task does not count as completion of a parallel stream of work


Berto2002

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Hi, happy new year!

First question: I cannot see in the logs what caused the cancellation of an Activity (Human Task) so I cannot confirm if it was the system or a user (and who). Should Cancellation of Activities be in the log?

Secondly, In testing a BP with parallel processing, I have come across an Activity (Human Task) that was cancelled (by user or system as above?!). It's put the workflow in a perpetual wait state since that part of the parallel processing can no longer be fulfilled.

I recently reported a defect that a Human Task with an Expiry Date in the past was not being evaluated by the subsequent decision as being past the date (it cancelled the task and left the workflow perpetually waiting). This seems like a similar issue. Surely if an Activity is cancelled, the user is stating it is irrelevant and the BP should proceed? Else we are always vulnerable to cancellation causing a workflow to perpetually wait?

image.thumb.png.3a075355817cecf75aba0171e6a5be1f.png

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22 minutes ago, Berto2002 said:

First question: I cannot see in the logs what caused the cancellation of an Activity (Human Task) so I cannot confirm if it was the system or a user (and who). Should Cancellation of Activities be in the log?

Hi @Berto2002

As far as I'm aware there are two scenarios that can result in an activity being cancelled (status is set to 'cancelled'). 

The first is when a request is cancelled, it will automatically cancel any associated active tasks.  This is due to the  BPM being cancelled.  

The second scenario is when there is an authorization task that has been sent out to multiple recipients and any of these recipients that have 100% weighting can authorize the request, and the remaining authorizations are then cancelled, as they are no longer needed.

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1 hour ago, Berto2002 said:

Secondly, In testing a BP with parallel processing, I have come across an Activity (Human Task) that was cancelled (by user or system as above?!). It's put the workflow in a perpetual wait state since that part of the parallel processing can no longer be fulfilled.

When you say cancelled, is the actual status of the task set to 'cancelled'?  I have seen scenarios where an additional exit to the parallel tasks has been added in, such as a "goto next stage" have caused issue.

As parallel processing of tasks require all tasks to be completed in order to proceed, I'd be careful on how the Expired option is used.  For example, a parallel task process is created for the purpose of 4 tasks that have to be completed in order to proceed, if one of those have expired, then not all 4 tasks will have the outcome of being completed, therefore, it may not successfully exit the parallel processing.   

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2 hours ago, Berto2002 said:

I recently reported a defect that a Human Task with an Expiry Date in the past was not being evaluated by the subsequent decision as being past the date (it cancelled the task and left the workflow perpetually waiting)

There is a change in the platform (in an upcoming update) where this scenario is catered for. The workflow will no longer reach the "perpetual waiting" scenario, the task will no longer be created if it has an expiry in the past and the workflow will report an error message.

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Hi @Berto2002

The image above just shows one of the branches of the parallel task processing.  It is entirely possible that something has occurred in the other branches while the particular task was waiting to be complete, that caused it to cancel.  Impossible to say from the above information.  For now I'd probably suggest, as you mention, to raise a ticket with Support.

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