An important aspect of the execution of business processes is typically the human contribution: the human task activity. Essential for the quality and efficiency for this human involvement is the user interface through which the human actors can make their contribution. In chapter 17, we have briefly seen how the UI for a human task can be generated in JDeveloper as an ADF web application that developers can fine tune with all the power of the ADF framework at their disposal. Alternative user interfaces can be created on top of the human workflow APIs.
However, these are typically IT tasks to be performed by technical experts. In BPM Suite, an effort has been made to allow business users themselves to create the user interface. Through a browser based interface, without advanced technical skills, the outline of the human interaction for a specific task can be created through simple drag and drop. These Web Forms are seamlessly integrated into the BPM workspace where users work on their tasks.
The Web Forms can be used as a way for business users to extend their model of the business process with a few prototypes for how they envision the interaction to take place – as an extended design for the developers. Or these Web Forms can be included in the production system – possibly fine-tuned by a developer using advanced mechanisms such as rules (JavaScript for validation and calculation) and styles.
We will very briefly go through the steps of creating and trying out a Web Form for one of the human activities in the SecurityCheckProcess, to get a feel for it.
Supporting Resources
The sources for this section are found in folder AirportAccreditationService-step7.
Mona Rakibe (on BPM Technology Corner : Introduction to Web Forms -Basic Tutorial
Video: Create a new web form in Oracle BPM 12c – Akino Fishing Co.
