Managing task details

The Task Details page gives you a high-level view of the task and shows the task identification number, any task instructions, the designated performer, and the priority number assigned to the task. If there are timers for the selected task, you can view them and update them, if necessary.

If timers exist for the selected task, they are grouped together based on their type. Timers that are created when the process instance is created are called pre-task-creation timers. Pre-task-creation timers help to ensure that workitems are progressing to designated points in the workflow in a timely manner. A pre-task-creation timer takes action if an activity has not been triggered within a designated amount of time after the workflow starts. The activity is considered triggered once it is created by the workflow, but not necessarily acquired by a user. Pre-task-creation are not activated on the first activity of a workflow as they are automatically triggered during the workflow’s start.

Timers that are created after the task has been created are called post-task-creation timers. These timers help to ensure that a task is completed within a specified window of time after it has been started. A post-task-creation timer takes action if an activity has not completed within a designated amount of time after the activity starts.

Changes made to timers apply only to the selected task and not to other tasks based on the activity template. If the expiration of a timer is changed, any additional timers that follow in the task are not updated or changed in the same fashion. Their expiration times are completely independent. For example, if you add two hours to the first timer for a task, the system does not add two hours to the timers that follow.

When there are multiple timers for a task, the first timer is considered the due date for the task. (Documentum Administrator uses this due date to determine overdue tasks.) If you edit the expiration time for a subsequent timer to expire before the first timer, the due date of the task does not change. For example, if Timer_1 is set to expire at 10:00 AM and you edit Timer_2 to expire at 9:00 AM, the due date for the task remains 10:00 AM.

Note

Although the timer may be set to expire at a specific time, the action for that timer does not occur until the next time the timer job runs. The task of checking the warning timers and performing the requested actions is performed by the dm_WfmsTimer job. The Documentum Process Builder User Guide provides more information on timers and the dm_WfmsTimer job.

To edit a task timer:

  1. On the Instance Details page, click Task Details.

    The Task Details page shows the task timer name, any description or details for the timer, and the expiration time.

  2. Select the timer with the values that you want to change and click Edit Timer.

    The Edit Timer page appears.

  3. Use the calendar and time controls in the Expires field to set the new expiration values.

    To set the expiration to the current date and time, select the Set Timer Expiration as current time checkbox.

  4. Click Show Job Info to view when the update timer job last ran and when the next job is scheduled to run.

  5. Click Save to set the timer expiration to the new value.