LiveCycle Workbench ES Help
Creating Processes > Designing Human-Centric Processes

Designing Human-Centric Processes

This section describes how to design human-centric processes in Workbench ES and involve users in a process using Adobe LiveCycle Workspace ES, which is an application based on Adobe® Flash® technology and runs in a web browser. Workspace ES users start and participate in business processes by submitting forms, either online or offline.

Human-centric processes are long-lived processes that involve one or more users in a business process. Human-centric processes can have one or more steps assigned to a user as a task. A task represents an action that a user must complete in order for the next step in the process to occur. In Workspace ES, a user completes tasks through the use of forms. Data from the form can be captured and used as part of the automated business process.

For example, you may create a process where, in Workspace ES, a user can start a mortgage process by filling in a mortgage application form. The human-centric process you create takes the data from the form, encrypts and saves it as a PDF form, and then writes the PDF form to the file system as shown in the following illustration.

It is important to understand that the step where a Workspace ES user submits a form from Workspace ES is not specified in the process diagram. Here is a brief description of what occurs that is useful to know when you design human-centric processes:

• After you activate your human-centric process, it becomes a service, and can only be invoked through endpoints. To invoke a human-centric process from Workspace ES, you must create a Task Manager endpoint in Archive Administration. For information about creating Task Manager endpoints, see Archive Administration Help, accessible in the LiveCycle Administration Console.
• Process cards appear based on the Task Manager endpoints that are configured and enabled. A Workspace ES user can click a process card to start any process configured with a TaskManager endpoint. After a process card is clicked, Workspace ES creates a task based on the Task Manager endpoint configuration. The form displayed to the user is based on the input process variable from the human-centric process you created.
• After the user submits the form, the service invokes your human-centric process specified by the Task Manager endpoint. The form data with other parameters are passed as input into the human-centric process by a Task value.

  Note:   You can also start and complete tasks programmatically using the LiveCycle ES SDK; therefore, you can develop custom applications, which allow users to start and participate in human-centric processes. For information about using invoking services using LiveCycle ES APIs or LiveCycle Remoting, see LiveCycle ES SDK Help System at http://www.adobe.com/go/learn_lc_programming.

You can involve multiple users in the process. When you involve users in the process, you use the Assign Task operation as a step in the process diagram. The Assign Task operation is part of the User service, which is used for the following purposes:

• Assigning a task to a user profile or a group profile
• Specifying the form to use and display for that task
• Specifying timing constraints on the task, such as reminders or deadlines
• Specifying attachment and notes options for the task
• Specifying restrictions on consultations and delegations

For example, you can create a loan process where a mortgage application form is submitted based on certain criteria, such as the loan amount. The value of the loan amount is used as criteria to determine how it is routed to different users. The process diagram for a loan process may look like the following illustration.

The following steps summarize how to create basic human-centric processes in order for users to complete the tasks assigned to them using Workspace ES. It is recommended that you perform the steps in the order shown when you create a human-centric process; however, it is not mandatory:

• Modify your form to be used in a process using Designer ES or Acrobat. (See Using forms in processes.)
• Create a new process. (See Creating processes.)
• Create a process variable to store form data or the form. (See Creating variables for processes that involve users.)
  • (Optional) Modify settings to display different form formats to a user. (See Modifying the Render Service and Submit Service.)

  Note:   HTML forms, PDF (rendered from XDP) forms, and form guides require that the Forms service is available on your server.

  • (Optional) Configure the process variable to have form fields appear in XPath Builder. (See Configuring form fields to appear in XPath Builder.)
• Assign tasks to users who are to participate in the process. (See Involving users in processes.)

You can also configure the Assign Task operation in these addition ways:

• Prepopulate a form with default data. (See Prepopulating forms with default data.)
• Configure a list of users and the specific actions they can perform on a task. (See Configuring access control lists.)
• Restrict who a user can consult with or delegate a task to. (See Configuring delegations and consultations.)
• Configure how attachments are notes used for the task. (See Configuring attachments and notes.)
• Specify that users must select a route to complete a task and assign a priority to the task. (See Configuring task completion options.)
• Add reminders and deadlines, and escalate tasks if they are not completed within a certain time frame. (See Specifying time constraints for completing tasks.)

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