Waiting for a response

As a catalog administrator, you can design a BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog workflow to wait for a response to an activity sent to an external system that is configured to send a response. You can create a workflow to wait for a response to an activity that creates a work order in BMC Service Request Management.

Before you begin

• Configure the external system to respond to fulfillment workflow requests and return a string that could be used to direct the workflow. For more information, see Integrating BMC applications with BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog.

• Open an existing workflow or create a new workflow, as described in Exploring the workflow designer.

To suspend a process with a Receive Task element 

In the following image, a Receive Task element is inserted after an action that creates a work order in BMC Service Request Management.

The Receive Task element suspends the workflow until the external system sends a response back to BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog. The Receive Task element waits for the response in the form of a Signal Parameter. This parameter consumes status values of fulfillment tickets in BMC Helix ITSM, including custom statuses. A status value of a fulfillment ticket is retained from the Work Status field in the SB:ServiceRequestStub form of BMC Helix ITSM. If a fulfillment ticket's status value is changed, the corresponding value is immediately updated in the Work Status field in BMC Helix ITSM. All status values can be referenced by using the Work Status variable. To add the Work Status variable, in the Element Properties tab, create a local variable with the same name, and add it as a Parameter Name in the Receive Task element. 

The external system must be configured to return a message packaged in the same name as the Signal Parameter expected by the Receive Task element.

Relating external system responses to service requests

The Process Correlation ID is a text string passed through a parameter that BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog uses to associate transactions in an external system, like BMC Helix ITSM, with its originating service request. When the variable is included in an action that supports it, for example, Create Remedy Work Order, BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog creates a record using the SB:ServiceRequestStub form in the external system.

The external system can be configured to send a response back through the associated SB:ServiceRequestStub record, which can be used to send a message back to the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog workflow, and release the Receive Task element.

To set up a timer with a Receive Task 

A Timer element interrupts a Receive Task element and lets the process make a decision about how to proceed after the wait step times out. This element can be used only with the Receive Task elements.

Perform the following steps to add a timer to a process containing a Receive Task element:

1. Log in to the Catalog console and open the workflow designer.
2. Click the process name where you want to add events.
   The system opens workflow designer and displays the process diagram on the canvas.
3. To add the Timer event:
   1. On the canvas, drag and drop the Timer event to the Receive Task element as per the process requirements.
   2. In the Properties pane, enter the timer description, and select the Timer Type. 
      The Time Type describes the time within which a task must be completed before the system ends a task.
   • • Interval Timer—Time specified in months, weeks, days, hours, and minutes. 
       If you select Interval Timer, provide the Interval Definition value.
     • Time Expression—Time specified as a time value expression.
       You can use any of the following values in the expression:
       • Current time—Specifies that the event should be triggered at a future time. 
       • Current time and an integer—Specifies that the event should be triggered after specific time (in seconds) from the current time. For example, when you specify Current Time + 1000, the event will be triggered after 1000 seconds from the current time.
       • Current date—Specifies that the event should be triggered at a specific date. For example, if you schedule the timer to 30 March, the event will be triggered on 30 March at 00:00:00 hours.
       • Current date and an integer—Specifies that the event should be triggered on a specific date in the future. For example, if you schedule Current date + 2, the event will be triggered after 2 days from the current date. 
4. Save the process.

The following process shows how the Timer Event can be embedded in a process containing a Receive Task element:

In this example, the process starts with a Create Change Request (Helix ITSM connector) action, and then the system waits for a signal about reaching some condition in the external system. The wait activity is represented by the Receive Task action. If a signal is not passed to the Receive Task element within the time specified in the Timer event, an In App notification is sent to the BMC Helix Digital Workplace dashboard. The process continues until the signal about reaching the specified condition is received.

The notification in this example is sent as many times as the time interval rounds are passed. 

Where to go from here

Complete remaining aspects of the workflow, as described in Workflows for service fulfillment.