Component utility steps

This topic describes available utility steps for component processes.

To use these steps, select Utility Steps in the Tools pane of your component process.

Process Sleep step

Use the Process Sleep step to specify time (in seconds) for a process to wait until continuing with the next steps.

The following table describes the step's properties.

Property Description
Sleep Mode

Select the sleep mode for the process:

  • Sleep specified time. Select this option to set the time period (in seconds) for the process to sleep.
  • Sleep until date. Select this option to set the date and time for the process to wake up.
Sleep Time For the Sleep specified time mode, enter the time period (in seconds) for the process to suspend activity. The default setting is 30 seconds.
Wake up date/time For the Sleep until date mode, select the date and time when the process resumes activity.
Hint Add a comment to the step. To view the comment, point to the step in the design space.

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Acquire Lock and Release Lock steps

The Acquire Lock and Release Lock steps enable you to lock and release a process for a target resource.

Locks are typically used to prevent specific processes from modifying the same resource at the same time, for example, when a database is updated.

In an Acquire Lock step, the process tries to acquire a lock with the specified name. If there is no other lock with the same name, the process acquires the lock and continues. If another process is using a lock with the same name, the process waits until the lock is released by the other process. Any processes that access the resource without a lock or with a lock of a different name do not wait on this lock.

Locks are released automatically when the process completes. If you need to release a lock before continuing later steps in a process, use the Release Lock step.

Administrators can also release locks. For details, see Manage locks.

The following table describes the properties for these steps.

Property Description
Lock Name

Specify the lock name. The default setting is as follows:
${p:component.name}-${p:componentProcess.name}-${p:resource.name}

Tip: The default lock name is set with a default variable. To make the lock names the same for different objects and processes, enter a static string for the name or use variables that resolve to the same in both processes. For example, to lock a resource against concurrent use for two processes in different components that are mapped to the same resource, you may use the following lock name for both: ${p:resource.name}.

Hint Add a comment to the step. To view the comment, point to the step in the design space.

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Set Status step

The Set Status step enables you to explicitly set the status of a process. For details on how to create statuses, see Define and use statuses.

The following table describes the step's properties.

Property Description
Status Select from available statuses, Success or Failed.
Hint Add a comment to the step. To view the comment, point to the step in the design space.

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Set Property step

Use the Set Property step to set a value of a property.

The following table describes the step's properties.

Property Description
Name Enter a name for the step.
Property Name Enter a name for the property.
Property Value Enter a value for the property.
Property Type

Select a type for the property:

  • Request Execution. Select this option to create a property for the context of the running process. The property exists only while the process runs.
  • Component Version. Select this option to update an existing property of the component version deployed during the process.
Hint Add a comment to the step. To view the comment, point to the step in the design space.

Note: Deployment Automation enables you to use Java Unified Expression Language (EL) in this step. For example, for a property named propB, you could specify the Property Value as an expression: ${p:propA}+1. This way, if the value of propA is 5, the value of propB is set to 6.

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Switch step

The Switch step enables you to define a conditional step. The outbound connections for this step are set to check for values to determine the ongoing path of the process. For details on how to apply the step, see Use conditions and switch steps.

The following table describes the step's properties.

Property Description
Name Enter a name for the step.
Property Name Enter a name for the property to be checked for values in the outgoing connections.
Hint Add a comment to the step. To view the comment, point to the step in the design space.

Note: Deployment Automation enables you to use Java Unified Expression Language (EL) in this step. For example, for a property named propB, you could specify the Property Value as an expression: ${p:propA}+1. This way, if the value of propA is 5, the value of propB is set to 6.

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Join step

Use the Join step to join steps in a process.

There are no properties for this step.

For the Join step to proceed to its outbound connections, all its inbound connection paths must be valid. To be valid, those that should evaluate to success do so, those that should evaluate to failure do so, those that should evaluate to any value do so, and those that should evaluate to a specific switch value do so.

You can do an implicit join without the Join step by having multiple inbound connections for another step. Regardless of whether it is an implicit or explicit join, all incoming connections must be valid for the joining step to run.

The Join step is useful when your process includes multiple steps that must all complete to a certain outcome and then continue on to multiple outbound steps without additional processing between them.

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Manual Task step

With the Manual Task step, you can interrupt a process until manual intervention is performed according to a preconfigured component task.

You must set component tasks for a component before you can select them for this step. For details, see Create component tasks.

The following table describes the step's properties.

Property Description
Name Enter a descriptive name for the step.
Task Definition Select a previously created user-defined task. For details on creating component tasks, see Create component tasks.
Environment Role Select the role you want to respond to the task. The user mapped to this role must respond to the generated work item before the process can continue.
Component Role Select the role you want to respond to the task. The user mapped to this role must respond to the generated work item before the process can continue.
Resource Role Select the role you want to respond to the task. The user mapped to this role must respond to the generated work item before the process can continue.
Hint Add a comment to the step. To view the comment, point to the step in the design space.

All roles are required, and all affected users must respond before the process can continue.

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Add Inventory Status and Remove Inventory Status steps

The Add Inventory Status and Remove Inventory Status steps enable you to add an inventory status as part of your process. See Use inventory statuses.

The following table describes the step's properties.

Property Description
Status Select the status you want to add or remove.
Hint Add a comment to the step. To view the comment, point to the step in the design space.

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Run Component Process step

The Run Component Process step enables you to run a component process as part of your current process.

The following table describes the step's properties.

Property Description
Name Enter a name for the step.
Component Process Select the component process name.
Hint Add a comment to the step. To view the comment, point to the step in the design space.

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Run Global Process step

The Run Global Process step enables you to run a global process as part of your current process.

The following table describes the step's properties.

Property Description
Name Enter a name for the step.
Process Select the global process name.
Resource Name Enter the resource name. The default value is ${p:resource.name}.
Hint Add a comment to the step. To view the comment, point to the step in the design space.

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Annotation

An Annotation enables you to create a text note that you can then connect to a process step. This feature is especially useful in complex processes when you need to explain specific steps.

The following table describes the Annotation properties.

Property Description
Annotation Enter a message of the annotation.
Style Select the background color for the annotation.

Note: You cannot use annotations as steps in a process. Annotations connect to steps, but not the other way around.

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See also: