It is good practice not to hard code the variable names into the action bean, but to use configurable attributes to access the workflow variables. Thus, it is easier to reuse the action in other workflow definitions. Here is how you do this:
Configure your action bean from the workflow definition by adding an attribute to the
<Action>element like in Example 5.4, “How to configure an action bean”Define a setter method in your action for the configuration like in Example 5.5, “Example of an action”.
Directly access workflow variables using the
WfInstance.getAtomicVariable()orWfInstance.getAggregationVariable()method.
1: <Variable name="MyFirstVariable" type="String> 2: <String value="OnlyATest"/> 3: </Variable> 4: <AutomatedTask name="One" successor="Two"> 5: <Action class="com.customer.example.workflow.action.ParameterAction" 6: variableToPass="MyFirstVariable"/> 7: </AutomatedTask>
Example 5.4. How to configure an action bean
In the example above, you defined a string variable with the name "MyFirstVariable" and the
value "OnlyATest". With line 6 you configure the action bean that the method
setVariableToPass() on an instance of
com.customer.example.workflow.action.ParameterAction is called with the name of
the string variable as a parameter.
1: public class ParameterAction extends AbstractAction {
2: private String text;
3: ...
4: public String getVariableToPass() {return variableToPass; }
5: public void setVariableToPass(String t) {variableToPass = t;}
6: public WfActionResult execute(WfTaskInstance wfTaskInstance)
throws WfException {
7: ...
8: WfAtomicVariable variable =
wfTaskInstance.getAtomicVariable(variableToPass));
9: ...
10: }
11:}
Example 5.5. Example of an action
Line 4 - 5: Here you define the setter and getter methods for the configuration of your action bean.
Line 8: Here you get the workflow variable using the name
configured with the setVariableToPass() method.
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