topic Re: REST api sample request to create task in Alfresco Archive

REST api sample request to create task

rohitagrawal — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 09:48:03 GMT

as it's not available in documentation

Re: REST api sample request to create task

frederikherema1 — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 10:04:17 GMT

Thanks for reporting this. You can just do a POST to the runtime/tasks, with the body simmilar to the one used in the PUT runtime/tasks/1234 request.

I'll add the documentation for that to the current master.

Re: REST api sample request to create task

rohitagrawal — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 14:12:59 GMT

http://localhost:8080/activiti-rest/service/runtime/tasks

getting error
{"errorMessage":"Method Not Allowed","statusCode":405}

please comment with sample request

Re: REST api sample request to create task

frederikherema1 — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 12:21:18 GMT

Sorry, POST that is

Re: REST api sample request to create task

skidvd — Mon, 19 Jan 2015 23:18:45 GMT

POST http://localhost:8080/activiti-rest/service/runtime/tasks/5

When I test with the above and providing data similar to the PUT update, I get a 403. What else is required to create a task?

Re: REST api sample request to create task

jbarrez — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 13:26:54 GMT

You can check for yourself: https://github.com/Activiti/Activiti/blob/master/modules/activiti-rest/src/main/java/org/activiti/rest/service/api/runtime/task/TaskResource.java#L68

Re: REST api sample request to create task

skidvd — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 23:34:14 GMT

Thank you for the link to the source code. From reviewing the code in that area, I am still puzzled and wondering if it is even possible to create a task with the REST services as indicated in the earlier posts of this thread?

The 403 response code I was receiving was caused by spring's CSRF protection which is enabled by default. Got around that.

Moving forward, in an attempt to create a new task, I have attempted calls similar to both of the following (as described above in this thread):

POST http://localhost:8080/activiti-rest/service/runtime/tasks/5
PUT http://localhost:8080/activiti-rest/service/runtime/tasks/5

Both of these calls have a payload similar to:

{
"assignee" : "kermit",
"delegationState" : "pending",
"description" : "new task description",
"dueDate" : "2013-04-17T13:06:02.438+02:00",
"name" : "new task name",
"owner" : "kermit",
"parentTaskId" : null,
"priority" : 20
}

The POST call is expecting an action in the payload, so this results in a 400 Bad Request response. From looking at the org.activiti.rest.service.api.runtime.task.TaskResource source, this method only handles ACTION_COMPLETE, ACTION_CLAIM, ACTION_DELEGATE and ACTION_RESOLVE. Therefore, I conclude that the POST variant is not correct for creating a new task.

The PUT variant holds a bit more promise. Especially as the updateTasks() method mapped to this URI does call saveTask() which ultimately appears to handle creation of a new task in the invoked org.activiti.engine.impl.cmd.SaveTaskCmd. Unfortunately, it does not get that far as it first calls org.activiti.rest.service.api.runtime.task.TaskBaseResource.getTaskFromRequest(). Line 455 of this method throws a new ActivitiObjectNotFoundException (resulting in a 404 Not Found response) if the task does not exist.

I cannot locate any other task related services that appear to handle task creation in either the documentation or the source. I therefore believe that this is not supported (at least in the 5.17 version that I am using).

Am I missing something simple? If not, is this by design or a bug?

Incidentally, if I try the same operation via the Java API, I am able to create the task. I can then subsequently retrieve it via the GET http://localhost:8080/activiti-rest/service/runtime/tasks service. This tells me that I am successfully authenticating and communicating with the REST services in general. Just no luck with creating or updating a task via REST services.

I'd greatly appreciate any assistance you can provide please.

Re: REST api sample request to create task

skidvd — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 00:48:44 GMT

I locally modified org.activiti.rest.service.api.runtime.task.TaskResouce at line 54 of the updateTask method. I replaced:

Task task = getTaskFromRequest(taskId);

with

Task task = null;
    try {
     task = getTaskFromRequest(taskId);
    } catch (org.activiti.engine.ActivitiObjectNotFoundException ignore) {
     // We ignore this exception to enable creation of new tasks
     task = new org.activiti.engine.impl.persistence.entity.TaskEntity();
    }

This allows you to successfully create a new task via PUT to the associated URI. However, this would require you to PUT with a URI containing an unkown taskId (let's say -1) to avoid updating an existing task and trigger the creation of a new one. This is unfortunate at best.

A more proper approach (better semantics) would be to POST to a new request mapping …/runtime/tasks without any id so that it can be created dynamically. Existing POST method requires a taskId and an action (no action to create). I'll investigate this solution further and reply back in the near future.

Would appreciate knowing if this is located somewhere else that I am missing, or if this is an intentional omission or a bug please?

Re: REST api sample request to create task

skidvd — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 15:24:11 GMT

I added the following new method to org.activiti.rest.service.api.runtime.task.TaskResouce to enable new task creation via POST. Id will be determined by Activiti.

@RequestMapping(value="/runtime/task", method = RequestMethod.POST, produces="application/json")
public TaskResponse createTask(
      @RequestBody TaskRequest taskRequest, HttpServletRequest request) {

    if (taskRequest == null) {
      throw new ActivitiException("A request body was expected when updating the task.");
    }

    Task task = new org.activiti.engine.impl.persistence.entity.TaskEntity();

    // Populate the task properties based on the request
    populateTaskFromRequest(task, taskRequest);

if (task.getId() != null) {
throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("Cannot create task with a specified id");
}

    // Save the task and fetch again, it's possible that an assignment-listener has updated
    // fields after it was saved so we can't use the in-memory task
    taskService.saveTask(task);
    task = taskService.createTaskQuery().taskId(task.getId()).singleResult();

    return restResponseFactory.createTaskResponse(task);
}

Still would appreciate confirmation that this is not located elsewhere and I have somehow missed it in my searches. Also would like to know if this is an intentional omission from the REST services?

Re: REST api sample request to create task

trademak — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 10:59:26 GMT

It's indeed missing from the userguide, could you create a JIRA issue for that?
The REST service does exists however: POST /runtime/tasks

Best regards,

Re: REST api sample request to create task

skidvd — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 13:55:02 GMT

I agree that POST /runtime/tasks exists. However, it will not handle the creation of a new task (at least not in 5.17 version). As I mentioned earlier in this thread, the POST call is expecting an action in the payload, so [posting with a new task payload only] results in a 400 Bad Request response. From looking at the org.activiti.rest.service.api.runtime.task.TaskResource source, this method only handles ACTION_COMPLETE, ACTION_CLAIM, ACTION_DELEGATE and ACTION_RESOLVE. Therefore, I conclude that the POST variant is not correct for creating a new task.

Re: REST api sample request to create task

jbarrez — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 10:51:29 GMT

That's because you are looking at the wrong class: TaskCollectionResource is the one you need …

Re: REST api sample request to create task

gelito — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 10:46:55 GMT

I was trying using REST to create new task but I confirm it DOESN'T work for me as well. Could you confirm it's possible and provide sample request here?

Re: REST api sample request to create task

trademak — Sat, 12 Sep 2015 17:01:57 GMT

Of course it's possible and we have a user guide that documents each REST API service. So let us know what is not working with a description what you are trying to do.

Best regards,

Re: REST api sample request to create task

alxbxbx — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 12:53:02 GMT

I'm trying to start new process instance via REST API.
POST request
http://localhost:8080/activiti-rest/service/runtime/process-instances

JSON parameters
{
   "processDefinitionId":"myProcess:1:43",
   "businessKey":"myProcess"

}

And i keep getting 400 response:
{
    "message": "Bad request",
    "exception": "Required request body content is missing: org.springframework.web.method.HandlerMethod$HandlerMethodParameter@21d082af"
}

Can someone please tell me what am i doing wrong?
I guess i miss some parameter, but every task in my process doesn't have any parameters.

Re: REST api sample request to create task

martin_grofcik — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 09:29:45 GMT

Hi Aleksadar,

The best way to get familiar with any activiti topic is to:
download activiti source.
search for jUnit tests (your problem could be covered in org/activiti/rest/service/api/runtime package)

Regards
Martin

Re: REST api sample request to create task

manusoftar — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 12:50:18 GMT

For as long as i know, you should use a JSON object with the following syntaxis as your requestbody.

data : { "processDefinitionId" : "myProcess:1:43",
"bussinesKey" : "myProcess"
}

Take special attention to the DATA thing, you store your JSON object on the data param so that activiti engine can recognize it.

Hope it works for you as it worked for me. Good luck!