topic Re: Passing variabl to a shell task in Alfresco Archive

Passing variabl to a shell task

dmill — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 13:20:14 GMT

Hello guy,I'm using Activiti-rest and having a hard time figuring out how to use variables in a shell task.I create a process instance using POST runtime/process-instances:{ 'processDefinitionId':'xxxxx', 'variables' : [ {'name' : 'myVar', 'value' : 'something'} ]}‍‍‍‍‍‍‍And my process def

Re: Passing variabl to a shell task

dmill — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 13:21:53 GMT

Let me just correct that, I'm obviously using ${myVar}. Sorry for the confusion, still need help though.

Re: Passing variabl to a shell task

trademak — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 16:49:24 GMT

Could you elaborate a bit more on "this doesn't work"?

Best regards,

Re: Passing variabl to a shell task

dmill — Sat, 15 Nov 2014 02:20:35 GMT

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

By "this doesn't work" I mean that ${myVar} seems null. As a testable example we could say that if we defined myVar = /tmp/thing.txt

then when trying the above replacing "echo" with "touch" then
touch ${myVar} should create a file but doesn't

If I replace ${myVar} by the actual path I get :
touch /tmp/thing.txt And this works correctly and creates the file.

Re: Passing variabl to a shell task

dmill — Sat, 15 Nov 2014 19:08:30 GMT

Just to make sure it's clear with everyone.

I create a process instance using POST runtime/process-instances:


{
   'processDefinitionId':'xxxxx',
   'variables' : [
     {'name' : 'myPath', 'value' : '/tmp/test.txt'}
   ]
}

And my process definition contains:


<serviceTask id="console" activiti:type="shell" >
   <extensionElements>
      <activiti:field name="command" stringValue="touch" /> 
      <activiti:field name="arg1" stringValue="${myPath}" />  
   </extensionElements>
</serviceTask>

The above does not create a file at /tmp/test.txt
But the code bellow does :


<serviceTask id="console" activiti:type="shell" >
   <extensionElements>
      <activiti:field name="command" stringValue="touch" /> 
      <activiti:field name="arg1" stringValue="/tmp/test.txt" />  
   </extensionElements>
</serviceTask>

Can anyone tell me how to properly use the variables I sent to the process?

Thanks

Re: Passing variabl to a shell task

jbarrez — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 23:22:07 GMT

Have you verified the variable is tored in the database, or by printing it out before your shell task?

I havent got the code in front of me, but it might be good to check if the shellTaskActivityBehavior supports expressions, and not just regular strings as fields.

Re: Passing variabl to a shell task

dmill — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 22:17:11 GMT

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply. Yes the variables are properly set.
There was a previous post where this question was asked ands resolved but I fail to understand the answer that was given. Any clarification would be great. here's the link:

http://forums.activiti.org/content/accessing-form-variable-subsequent-shell-task

Thanks in advance.

Re: Passing variabl to a shell task

dmill — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 22:37:04 GMT

Hey guys,

I don't mean to be insistant but this is proving to be a huge sticking point for us. And we're stuck until we find a solution. I would find it odd that a shell Task wouldn't accept expressions (really defeats the purpose) so I'm sure it's just a matter of figuring out how to get the functionality to work.
Like I posted earlier. An explanation was given to the same problem and I just don't know how to interpret it. Where do I put my expression?

Re: Passing variabl to a shell task

dmill — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 01:14:23 GMT

anyone?

Re: Passing variabl to a shell task

martin_grofcik — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 07:19:39 GMT


  <serviceTask id="shellEcho" activiti:type="shell">
   <extensionElements>
    <activiti:field name="command" stringValue="cmd" />
    <activiti:field name="arg1" stringValue="/c" />
    <activiti:field name="arg2" stringValue="echo" />
    <activiti:field name="arg3" stringValue="EchoTest" />
    <activiti:field name="wait" stringValue="true" />
    <activiti:field name="outputVariable" stringValue="resultVar"/> 
   </extensionElements>
  </serviceTask>

arg1..3 can be expressions (e.g. use ${varName} )

Regards
Martin

Re: Passing variabl to a shell task

dmill — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 20:51:18 GMT

Thanks for the reply martin but this doesn't seem to work. If you check my example from post #5 you will see that this is not producing the expected result.
The variable is correctly set when I check activiti-explorer, shows the right characters as well. But acts as if it's null when used like you suggest. Which is why I'm confused and seeking help here.

Re: Passing variabl to a shell task

ollib — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 07:32:25 GMT

<code>
<activiti:field name="arg1" stringValue="${myPath}" />
</code>

doesn't work

<code>
<activiti:field name="arg1">
<activiti:expression>${myPath}</activiti:expression>
</activiti:field>
</code>

does

Re: Passing variabl to a shell task

martin_grofcik — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 08:20:31 GMT

Hi,


      HashMap<String, Object> variables = new HashMap<String, Object>();
      variables.put("textToPrint", "Hello World!");
      ProcessInstance pi = runtimeService.startProcessInstanceByKey("echoShellWindowsWithVariable", variables);


  <serviceTask id="shellEcho" activiti:type="shell">
   <extensionElements>
    <activiti:field name="command" stringValue="cmd" />
    <activiti:field name="arg1" stringValue="/c" />
    <activiti:field name="arg2" stringValue="echo" />
    <activiti:field name="arg3" expression="${textToPrint}" />
    <activiti:field name="wait" stringValue="true" />
    <activiti:field name="outputVariable" stringValue="resultVar"/> 
   </extensionElements>
  </serviceTask>

Regards
Martin