topic Re: Error closing a Process in Alfresco Archive

Error closing a Process

f_lombardo — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:27:09 GMT

Hi all.I'm using Actviti 5.11 via the REST API. Sometimes, when I close a task that triggers the end of a process, I get this error:3-apr-2013 15.42.31 org.activiti.engine.impl.interceptor.CommandContext closeGRAVE: Error while closing command contextorg.activiti.engine.ActivitiException: execution

Re: Error closing a Process

trademak — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:03:11 GMT

Hi,

Can you explain this a bit more?
I understand that you complete a task that ends the process instance.
But in the stacktrace I see that you are retrieving the process instance details of that ended process instance.
And that process instance doesn't exist anymore, so you'll get an exception.

Best regards,

Re: Error closing a Process

f_lombardo — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 08:17:45 GMT

Hi,
I understand that you complete a task that ends the process instance.
But in the stacktrace I see that you are retrieving the process instance details of that ended process instance.
And that process instance doesn't exist anymore, so you'll get an exception.

That's true, but I think that Activiti should not throw any exception. As a matter of fact, if I call this REST API after a while, it responds the right way, telling me that the process exists, but it is completed:


{
    "processInstanceId": "35910",
    "businessKey": null,
    "processDefinitionId": "valutazioneParallelaRichiestaOfferta:10:29604",
    "startTime": "2013-04-02T09:21:22CEST",
    "startActivityId": "avvioProcesso",
    "startUserId": "PIPPO",
    "completed": true,
……

I think that there is a problem that arises when you close a process and, during the closing phase, you invoke the "process-instance" API.

Thanks.

Bye

Franco

Re: Error closing a Process

jbarrez — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:34:29 GMT

Yes, but that is a matter of transactions: the second transaction doesn't see anything that hasn't been committed yet.

So I don't see how that could be solved without breaking a lot of other stuff.

Re: Error closing a Process

f_lombardo — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 09:27:02 GMT

Uhm, is it a problem of timing? I mean, I sent the second command _after_ the first has been completed. For my program the commitment is completed.

Thanks

Bye

Franco

Re: Error closing a Process

jbarrez — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:01:57 GMT

So you have 2 separate REST calls? The rest call will only return once the transaction is completed, so indeed the second one should see it.

Are you using async steps in your process? That could explain it.

Re: Error closing a Process

f_lombardo — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:47:08 GMT

Yes, I have two separate REST calls.
Sorry, but I didn't understand what do you mean with "async steps".

Thank you very much.

Bye

Franco

Re: Error closing a Process

jbarrez — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 11:40:34 GMT

I mean, what does your process do?

If you have two rest calls, I find it very hard to see why it would give different results depending on the timing … UNLESS the process using an asynchronous step, which means the first rest call would return before the process is actually done.

Re: Error closing a Process

f_lombardo — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:30:16 GMT

Here you can see the image of my process:

http://www.francolombardo.net/wp-content/uploads/x.png

Each of the user tasks I defined is ended by a RAST call. They lead to task "Scelta percorsi" (the red A), which executes this code:

<java>
public class SceltaPercorsi implements ActivityBehavior {

public void execute(ActivityExecution execution) throws Exception {
    List<PvmTransition> paths= calculateTheRightPaths();

    execution.inactivate();

    execution.takeAll(paths, new ArrayList<ActivityExecution>());
}

}
</java>

Under some circumnstances my code finds that the only possible path is toward task "Mail avviso commmerciale" (the red B).

Is this an "asynchronous step"?

Thanks.

Bye

Franco

Re: Error closing a Process

trademak — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:24:31 GMT

Ehmm, are you implementing your own parallel execution implementation? Why are you calling the inactivate method?
What's the code behind the calculateTheRightPaths method call?

Best regards,

Re: Error closing a Process

f_lombardo — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:45:57 GMT

Here is a little history of my process:

http://forums.activiti.org/content/activityexecutiontakeall-what-2nd-parameter

Why am I calling "inactivate"? Well, I just copied an pasted ParallelGatewayActivityBehavior: I saw that without that method the whole machinery didn't work, so….
Anyway, I'd appreciate your explanations about that gateway 🙂

Thanks a lot.

Bye

Franco

Re: Error closing a Process

trademak — Wed, 01 May 2013 09:52:44 GMT

Hi Franco,

Thanks for the background, that explains it a bit more for me.
Could you add some details what's behind the calculateTheRightPaths method call? Because that's where the magic happens to see which paths should be taken.

Best regards,

Re: Error closing a Process

f_lombardo — Thu, 02 May 2013 08:42:03 GMT

Well, there is nothing magic, but something convoluted 🙂
In the "Scelta uffici" ("Offices choice") task the user can decide which of the next 3 phases he wants to activate (at least 1). The process does that setting 3 variables, tested by the calculateTheRightPaths methods. If the right variable is setted and the task is not already activated, it adds the corrisponding path to the PvmTransition List. If the user chooses less than 3 paths, and the process is still going, calculateTheRightPaths method adds the path to "Scelta uffici" task too, so that the user has the chance to activtate the remaining paths while the other are already activated.
If it's all done, the method sends to the final step.

Sorry, it's a bit obscure…

Thanks.

Bye

Franco

Re: Error closing a Process

trademak — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:37:18 GMT

Ok, do let's go back to the original question of this post. You get an exception while retrieving the process instance details via the REST API right? So you complete a user task that eventually ends the process instance right? Then you do another REST call to retrieve the details about that process instance and you get this exception?

The following code is in that REST service implementation:

<blockcode>
Map<String, Object> variableMap = ActivitiUtil.getRuntimeService()
.getVariables(processInstanceId);
</blockcode>

This is returning that exception because the process has been completed. That's a bug because the variables should be retrieved from the HistoryService. Could you create a JIRA for this?

Thanks,

Re: Error closing a Process

f_lombardo — Thu, 02 May 2013 10:58:10 GMT

Uhm, there's something I can't understand. Here https://github.com/Activiti/Activiti/blob/master/modules/activiti-rest/src/main/java/org/activiti/rest/api/process/ProcessInstanceResource.java

you can see:
<java>
try {
      Map<String, Object> variableMap = ActivitiUtil.getRuntimeService()
          .getVariables(processInstanceId);

…
    } catch(Exception e) {
      // Absorb possible error that the execution could not be found
    }

    List<HistoricDetail> historyVariableList = ActivitiUtil.getHistoryService()
        .createHistoricDetailQuery()
        .processInstanceId(processInstanceId)
        .variableUpdates()
        .orderByTime()
        .desc()
        .list();
…
</java>

So the error should be catched! Is this stack trace simply a log (but I didn't find where it should be printed to the log file), while my problem isn't really generated here but in another point of the application?

Thanks a lot.

Bye

Franco

Re: Error closing a Process

trademak — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:50:30 GMT

Hi Franco,

You are right, that is strange. If you create a JIRA I'll do some more digging.

Best regards,

Re: Error closing a Process

f_lombardo — Fri, 03 May 2013 15:15:09 GMT

Here it is: https://jira.codehaus.org/browse/ACT-1677

Thanks a lot.

Bye

Franco