Adding predefined tasks

[alexbt]

Hi guys,

First of all my congratulations for the latest release.
I have question regarding predefined tasks in both Modeler and Designer.
Is it possible (if yes, how to do it?) to create, say, a service task that is backed by some Java code and has predefined list of parameters and add it to the palette panel in both Designer and Modeler so that all other properties that are currently present in Designer and Modeler will be read-only or hidden (this is the best case), and a user will be able to add that task to the flow chart and define only available parameters.
We'd like to create a set of such tasks that only have parameter values editable. Our target users are not technical persons and limiting the errors they can produce is vital.

Regards,
Alex

[h_ter_schuur]

Hi Alex,

You can extend the designer rather easily. If you got your classpath set up correctly it'll take a few minutes to provide your own custom task.
The example code demonstrates that you don´t need a lot of code to provide your own palette extension.

The Activiti user guide section Extending Activiti Designer explains how to do this.

Best regards,

[alexbt]

Thank you for the answer.
I've followed your suggestions and it seems that this is exactly what I need.
But I have another question. Is it possible to customize Modeler in the same way as Designer?
I understand that Designer was initially developed by Activiti community and Modeler was given to you by Signavio.
I also noticed that Activiti had enhanced the initial Signavio installation with custom palette, I mean BPMN(Activiti) Palette.
Can I as a developer using Activiti suite customize its Modeler, is it possible and if yes, how?
I'd like to have both tools customizable.

Regards and thanks for your time and help,
Alex

[alp]

As far as i know, such customizations are not yet possible with the Activiti modeler. I'd also like to know if it is planned to add that functionality.

[tiesebarrell]

Alex,

sorry I don't have an answer to the Modeler question, but since I implemented the custom service tasks for Designer, I'm interested in something you said. You mentioned hidden parameters in addition to the parameters the user can set in the diagram. I assume those would have fixed values. I'm wondering why you would want those if you can just create a constant in the runtime class to have the fixed value. Or am I missing something? It could easily be added to Designer and I'd be willing to do so if you could explain to me how you'd want to use it.