Inconsistency in displaying archived tasks

[b_schnarr]

Hello at all,

The archived tab in explorer is very useful, because the user can see all the completed tasks of its own. In order to get displayed in the "Archived" tab, each task needs an owner, because this query is used: historyService.createHistoricTaskInstanceQuery().taskOwner(userId).finished(). If a task has no owner, the task won´t be displayed in the Archived-Tab in Explorer. So far so good. I additionally know that the owner is not set by default. Everything is ok.

Now lets look at a user task without any form properties and at a user task with some form properties. The task without any form properties (or with invisible form properties) is shown in the Archived-Tab automatically without explicitely defining an owner. As soon as a user task gets a visible form property, the task won´t be shown in the Archived-Tab, you need explicitely define an owner.

Therefore my question, if this behaviour is intended? In my opinion, there should not be a difference between user tasks with and without form properties. If no owner is defined, the tasks shouldn´t be visible in the Archived-Tab in Explorer.

Thanks and best regards
Ben

[jbarrez]

hmmm that sounds not right. Actually it should show up in the archived box whenever you were involved I think.

The form properties is strange - why would it show up with the given query?

[b_schnarr]

In my opinion, a task should only appear in the archived tab when an owner is set. Sometimes, you want just so see the last task and not all tasks in between. If a task only would show up when an owner is set, the users / modelers can choose which tasks do appear in this tab.
This issue is very easy reproducable. Just create one task without a form property and one with one form propery. Only one of them will show up in the archived task.

It makes sense that only those tasks were listed with an owner set because this query is used for the Archive-Tab:

historyService.createHistoricTaskInstanceQuery().taskOwner(userId).finished()

Obviously, in some cases, the owner is set automatically by the engine and in some cases, the owner is not set by default?
This can also be seen then you create a single task in the explorer: The owner is set by default. It seems like this is also happening with tasks without form properties even though no owner can be defined in the Eclipse plugin…

Best regards
Ben

[jbarrez]

Sure, that second bit is a bug. But im not sure about the archived meaning. Don't you want to see any of the task you've ever been involved with (although that seems to contradict the original implementation)?

[b_schnarr]

In order to keep the GUI clearly, I personally would prefer to decide which tasks I can see. Lets say we have a document approval process. As a user, I´m often only interested wheather the document is approved or not. Therefore, I just want to see the "results" in the archived tab, meanding the last user task displaying the results.

It should be configurable in design time if a user task gets displayed. Therefore, if only those tasks gets displaed where an owner was set explicitely, the bevahour would be consistent to the API call. The modeler then can decide which tasks gets displayed.

In addition, there is an extra tab "Involved" for all tasks being involved in. Therefore, in my opinion, only completed tasks with an explicit task owner set should be displayed in the archived tab.