Deadlines and Escalations

Introduction

Deadlines in Joget act as timers that trigger an exception transition to another activity when a specified duration has elapsed. You can set deadlines for each activity to manage time-sensitive tasks effectively. This article will guide you through setting up deadlines and their types and explain how to use them in your processes.

How does it work?

To ensure timely task completion in Joget, you can set up deadlines within your process flow. This involves configuring the following:

Activating deadline checker

The activity deadline checker is disabled by default. To allow Joget to check the activity deadline, you must set the Process Deadline Checker Interval to a non-zero value. Set it to a suitable value, depending on your needs.

• To enable deadline checking, go to the Admin Bar > General Settings > Timer Settings.
• Change the value for Process Deadline Checker Interval to a non-zero value, i.e. 30 (seconds). The unit used is seconds.

Setting deadlines in activities

• Edit the activity properties for which you wish to set a deadline, then click the Deadlines tab.
• Add a new row and enter appropriate values for Execution, Duration Unit, and Deadline Limit.
• Type the exception name in the Exception name field (e.g., TIMEOUT). Exception names are case-sensitive. Ensure this matches the exception name given to the transition.
• Click OK to save your deadline configuration. You can as many deadlines as you require.

Setting transition as exception flow

When a deadline is triggered, and where the exception name matches the one set for a transition, the flow will execute along that transition to the next element along the workflow.

• Add an Exception-type transition from the activity to the next (i.e., Send Reminder).
• Set the type of condition to Exception.
• Enter an Exception name (e.g., TIMEOUT) in the Expression text area.
• Confirm and close the properties window for the transition.

Deadline types

When configuring deadlines in Joget, you can choose between synchronous and asynchronous deadlines, depending on the desired behavior when a deadline is reached.

• Synchronous Deadlines: For synchronous execution, the current activity will no longer be active when the deadline is triggered.  This is used in cases such as an approval escalation.

• Asynchronous Deadlines: For asynchronous execution, the next activity will be executed while the current activity is still waiting.  This is used in cases such as sending reminders.

You can set multiple deadlines for each activity. Ensure that the exception names match exactly to trigger the correct transitions.

Deadline in a Joget cluster

The deadline checker is controlled by the database. When the deadline checker interval time is reached. Joget will pick up a batch of 10 from the running activity instances having deadlines, and run it until it goes through all the running activity instances. Then it will start the next interval. Joget will skip the activity if the deadline is already triggered. In a clustered environment, every cluster node will have its deadline checker and will perform the same deadline checking process. The first checker that reaches the activity deadline first will flag (update) the deadline in the database, then proceed with the deadline workflow. The second checkers will skip that activity and continue the checking process.

Related documentation

• Office Working Hour Deadline Plugin

Download related plugin

Download the tutorial app on Process Deadline from Joget Marketplace to learn more.