WorkManager portal — Process Work workspace
How to process assignments in bulk with the My Process Actions area

Note: This topic describes the traditional ('fixed') WorkManager and WorkUser portals, introduced in V5.1. As a best practice in new applications, use a portal based on the composite Case Manager portal. See About the Case Manager portal.

The My Process Actions area of the WorkManager portal is available only to work managers. Use this area to apply an action to all the assignments on a worklist or workbasket. This function is known as bulk processing.

For example, you can transfer assignments from one operator (within your group) to another, from one workbasket to another, or apply a flow action repeatedly to all the assignments on a worklist. You can wait and watch as the system processes the assignments, or send the processing to an agent that processes them in background mode.

Transfer assignments from a worklist or workbasket

To transfer assignments in bulk:

1. In the upper left area of the WorkManager portal, select the work pool name that contains the assignments to be processed.
2. Select an operator from the left Transfer work from menu, or a workbasket from the right Transfer work from menu. These list all operators in a work group or all workbaskets associated with a work group.
3. The workspace changes to present a list of assignments (in your current work pool) for that operator or workbasket. Click a column header to sort by that column. Indicate which assignments to transfer using Select All, Deselect All, and check boxes at the left of each row. (If more than 500 assignments are found, the display is paged. Process the first 500 assignments first, then click Process More Items to process those on the next page, and so on.)
4. In the Reassign action area, select a destination operator or workbasket.
5. Optionally, select the Run in background? check box to have this bulk processing performed in the background by the Pega-ProCom agent rather than in your current requestor session. See About background processing.
6. Click Process Assignments. Foreground processing may take minutes or more, depending on the number of assignments to be processed. When processing completes, the system redisplays with worklist with a check mark indicating each updated assignment, or an for assignments not updated. To access an error message, hold the mouse pointer over the to view a ToolTip.
7. Optional. Click Process More Items if there are more assignments to process.

Apply a flow action to multiple assignments in a worklist

To process assignments for an operator in bulk:

1. In the upper left area of the WorkManager portal, select the work pool name that contains the assignments to be processed.
2. Locate two rows containing the label Bulk process for. Select an operator from the upper Bulk process for drop-down list. These list all operators in your work group.
3. In the middle field of that row, select one Work Type from the menu, or All Work Types.
4. Select an action from the with actions list, for example Reject this work.
5. This presents the flow action form. Complete any fields with values that are appropriate for all selected assignments.
6. Optionally, select the Run in background? check box to have this bulk processing performed in the background by the Pega-ProCom agent rather than in your current requestor session. See About background processing.
7. Click Process Assignments. Foreground processing may take minutes or more, depending on the number of assignments to be processed. When processing completes, the system redisplays with worklist with a check mark indicating each updated assignment, or an for assignments not updated. To access an error message, hold the mouse pointer over the to view a ToolTip.

Apply a flow action to multiple assignments in a workbasket

To process assignments on a workbasket in bulk:

1. In the upper left area of the WorkManager portal, select the work pool name that contains the assignments to be processed.
2. Locate two rows containing the label Bulk process for. Select a workbasket from the lower Bulk process for menu. This lists all workbaskets associated with your work group.
3. In the middle field of that row, select one Work Type from the menu, or All Work Types.
4. Select an action from the with actions list, for example Reject this work.
5. This presents the flow action form. Complete any fields with values that are appropriate for all selected assignments.
6. Optionally, select the Run in background? check box to have this bulk processing performed in the background by the Pega-ProCom agent rather than in your current requestor session. See About background processing.
7. Click Process Assignments. Foreground processing may take minutes or more, depending on the number of assignments to be processed. When processing completes, the system redisplays with worklist with a check mark indicating each updated assignment, or an for assignments not updated. To access an error message, hold the mouse pointer over the to view a ToolTip.

Bulk process by Work Type

To process assignments by work type:

1. In the upper left area of the WorkManager portal, select the work pool name that contains the assignments to be processed.
2. Locate the row containing the label Bulk Process by Work Type.
3. Select one Work Type from the drop-down list.
4. At the Bulk Processing form, at the Create Operator field, enter the first two letters of the Operator's name to get a list of results. Select an operator's name from the Create Operator list.
5. At the Update Operator field, enter the first two letters of the Operator's name to get a list of results. Select an update operator from the Update Operator list. Note that the operator fields use operator names and no ID's.
6. Select a status from the Status list, for example, Resolved–Completed.
7. Select the Created After and Updated After dates.
8. Click Update Filter to return search results.
9. Results are listed below. Select the check box to specify a specific result, or select the check box in the header to select all results. Click any of the tabs to sort by ID, Subject, Status, Update Operator, or Update Time.

Bulk process by Cover

To process assignments by cover:

1. In the upper left area of the WorkManager portal, select the work pool name that contains the assignments to be processed.
2. Locate the row containing the label Bulk process cover.
3. Select one Cover from the menu, for example, Build a Product.
4. Enter the first two letters of the Cover ID to get a list of results. Then, select a cover ID from the Cover ID list.
5. Click Process Cover.
6. All Work Objects in a Cover are displayed in the Bulk Processing screen.

Bulk process by Folder

To process assignments by folder:

1. In the upper left area of the WorkManager portal, select the work pool name that contains the assignments to be processed.
2. Locate the row containing the label Bulk process folder.
3. Select Process Folder.
4. Enter the first two letters of the Folder ID to get a list of results. Then, select a folder ID from the Folder ID list.
5. Click Process Folder.
6. Results display in the Bulk Processing screen.

About background processing by the Pega-ProCom agent

If you need to transfer or process dozens or hundreds of assignments, it may be preferable to send the processing for processing in the background and receive an email when the processing is complete. The Pega-ProCom agent includes an activity that provides such processing.

To use this facility:

1. Review the Data-Agent-Queue instances on your system; one for each Pega-ProCom agent that exists on each node. Ensure that the row identifying the AgentBulkProcessing activity is enabled on at least one node, and that the overall Enable this agent? check box is selected for that node.
2. Ensure that an email account data instance (Data-EmailAccount class) is defined to send email from your application.
3. For each manager who is to use this facility, ensure that a valid email address is present in the Operator tab of the Operator ID form.
4. Complete input values for one of the My Process Actions facilities. Select the Run in Background check box.
5. Click Process Assignments. Background processing may take minutes or hours, depending on the number of assignments selected and other conditions.
6. When background processing by the Pega-ProCom agent is complete, the agent sends an email message listing the count of assignments selected and processed, and a list of the keys of assignments not processed. (Bulk processing skips assignments for various reasons, including the inability to acquire a lock.)

How it works

When you click the Process Assignments button, the system creates an instance of the Assign-Schedule-Future class, which serves to notify the Pega-ProCom agent that a bulk processing request is pending. It changes the owner of assignments to be processed to the reserved value pyBulkProcessing so that they are no longer on the original worklist or workbasket.

As it processes assignments, the Pega-ProCom agent temporarily creates instances of the Assign-Schedule-InterimResults class. When processing is complete, it forms and sends the email message.

Notes:

• Bulk processing is available only to users who hold the standard privilege Work-.PerformBulk.
• These features (and the contents of the with actions list) depend on the current work pool name and on the flow actions available for each assignment. For example, after you choose an operator in the Transfer work from list, only assignments for that operator that include the standard flow action Work-.Transfer (or a custom rule overriding this standard rule) display.
• Four standard system settings rules (Rule-Admin-System-Settings rule type) affect background bulk processing. You can override them with other settings if necessary. See Atlas — Standard System Settings rules.
• Bulk processing may detect problem assignments. When this occurs, it sets the Instruction field of such assignments to the text value Error: Bulk.
• Some flow actions are not appropriate for bulk processing and do not display on the flow action list. (To mark a flow action as inappropriate, select the Disqualify this action from bulk processing? field on the Action tab of the Flow Action form.)
• On the work item history display, the phrase "system on behalf of NAME" (where NAME is an operator full name) indicates that bulk processing requested by that operator occurred in background.

Improving performance of bulk processing

If your system accesses the PegaRULES database using a JDBC 2.0 driver, you may improve database update performance by enabling an optional driver capability for batched updates. This benefit also applies to external databases when accessed as external classes.

Caution: Not all JDBC 2.0 drivers correctly implement this capability. As of May 2007, Pegasystems has verified this capability with specific drivers including UDB 9.1 and Z/OS DB2. Other vendors are reportedly addressing compliance. Contact Global Customer Support for the latest information.

To allow Pega 7 to use SQL prepared statements to batch updates for improved performance on row inserts, updates, and deletes:

1. To enable this feature for every SQL database, add the following line to the prconfig.xml file:

<env name="database\batchUpdates" value="nn" />

        where nn is a positive integer setting a maximum count for the number of rows to be batched.

2. To enable this feature for a single SQL database that is configured through the prconfig.xml file, add the following line:

<env name="database\databases\zzzzzz\batchUpdates" value="nn" />

        where nn is a positive integer setting a maximum count for the number of rows to be batched and zzzzzz is the name of the datasource. (You can't use this option when the database is configured on the Database form or through application server datasources.)

3. Redeploy and restart.

Note: As an alternative to the prconfig.xml file, you can use Dynamic System Settings to configure your application. See How to create or update a prconfig setting.

Typically, set a value between 5 and 30; vendor documentation and experimentation may provide guidance for a good value. Setting this value to 0 or 1 is equivalent to no batching.

When enabled, this feature applies to all processing — including any Commit operations of two or more objects — but may improve the performance of bulk processing by as much as 20 percent.

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