Creating case user interfaces

Create user interfaces that a user sees for the case instance in Process Portal.

To create a case instance user interface, first create a client-side human service, which includes a generated coach. You can then create your customized interface by modifying the generated service and coach.

1. Open the case type for which you want to create the user interface.
2. Switch to the Views page.
3. Select the interface that you want to create, for example Default under Details UI.
4. Click New beside Client-side human service and enter a name for your user interface. In the New Client-side Human Service page, if you click Next, you see a list of case variables that you can add to your human service. Select the variables to be added to the interface of the human service.

   You do not need to map the variables between the case type and the human service. The case type variables are already mapped to the human service variables with the same name.

5. The client-side human services editor opens. Switch to the Variables page. Notice that the input and output variables that are mapped from the case type are locked. You can edit these variables only in the case type editor. You can, however, add private variables that are available only to the human service.

   If you are creating a launch case UI, Process Designer generates a cancelCase variable of type Boolean. The default value is false. You can only view this variable, you cannot change or delete it. The value of the variable is set by the launch UI human service. If the value of cancelCase is true when a user completes the human service during case launch, the launch is canceled. If the value is false, the case is started.

6. Switch to the Diagram page. A basic diagram is generated for you.
7. Double-click the coach to open the Coaches page.
8. Complete the human service diagram and customize the coaches.
   • For a Details UI, the generated human service has two coaches:
     • View Instance Details coach, which contains the following coach controls:

       Default Instance Details Template

       Displays the instance details in Process Portal

       Data section

       Displays the values of the variables that are passed into the human service.

     • Show error, which returns an error if the instance is not found.
     The human service is generated from a template in the Dashboards toolkit, called Instance Details UI Services Template. For more information, see Instance Details UI Service template
   • For a Launch UI, the generated human service has an Enter Data coach, with a control for each mapped case type variable and property. When you specify a launch case UI, Process Designer generates a cancelCase variable of type Boolean. The value of the variable is set by the launch UI human service. If the value of cancelCase is true when a user completes the launch case human service, the launch is canceled. If the value of cancelCase value is false, the case is started. The default value is false. The generated Launch UI has one coach with two buttons; OK and Cancel. If a user clicks Cancel, the cancelCase variable is set to true.
     If you are working with the IBM BPM content store on an Enterprise Content Manager server, you can modify your Launch UI so that a user can view or add documents in the case folder that you specified in the Folders page. To do so, use coach controls that are provided in the Content Management toolkit for viewing and retrieving documents in the content store. For example, the Document Explorer control. These controls are available in the Content Management toolkit. For more information, see:

     • How to use coach views to store or view documents
     • Document Explorer control

     Note: If the case launch is canceled, the case folder is removed from the IBM BPM content store. Documents that are also used outside the case folder remain in the content store. Otherwise, they are removed.
9. Test the client-side human service.
   • For Launch UI, click Run to test the client-side human service and the coach.
   • For Details UI, do one of the following:
     • If the human service flow is not customized, run the instance UI within Process Portal.
     • If you want to incrementally test and build your custom UI:
       1. Remove the logic in the human service that shows an error if the process instance id is null.
       2. Add a script task to insert some temporary test data.
       3. Run the human service
       4. After you are satisfied that the service works as expected, remove the temporary script and then test again by running the instance UI within Process Portal.