Managing tasks in an organizational hierarchy using Manager View

In AEM Forms workspace, managers can now access the tasks assigned to anyone in their hierarchy—direct or indirect reports—and perform various actions on them. The tasks are available in the To-do tab in the AEM Forms workspace. The actions supported on the tasks of direct reports are:

Forward – Forward a task from direct report to any user.

Claim – Claim a task of a direct report.

Claim & Open – Claim a task of a direct report and automatically open it in the To-do list of the manager.

Reject – Reject a task forwarded to a direct report by some other user. This option is available for the tasks forwarded by other users to a direct report.

AEM Forms restricts a users’ access to only those tasks for which the user has access control (ACL). Such a check ensures that a user can fetch only the tasks on which the user has access permissions. Using third-party web-services and implementations to define hierarchy, an organization can customize the definition of manager and direct reports to suit their needs.

1. Create a DSC. For more information, see ‘Developing Components for AEM Forms’ topic in Programming with AEM Forms guide.

2. In the DSC, define a new SPI for hierarchy management to define direct reports and hierarchy within the AEM Forms users. Following is a sample Java™ code snippet.

   public class MyHierarchyMgmtService
   {
        /*
       Input : Principal Oid for a livecycle user
       Output : Returns true when the user is either the service invoker OR his direct/indirect report.
       */
       boolean isInHierarchy(String principalOid) {
   
       }
   
       /*
       Input : Principal Oid for a livecycle user
       Output : List of principal Oids for direct reports of the livecycle user
       A user may get direct reports only for himself OR his direct/indirect reports.
       So the API is functionally equivalent to -
       isInHierarchy(principalOid) ? <return direct reports> : <return empty list>
       */
       List<String> getDirectReports(String principalOid) {
   
       }
   
       /*
       Returns whether a livecycle user has direct reports or not.
       It is functionally equivalent to -
       getDirectReports(principalOid).size()>0
       */
       boolean isManager(String principalOid) {
   
       }
   }
   

3. Create a component.xml file. Ensure that spec-id is the same as shown in code snippet below. The following is a sample code snippet that you can repurpose.

   <component xmlns="https://adobe.com/idp/dsc/component/document">
       <component-id>com.adobe.sample.SampleDSC</component-id>
       <version>1.1</version>
       <supports-export>false</supports-export>
         <descriptor-class>com.adobe.idp.dsc.component.impl.DefaultPOJODescriptorImpl</descriptor-class>
         <services>
           <service name="MyHierarchyMgmtService" title="My hierarchy management service" orchestrateable="false">
           <auto-deploy service-id="MyHierarchyMgmtService" category-id="Sample DSC" major-version="1" minor-version="0" />
           <description>Service for resolving hierarchy management.</description>
            <specifications>
            <specification spec-id="com.adobe.idp.taskmanager.dsc.enterprise.HierarchyManagementProvider"/>
            </specifications>
           <specification-version>1.0</specification-version>
           <implementation-class>com.adobe.sample.hierarchymanagement.MyHierarchyMgmtService</implementation-class>
           <request-processing-strategy>single_instance</request-processing-strategy>
           <supported-connectors>default</supported-connectors>
           <operation-config>
               <operation-name>*</operation-name>
               <transaction-type>Container</transaction-type>
               <transaction-propagation>supports</transaction-propagation>
               <!--transaction-timeout>3000</transaction-timeout-->
           </operation-config>
           <operations>
               <operation anonymous-access="true" name="isInHierarchy" method="isInHierarchy">
                   <input-parameter name="principalOid" type="java.lang.String" />
                   <output-parameter name="result" type="java.lang.Boolean"/>
               </operation>
               <operation anonymous-access="true" name="getDirectReports" method="getDirectReports">
                   <input-parameter name="principalOid" type="java.lang.String" />
                   <output-parameter name="result" type="java.util.List"/>
               </operation>
               <operation anonymous-access="true" name="isManager" method="isManager">
                   <input-parameter name="principalOid" type="java.lang.String" />
                   <output-parameter name="result" type="java.lang.Boolean"/>
               </operation>
               </operations>
               </service>
         </services>
   </component>
   

4. Deploy DSC through Workbench. Restart ProcessManagementTeamTasksService service.

5. You may have to refresh your browser or logout/login with the user again.

The following screen illustrates accessing the tasks of direct reports and the available actions.

Access tasks of direct reports and act on the tasks