I noticed that whenever a Biztalk 2004 action sends out a task message, the
message is tracked in the database. I am planning an application where users
are to view tasks assigned to them through an inbox like interface. I
decided on using the hwsservice.GetAllTasksForUser method to retreive tasks
for a particualr user. I am trying to determine if this is the best approach
and I have a few questions regarding that:
1. Is this interface intended for such an application or is it intended for
administrative applications wishing to view  tasks from an admin
perspective.
2. I notice that the tasks in this list are never removed. i.e. Even if a
user has responded to a task and the task's action has completed, the task
will still lie there.
3. I have to send out the task message out a port for it to be added to the
tracked task messages. Is there some way this can be done without going
through the hassle of having to make a port and send all tasks thru that ?

I'm in a bit of a jam and would appreciate an early reply.
Omer

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1) Yes, this is exactly what the interface is intended for, to be used by a
client application to query information about the HWS system.  The
administration interfaces are exposed via the HWS WMI classes.

2) That's correct.  Tracking data can be used for a number of purposes, not
only just to discover the current tasks assigned to a particular user.  For
instance, tracking data can be used as audit data, or to view everything
that has happened in an activity flow.  As such, you might not want a task
entry to dissappear once the task is marked completed.  The best way to
deal with this is to use the TaskFilter structure that you pass to
GetAllTasksForUser.  Set the Status property to InProgress, and make sure
to set the UseTaskFilter flag to true, and you will only receive tasks
which are in progress.

3)No, the only way to have a task recorded in the database by HWS is to
send a properly formatted message through a send port in an HWS action
orchestration.

--Chris

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EBusiness Server Team

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