Part VI. Custom tasks and work item handlers

As a business rules developer, you can create custom tasks and work item handlers to execute custom code within your process flows and extend the operations available for use in Red Hat Process Automation Manager. You can use custom tasks to develop operations that Red Hat Process Automation Manager does not directly provide and include them in process diagrams. Custom tasks and work item handlers support Business Central, standalone editors, and Visual Studio Code (VS Code). This chapter describes how to use Business Central to create, manage, and deploy custom tasks and work item handlers.

In Business Central, each task in a process diagram has a WorkItemDefinition Java class with an associated WorkItemHandler Java class. You can define a WorkItemDefinition using an MVFLEX Expression Language (MVEL) map as part of a MVEL list in a .wid file. Place the .wid file in the global directory under the project root or in the directory of the BPMN file. The work item handler contains Java code registered with Business Central and implements org.kie.api.runtime.process.WorkItemHandler.

The Java code of the work item handler is executed when the task is triggered. You can customize and register a work item handler to execute your own Java code in custom tasks.