Perform multiple activities at once

If you have a large number of similar activities it can be useful to allow users to perform them in bulk. For example, you may want to allow users to update the status of several expense claim cases in one go rather than having to open each one individually and submit the form.

You can use a multitask activity to allow users to submit multiple activities at a time. A multitask activity identifies activities from a dataset. You can either select a dataset of optional or mandatory (required) tasks, or select a dataset that contains cases and use a tag to identify the activities that you want to perform on those cases.

You can configure a multitask activity to give users the option to submit the tasks listed individually, or you can restrict users to submitting either all or none.

You can add platform attributes to the multitask activity form to allow users to set or change the values on all activities that contain the same platform attribute. Users can also edit the values on each individual activity form before they submit the activities (either individually or in bulk).

Create a multitask activity

To create a multitask activity:

1. In your Studio, open the casetype to which you want to add the activity. This can be a page or a standard casetype.
   • A page is usually appropriate if you want to list all mandatory (required) tasks on the platform, or if you want to identify the activities associated with cases in a dataset.
   • A standard casetype is usually appropriate if you want to list all optional tasks that are available on a particular case, or if you want to identify activities on related cases. For example, you could add a multitask activity to the Employee casetype so that users can update the status of all open Expense claim cases for a particular employee.
2. From the Activities tab, click Create activity and set the Type to Multitask.
3. From the Multitask section, select the appropriate options:
   • To list all mandatory tasks that have been generated, set the Type to Mandatory tasks and specify whether you want to list all mandatory tasks on the current case or across the whole platform.
   • To list the available optional activities on the current page or case, set the Type to Optional tasks and specify whether you want to list all optional activities including or excluding those for which Hide in task list is enabled.
   • To list tasks associated with cases in a dataset, set the Type to Cases and select the dataset that identifies those cases. If you only want to list cases that are related to the current case (such as all expense claims relating to a particular employee), select a dataset with a current case filter.
     Then, specify one or more tags to identify the activities you want to list in the multitask activity. For example, you might use tags to identify activities that relate to onboarding an employee so that you can list pending employee onboarding tasks on the homepage or a dedicated HR page. Similarly, if you have applied a current case filter to a dataset, you could use a tag to list all expense claim activities with an Approval process tag for the employee currently being viewed.
4. Specify whether users should have the option to submit tasks individually. If you enable this option, a submit button is displayed for each individual activity and for all activities listed on the form. If this option is not enabled, only the submit button for all activities listed on the form is displayed.
5. You can specify supporting text to include on the multitask form now, or configure this later by editing the activity properties.
6. If you do not want the multitask activity itself to be listed in a widget displaying optional or mandatory tasks, enable Hide in task list.
7. Click Create activity. The activity and a corresponding form are created.

As with other types of activity, you can use the activity designer to trigger other activities and apply mappings at each stage of the activity lifecycle. For more information, see Chain activities together.

Configure the multitask form

The form for a multitask activity is created automatically when you create the activity.

You can give users the option to set values for fields on the listed activities in bulk by adding platform attributes to the multivalue form. This is useful if you have included platform attributes on the forms for some or all of the listed activities.

For example, you might have a platform attribute labelled Status with values defined in a static picklist, such as Approved, Queried, Pending and Rejected. If you have added that platform attribute to the forms for both the Update expense claim details and Review expense claim activities, then adding the platform attribute to the multitask form will allow users to update the field on all listed activities in one go.

To add platform attributes to the form and make other changes to the layout, open the form from either the Forms or Activities tab on the casetype view. For more information about using the form designer, see Configure forms.

Tip:

If a user has set a value on all activities using a platform attribute, they can still change the value in that field for individual activities before they submit either the individual activity or the multitask activity.

Set activity permissions

As with all types of activity, you need to grant rights to perform a multitask activity to one or more roles.

To configure permissions to perform the activity, open the multitask activity and select the Rights tab:

• To make the multitask activity and mandatory task, grant a role Execute rights. You will need to trigger the multitask activity (using an Execute trigger) from another activity in order to generate it so that users in the selected role can perform it.
• To make the multitask activity an optional activity, grant a role Request rights. Users in the selected role can initiate the multitask activity at any time.

Note that in order to view and perform the activities listed in a multitask activity, users must also belong to a role that has been granted rights on the listed activities.

Make a multitask activity available to users

To make a multitask activity available to users, add an activity widget to the page or view. The activity widget displays the multitask form, which embeds the form for each of the individual activities. If you have allowed users to submit individual activities, the submit button is also displayed on each individual activity form.

Alternatively, you can use a template widget to display a button that opens the multitask activity form.

Grant rights to view the widget to the role(s) with permission to perform the multitask activity. For more information about adding widgets to pages and views, see Configure pages and views.

Tip:

To display an instruction and/or change the button labels on the multitask form, edit the activity properties. To change the instruction and/or button labels on the individual activities, edit the properties of those activities.