Viewing completed tasks of a process instance in the activiti explorer?

Question

We currently evaluate activiti as possible BPM Engine. One thing which is unclear is that completed user tasks are not visible anymore in the activiti explorer.

We build a simple vacation request process. Person 1 creates a vacation request and person 2 handles this request. After both tasks are completed, both users are not able to see the completed tasks in the activiti explorer anymore. Therefore my question, how can Person 1 get informed if his request was rejected or not if he can´t see the result in the activiti explorer?

Thanks for your answers. Best regards Ben

Answer 1

If the request is rejected by person 2, then the process should return control (i.e. a new task) to person 1. Therefore if no tasks exist for a process we can assume the process is complete and approved.

If an explicit notification is required, you can use an email, SMS or other notification mechanism should suffice.

In reality, having tasks disappear is actually good BPM practice. If we need to keep track of completed tasks, we should create records in a system of record database, although one would question the value of such a record (unless reporting on the number of approved/rejected requests is required).