Java Method Tool Agent

The Java Method tool agent provides a means to invoke a static or instance method on a Java object. In the instance case the target object can either be supplied by a process instance variable or it can be instantiated on-the-fly for the purpose.

Repository Metadata

A Java Method tool agent metadata entry contains:

    <java-method ...>
        ...
        <class-name ... />
        <method ... />
        <method-sig>*
            <parm-type ... />+
        </method-sig>
    </java-method>

class-name: The fully qualified name of the class which implements the method. The class must have a public, no-args constructor unless all invocations pass a pre-constructed target object.
method: The name of the method to be invoked.
method-sig: The nested parm-type elements define the method signature.
parm-type: Each entry is the fully qualified name of the class or type of the respective method argument.

XPDL Extension

A workflow can invoke an instance method on a specific target object by using the obe.Target XPDL extension:

<Activity Id="nmtoken" ...>
    ...
    <Implementation>
        <Tool Id="nmtoken" Type="APPLICATION|PROCEDURE">
            ...
            <ExtendedAttributes>
                <ExtendedAttribute Name="obe.Target" Value="nmtoken" />
            </ExtendedAttributes>
        </Tool>
    </Implementation>
    ...
</Activity>

Id: The ID of the tool agent to be invoked.
Value: The ID of the process attribute containing the target object, which must be an instance of the class-name specified in the tool agent meta-data.