Deadline Manager

This single process manages the deadlines that have been defined in a procedure using the iProcess Modeler.

At defined intervals (deadline processing interval), the Deadline Manager checks the outstanding_addressee table for expired deadlines. If deadlines have expired, the Deadline Manager sends an Mbox instruction to the background Mbox set so that the case instruction process can process the deadlines for the case.

You can define a limit to the number of Mbox instructions the Deadline Manager sends. This is to avoid the Deadline Manager sending out duplicate Mbox instructions for the same unprocessed, expired deadlines. There are two process attributes that enable you to configure this:

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The UNPROCESSED_DL_POST_LIMIT process attribute sets a limit on the number of messages for expired deadlines that the Deadline Manager allows in the mbox queue at any one time.

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The MAX_AGE_BEFORE_RESETPOST specifies the time period before the Deadline Manager resets internally marked messages from the last deadline to 0.

For more information about process attributes, see “Administering Process Attributes” in the TIBCO iProcess Engine: Administrator's Guide.

You can define the priorities for the case deadlines. When the Deadline Manager processes the expired deadlines, two process attributes can be used to define the deadline message priority:

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The FORCE_DEADLINE_PRIORITY process attribute defines a priority value for the case deadlines that override all other priorities set for the deadline.

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The USE_PRIORITY_DEADLINES process attribute defines whether to apply the value of the SW_CP_VALUE field as the priority for the case deadlines if the value of the FORCE_DEADLINE_PRIORITY attribute is set to the default value, 0.

For more information about deadline message priority, see "Priority Setting for Case Deadline" in TIBCO iProcess Modeler Advanced Design.

When all the deadlines have been processed, the Deadline Manager remains idle until the deadline processing interval has expired. This interval can be set as an absolute or repeating value, for example:

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Absolute intervals are used to process deadlines once a day at a specific time.

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Repeating intervals are used to process deadlines at regular intervals and at set times throughout the day relative to midnight each day. The time is defined on the local computer on which the deadline manager is running.

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For example, an interval of five hours would set deadlines to be processed at 5.00am, 10.00am, 3.00pm, and 8.00pm on Day 1 and 5.00 am, 10.00 am etc. on Day 2.

The deadline processing interval is set in the process_attribute database table. If the table does not contain an initial value, the Deadline Manager defaults to one minute.