Copyright © TIBCO Software Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright © TIBCO Software Inc. All Rights Reserved


Chapter 4 TIBCO iProcess Engine Processes : Background Processes

Background Processes
The following table summarizes the background processes:
DBQD1
This process is responsible for receiving messages containing activity monitoring information from the BG process, and Work Queue Delta publication messages from the WIS process, and routing these to the specified JMS topic.

1
This process is only present in the DB2 version of the TIBCO iProcess Engine.

Background
This process retrieves messages (containing case instructions) from the Mbox sets and then processes the case instructions in the messages. There can be multiple Background processes all concurrently dequeuing messages from an Mbox set and processing case instructions
The number of Background processes is controlled by the Process Sentinels. The Process Sentinels read the process_config table to see how many instances of the process to run and on which computers.
Each message contains the case instructions from which the Background can determine what actions to take. The Background interprets the business rules defined in the procedure (such as the addressee of the next step) and routes work items to the necessary work queues or external applications. The process makes decisions based upon the iProcess data and procedure definition instructions as to what happens in the business process next.
Case Prediction Processor(s)
This process (SWDIR\etc\bgpredict) receives messages from the iProcess Background processes. When a case instruction that results in a change to a case has been processed, the iProcess Background processes notify the Case Prediction processes so that the prediction data (stored in the database) can be updated. There can be multiple case prediction processes running concurrently.
Each message contains information about the case that has changed and the procedure and instruction that caused the change. The process will read messages from the queue(s) and update the predict table so that it contains the latest prediction information about the case that the queued message was for.
The process attempts to determine a valid addressee for each step, so that SW_USER:attribute (where attribute is a user attribute, for example, DESCRIPTION) resolves to something valid. If there are multiple addressees on a step then the first one is taken, which is resolved in the following order:
1.
2.
3.
If no addressee can be determined, if a group has no members, or a field or role contains an invalid user, then the process defaults to using the system administrator user (by default, swadmin).
Database Queue Daemon
This process (SWDIR\etc\swdbqd) processes RPC requests from the BG and WISMBD processes to dequeue messages from the database queue tables.
It caches a configurable number of messages from the database for each available queue. When a request to dequeue a message arrives, the process returns a message from the cache. If the cache is empty, the process first refills the cache from the database queue tables.
The number of messages to be cached is determined by the DBQD_MAX_CACHED_MESSAGES process attribute.
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:
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.
The MAX_AGE_BEFORE_RESETPOST specifies the time period before the Deadline Manager resets its internal marked of the last deadline it has processed to 0 (beginning of time).
See “Administering Process Attributes” in the TIBCO iProcess Engine: Administrator's Guide for more information about process attributes.
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:
The FORCE_DEADLINE_PRIORITY process attribute defines a priority value for the case deadlines that override all other priorities set for the deadline.
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 “sleeps” until the deadline processing interval has expired. This interval can be set as an absolute or repeating value, for example:
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.
IAPJMS Process
If activity monitoring is enabled on your TIBCO iProcess Engine, the BG process sends out a message when any of the TIBCO iProcess Engine activities that you have configured to monitor occur. This process (SWDIR\etc\iapjms) is responsible for receiving messages from the BG process and routing these to the JMS topic or queue.
If Work Queue Delta publication is in use, the WIS process similarly publishes messages to the IAPJMS process giving details of changes in monitored work queues.
See Monitoring Activities for more information and see "Activity Monitoring and Work Queue Delta Configuration" in the TIBCO iProcess Engine: Administrator’s Guide for more information about configuring activity monitoring and Work Queue Delta publication.
RPC Background Process
This process (SWDIR\etc\rpcbg) handles synchronous RPC calls from the Jump To and Case Suspend features in the TIBCO iProcess Workspace.

Copyright © TIBCO Software Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright © TIBCO Software Inc. All Rights Reserved