Standard Task With Timeout

Description

Creates an eForm task and waits for completion or escalation. Use it when the workflow must take a different path if the required participants do not complete the task in time.

For a task that continues waiting after becoming overdue, use Standard Task.

Common settings

Use Process Data to bind supported inputs to workflow values or upstream outputs. See Common Activity Features for shared execution, error-handling, and output-persistence settings. Availability depends on the activity.

Design-Time Configuration

Display Text

Specify the name of the activity that shows in your process.

Title

Enter an optional title to use as the task name. You can also provide an expression in this field to generate the task name according to your requirements. Click on the vertical ellipse to choose the following options.

Options	Description
Default	When you select this option, specify the default name directly.
JavaScript	You can specify the name using the JavaScript expression.
Liquid	You can specify a name using a Liquid expression.

Form

Choose the form to display for the Task associated with this activity. Click on the vertical ellipse to choose the following options.

Options	Description
Default	When you select this option, a dropdown will display all available forms for this process. You can choose a form directly from the dropdown.
JavaScript	You can choose to use the JavaScript expression.
Liquid	You can choose to use a Liquid expression.

Time to Complete

Duration used to calculate the task's due date. Enter a fixed value or bind a value using an available expression syntax. Choose its unit in Time to Complete Unit. A task that passes its due date becomes Overdue.

Time to Complete Unit*

Specifies the maximum time allowed to complete the associated Task before it is overdue. The time unit can be week, day, hour, minute, or second.

Priority

Specify the priority of the created Task. It can be Low, Normal, or High.

Auto Complete

When enabled, the task completes automatically on its first execution. When disabled, a participant must complete it. The default is False.

For conditional auto-approval, bind this setting to the approval condition rather than enabling it for every task.

Use Business Time

Controls whether due dates and reminder schedules use the assigned user's Business Calendar. If the user has no calendar, the group or default calendar is used when available. If no calendar is available, business-time calculations are not applied.

Participants

You can assign multiple participants to a task. Participants can be individual users, groups, or variables containing user/group lists.

info

If the specified participant is unavailable during task creation or assignment, the task is automatically assigned to the Administrator to maintain workflow continuity.

Adding Participants

Use the Participants tab to add participants:

• Add Groups and Users: Use the Group dropdown and Search field to find and add users or groups.
• Drag and drop: Add participants by dragging them from the available list to the Participants area.
• Variables: You can add variables containing lists of users or groups. Variables must be semicolon-separated.

Participant Types

Supported participant types:

• Individual Users: Direct assignment of specific users.
• Groups: Assignment of groups; all group members become potential participants.
• Variables: Dynamic participant assignment using variables that contain user or group lists (semicolon-separated). For variables, you must specify whether they contain users or groups (not both).

Participant Options

Each participant in the list shows icons to:

• Switch between user assignment or group assignment (for variables).
• Assign to participant manager (available for all participant types).
• Remove the participant from the list.

Participant Settings

Max participants to complete this task

• Specify the number of participants required to complete the task (default is 1).
• This setting applies to the unique collection of all users from all participants (individual users, users from groups, and users/groups from variables).
• All Participants: When checked, requires all participants to complete the task and overrides the Max Participants setting.

Dynamic Task Pool

• When enabled, applies dynamic task pool behavior to all groups added to the participants list.
• This setting is now available for all participant types, not just groups.

Reuse participants on subsequent executions of this activity

• When enabled, the same participants are used each time this activity runs within the same process instance.
• This helps maintain consistency when a workflow loops back to the same task activity.

Email Notifications

Use Email Templates to configure notifications for task initiation, reminders, reassignment, completion, and overdue status. Reminders are sent daily until the task becomes overdue. Bind the business values needed by each template before its notification is generated.

Outcomes

• Completed: the task's completion requirements are met.
• Escalated: the requirements have not been met when the timeout is processed.

Connect both outcomes. When the activity resumes and finishes, remaining New or Overdue tasks are removed, assigned unfinished tasks are cancelled, and their reminders are unscheduled. Do not design the escalation path around participants continuing to complete those old tasks.

Execution settings

Configure Wait All Incoming when execution paths converge, and On Error for failure handling. Select Inherit where available to use the workflow-level error policy.

Example: Configure an approval task

1. Set Title to a meaningful task name, such as Review invoice.
2. Select the approval Form.
3. Add the users or groups in Participants. Leave Max participants to complete this task at 1 for a single response, or enable All Participants when every assigned participant must respond.
4. Configure Time to Complete, its unit, Use Business Time, and the notification templates.
5. Connect Completed to normal processing and Escalated to the escalation activities. Test both outcomes.
6. Bind the submitted form values from Process Data to the next activity.