Activiti Timer dynamer

January 31, 2023

We are using activiti for workflow. In one of the flow between one step to another we have wait timer as shown below

<sequenceFlow id="sequence_my_flow_successful_signal_3" sourceRef="my_flow_gateway" targetRef="signal_my_flow_successful_3"/>
    <intermediateCatchEvent id="timer_my_flow_3">
      <timerEventDefinition>
        <timeDuration>PT48H</timeDuration>
      </timerEventDefinition>
    </intermediateCatchEvent>

Is it possible to have an expression which dynamically returns timeDuration (Internally call java code with business key) and have the timerDuration return value based on some condition

I know I could add expression something like below for serviceTask where I could call java code

<serviceTask id="service_my_flow_lead" activiti:exclusive="true" name="Handle My Flow Lean" activiti:expression="${myFlowDelegate.createMyFlowLead(execution.parent.businessKey)}"/>

Thank you

>Solution :

Yes, it is possible to use an expression in a timerEventDefinition to dynamically set the timeDuration. You can use the same approach as in the serviceTask example you provided, i.e. add an expression in the timerEventDefinition and call a Java code with the business key. The expression should return a string that can be parsed into a duration format (e.g. PT48H). An example expression could be:

<timerEventDefinition>
  <timeDuration activiti:expression="${myFlowDelegate.getTimeDuration(execution.parent.businessKey)}"/>
</timerEventDefinition>

In this instance, the expression calls a Java method ‘getTimeDuration‘ in a delegate class ‘myFlowDelegate‘ and passes the business key as an argument. The method should return a string that can be parsed into a duration format.