I am having a number of issues with creating dynamic tasks and could use some guidance.

1. I created a dynamic task using most of the defaults. I loaded the SampleTask svar, added it to a service profile (which seems weird that I have to do that), and was able to see my new drawer and task.
2. I wanted to redo the task without as many of the defaults so I uninstalled the task and removed it from the service profile. However, it still seems to be there according to Engagement Designer. Now, though, the icon no longer shows up.
3. I went into the top level pom.xml to create a task with a new ServiceName. I changed the name and saved the file. However, when I rebuilt the task with "mvn clean package," it still creates SampleTask and not my new name.
4. I loaded the new SampleTask svar, but it does not seem to reflect the changes I made to task.json. For instance, I have a new drawer name (replacing the default of MyDrawer), yet MyDrawer is still there in ED and my new drawer is not. Also, my new task has the same broken icon problem as before even though I did not make changes to svg in task.json. It still says "hello."

That was a lot, but my big issues are why can't I get rid of the original task that I built, why don't the changes such as ServiceName do anything, and why did my icon break?

I am doing all this on lab 003.

What seems to work for me when making changes to my dynamic task is to just close the ED window altogether, then go into Service Manager and uninstall, go take a nap, and then delete it. I don't ever mess with the service profile since that seems to remove itself when you delete it in Service Manager. Then I just click load and point to my new svar, install it, go on vacation, and then add it to a service profile. Sometimes I have to open ED a couple of times before my new drawer shows up, but that usually does it.

As for changing the name of the service, my guess is that when you create the scaffolding it uses the service name you give it in a bunch of places, so it may be easiest to just recreate the scaffolding and then copy over your changes.

Good luck!

Thanks! Unfortunately, you aren't prompted for ServiceName during the creation of the scaffolding. It automatically chooses SampleTask and I can't see an option to change it. Perhaps, though, I can change it following scaffolding creation but prior to doing the build. I am removing the current version (taking a nap) and will attempt that.

I am still left with the problem, "Why doesn't the old stuff go away after an uninstall and delete of the svar?" It seems to bury itself into the bowels of ED and I can't figure out how to dig it out.

And what happened to my png file?

Ha! I just learned a very useful trick. When you create the scaffolding, enter in all your values, but select "N" when asked to accept them. You are then asked the same questions except this time it allows you to set serviceName and serviceVersion. Not intuitively obvious, but it works.

Update. This is where things stand right now.

I was able to add a serviceName using the technique described above (enter "N" during the scaffolding process). This allows me to create an svar with that name.

I still cannot get rid of my old task from Engagement Designer. I've uninstalled the svar, deleted it from Service Management, and removed it from any service profile. However, the drawer and task still shows up when I launch ED.

My phantom task has no icon associated with it. That somehow got lost.

I loaded my new svar, added it to a service profile, but it doesn't show up. No new drawer and no task. The old one (uninstalled and deleted) is still there, though. However, if I try to validate a workflow that uses it I get an error about a Snap-In not being installed (as I would expect).

Advice?

Yet another update. I uninstalled and reinstalled my task. No change. I then rebooted the Breeze cluster and finally things are working again. The ghost task is gone and my new task appears.

So, there is a bug in there somewhere, but for now, I am good to go.

Hi Andrew, I'm happy to hear that you worked through your issue to a large degree. Are you aware that there's a forum specific to Engagement Designer? That's where we'd like to see posts regarding dynamic task types. I think that you probably would have gotten a more rapid response from that team if you'd posted there. I'm going to alert them to this thread as well as the other task type posts that have arisen on the Breeze forum. I'll also ask the good folks in DevConnect to move these threads over to the other forum, and it'd be great if you could start using that forum for future DTT queries.

It's great to see you delving into this powerful capability of the platform!

I was aware of that forum, but I figured that since this is Java based and not drag and drop, it belonged here. Sorry. Too many forums! lol

Not a problem! I agree that it's not immediately obvious.

Andrew,

Please use this forum for any Dynamic Task related questions.

From what I read - obviously I am reading this only now after this got moved to the Engagement Designer forum - it appears that you had some problems with OSGi / IBM WebSphere that wouldn't let the old task to be removed completely. That is why rebooting the Breeze node (hence restarting everything including WebSphere) has fixed it. Usually this happens when there is any conflicts with the task cba bundles within OSGi.

Please let us know if you get into this again and I can help troubleshoot it from the IBM Web Console.

Thanks!

- Prakash.

I have the same problem again. :-(

This is lab 003. I created ArrowTask version 1.0.0.0.0. It loaded and installed fine. I then unloaded it and loaded version 1.0.0.0.1. It loads, but gets stuck in the installing state. I really don't want to keep rebooting the cluster as that takes well over an hour to settle back in.