Hi
We have noticed that for many of our cases in progress, having some completed tasks, the lastUpdate value is the same as the startDate value in the process_instance table.
We have developed our own application, which displays the start date and the last updated date to our users. We are reading data from the process_instance table and assumed that every time a task is submitted the lastUpdate field on this table will be updated accordingly.
Could you please clarify what is the lastUpdate value and the startDate value in the process_instance table?
Regards
Hi,
startDate is the date / time stamp at which the process was instantiated.
lastUpdateDate is the date / time stamp when the line in the database table process_instance was last modified.
Usually, a process instance passes through the 3 following states: INITIALIZING (id=0), which is a very temporary state. It then reaches the state STARTED (id=1), and stays in that state until the process finished =, with state COMPLETED (id=6) or FAILED (id=7) in case an ON_FINISH connector fails. When the state changes, the lastUpdateDate is updated.
When a task is executed (whether it succeeds of fails), it does not alter the line in the database table process_instance, so lastUpdateDate is not updated.
Indeed, that being said, the lastUpdateDate field is not very useful.
Hope this helps,
Emmanuel