VBCS: Integrate VBCS with PCS

The integration between VBCS (Visual Builder Cloud Service) & PCS (Process Cloud Service) is getting a lot better, you can now create and start processes from within VBCS. It is also possible to create a tasklist or task screens within VBCS. In this blog I will show you how to set up VBCS to be ready for these features as well as how to create a process and tasklist connected to this process. 

In the current release (17.3.5) of VBCS it is not yet possible to explore and connect to existing Process Cloud Instances. The whole process needs to be initially created from within VBCS. It also needs to be deployed from VBCS the first time, after that it can be deployed from either PCS or VBCS. After this it can be edited and adjusted within PCS. 

First we need to go to the security settings within VBCS, in the Access section, enable the basic authentication for business object REST APIs.

After that you need to go to the home page from VBCS. There is a somewhat hidden menu there on the right where an Administration option is hidden in a menu.

This brings up several Administration Options, of which some are required to fill out before VBCS & PCS are connected and integrated together. On the Tab ‘Associated Service Instances’ fill out the URL to the instance of Process Cloud.

Now we still need to go to the Allowed Origins tab to prevent CORS from happening.

To create a Process connected with VBCS, we need to go to the Business Objects under the Data Designer section. In here, there is an extra tab on the right called ‘Processes’. There is a green button to add a New Process.  

We give this a name, to recognise it within PCS, we name it ‘VBCS Process’.

After this it will show in the Processes tab on the Business Objects page.

When clicking the menu icon, you can select the Process Editor. Doing this will actually bring you to PCS and open the Process within PCS.

But before doing that, as said, we need to deploy from within VBCS first.

From the action bar we can select the ‘Deploy All’ option.

Especially the first time, the deployment might take a while.

While Deploying the button is greyed out and you can see that it is busy working on the deployment.

When the deployment is done, we can click the ‘Edit Processes’ link that brings us to PCS. The ‘Manage Process Roles’ takes you to PCS as well, but does not open the process but the security settings where you can assign users to your process roles.

Clicking the Edit link brings up the VBCS Process. In here I only have a User Task, since I want to task to be created to show up in the tasklist that we are going to build within VBCS.

Now let's start at least one instance so we have a task ready to show in the tasklist in VBCS. Here you see a running instance from our VBCS Process.

Enough about PCS, lets move back to VBCS and start working on our tasklist. In VBCS I open the Page Designer. In the components on the left hand side, there is a Process tab.

The first icon is the tasklist, when dropping this on the page a wizard will appear on the right hand side.

Here it will give you the options of selecting any of the PCS processes you created from within VBCS, this means you can have separate tasklist for different processes. Lets select the VBCS Process.

Pressing Next will bring us to the detail screen, I actually leave all the defaults on.

Clicking the green ‘Finish’ button will finish the wizard and bring up the tasklist.

As you can see, the instance that is started and waits for the human interaction is shown in the Tasklist already. In the menu, you can select actions, for this example I will press approve to see the integration with PCS working both ways.

The feedback is giving within VBCS, the action is performed. Once the fetching is done, the task will disappear from the tasklist.

Just to complete the circle, let's have a look at the instance now being completed within PCS.