topic Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps? in Product Forum

Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

ManishRaw — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 10:25:00 GMT

Hi Everyone,

I have a requirement where in the BOT needs to access an already deferred item and process it.

I can get the item details by using the action Is Item in Queue, but cannot change it's deferred time as the item needs to be locked for this first.

Is there a way in BP that we can get this done?

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Manish Rawat
Project Manager
Mercer
New Delhi
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

Mukeshh_k — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 11:03:00 GMT

Hi @Manish Rawat - Would you be able to explain the connected scenario - what's your purpose for modifying the date time for already deferred items? I suppose you can even set some tags at first place and then to retrieve the only deferred items next time by doing get next item and change the datetime as per your requirements and also set some priority to get those items actioned at first place?

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Kindly up vote this as "Best Answer" if it adds value or resolves your query in anyway possible, happy to help.

Regards,

Mukesh Kumar - Senior Automation Developer

NHS, England, United Kingdom, GB
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

ManishRaw — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 11:10:00 GMT

Hi @Mukesh Kumar ,

The processing for each item is as below:
1. For each item BOT goes into the system and checks whether the status is completed or not, if not then the BOT defers the item for next 24 hours for next check.
2. There is another process which runs and tells the BOT about the update of the items in a day, in case the item is updated the BOT needs to update the defer date to now() and then send the updated status.
3. If the update has not happens in 24 hours then also the BOT need to extract the latest status along with other details like comment. client ID etc.

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Manish Rawat
Project Manager
Mercer
New Delhi
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

Mukeshh_k — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 11:57:00 GMT

Hi @Manish Rawat : If I understood it correctly let me know, the solution could be as - for Point 1 : For each Items bot goes into some system and checks the status - If those are not completed - Set Tags before deferring something like - "Deferred 24 Hours" or a shortened form "D24H"

Point 2: I am unsure if this process goes back to check the only items which were deferred in point 1 or is it a separate process to find all the items those are not updated irrespective of what was already deferred in point 1 - if its not separate to point 1 and acts on same deferred items in point 1 - it can retrieve the items doing get next item including tags "Deferred 24 Hours" - Change Tags to DeferredNow and Defer it to Now().

Point 3: If the updates has not happened in 24 hours - and it needs a cumulative report including everything - you can do Get report and collect all the item IDs by mentioning Tags you did set on these items in the queue :

Get Report Data :

Loop Item IDs from Get Report Data Output: and call Get Item Data - you can play around doing collection Manipulation to create it to a Data Collection with necessary outputs retrieved from get Item data:

RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

ManishRaw — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 12:26:00 GMT

Hi @Mukesh Kumar,

Thanks for your response.

Just a point for your remarks: "it can retrieve the items doing get next item including tags "Deferred 24 Hours" - Change Tags to DeferredNow and Defer it to Now()."

If the item is deferred we are not able to use get next item on it, even the get next item by Item ID won't work on it until the deferred time is reached, and hence Deferring it to Now() won't work until we get the item locked.

We can do that using the UI:

Not sure how can that be achieved programmatically.

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Manish Rawat
Project Manager
Mercer
New Delhi
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

ManishRaw — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 12:32:00 GMT

Hi @ewilson ,

Is it possible to achieve the Change Deferral Date functionality programmatically, as done from the control room UI manually shown below:

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Manish Rawat
Project Manager
Mercer
New Delhi
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

jeffreykmc — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 12:48:00 GMT

You can absolutely change the deferment status of an item to 'Now' (or whenever the need is) using the Work Queues BO and the 'Defer' Action. We use regularly to either retry and item immediately or defer it for a set period of time based the error it receives.

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Jeffrey McCormick
ECS RPA Team Lead
Fidelity Investments
Merrimack NH
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

ManishRaw — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 13:02:00 GMT

Hi @Jeffrey McCormick ,

Can you help me with the process steps to do so,

When I try to use the below steps:

1. Get Deferred Item in Queue using Is Item in Queue action:

And then Try to Defer it for next 5 sec:

When I run the second action this is the error that I get from BP:

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Manish Rawat
Project Manager
Mercer
New Delhi
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

jeffreykmc — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 13:16:00 GMT

My assumption is that you will need to add a 'Get Item Data', 'Get Item By ID' or similar action once you know the item you want to update from the Work Queues BO in order for the resource to first lock the workitem so you will be allowed to update it.

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Jeffrey McCormick
ECS RPA Team Lead
Fidelity Investments
Merrimack NH
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

ManishRaw — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 14:27:00 GMT

Hi @Jeffrey McCormick ,

We do have the Item ID but Get Item BY ID won't work for locking the Item unless the defer time for the Item is passed.

So scenario:

8:00 AM - Item 1 is Deferred till 11:00 AM
9:00 AM - We identified that Item 1 has been updated in the application, so we want to get this item before 11:00 AM and update it.

But we can't do it even when we have it's Item ID, because Get Item by ID is giving the below response:

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Manish Rawat
Project Manager
Mercer
New Delhi
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

ewilson — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 14:46:00 GMT

Hi @Manish Rawat

When you say "programmatically" are you talking about doing this without working through the Work Queues VBO?

Cheers,

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Eric Wilson
Director, Integrations and Enablement
Blue Prism Digital Exchange
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

ManishRaw — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 15:20:00 GMT

Hi @ewilson ,

By programmatically I mean by using BOT steps provided in Blue Prism using the Work Queue or any other VBO, rather then following the Blue prism UI

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Manish Rawat
Project Manager
Mercer
New Delhi
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

Mukeshh_k — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 18:10:00 GMT

Hi @Manish Rawat - The above suggested solution to use tags are when the deferred time has passed - You can only act or lock the item when it has passed the deferred time, I was under impression that the second process would act after this deferred time - by using tags and also keeping priority I meant -to use the viable time which allows you to be under your SLA Time.

I am not sure if below approach would fit your requirement, which is totally based on the agreement from business and development team :
Just defer by total average time it might take to process rest of the pending items +10 buffer mins more when you discover some items with no updates or the agreed SLA time, it will unlock the item, leave it there to be processed on Next process check, You would have to think of an agreement to work in batches and perform steps in batches and get an agreement with business for that review slot or SLA.

I will try some more digging around this and If I could find a better approach I will share - but to my opinion - running the whole process multiple times just to change a single item whenever updated is not a optimised way of utilising the license- an agreed batch time would allow the process to have more items with such updated status to be be marked as complete, more at once and then at the other agreed review slot.

RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

harish.mogulluri — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 22:05:00 GMT

Hi Manish

I verified all the actions but looks like there is no way you can update the defer date.

As you stated the only way you can lock the item is after passing the defer date either by get next item or get Item id, only then you can defer it.

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If I answered your query. Please mark it as the "Best Answer"

Harish M
Lead developer
America/New_York TX
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

ManishRaw — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 05:39:00 GMT

Hi @Mukesh Kumar ,

Thanks for your response, but like mentioned above I want to know whether we are able to achieve the below functionality of changing the deferral date s through Control Room UI using any VBO:

please o let me know in case you find something more over the same

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Manish Rawat
Project Manager
Mercer
New Delhi
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

ManishRaw — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 05:41:00 GMT

Hi @Harish M ,

Thanks for your response, I believe the same and just want a confirmation from Blue Prism team, if there is any way we can achieve this in any way possible.

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Manish Rawat
Project Manager
Mercer
New Delhi
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

harish.mogulluri — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 11:08:00 GMT

Hi manish Rawat

I suggest Open a support ticket with blue prism may be they will give more definitive answer on this.

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If I answered your query. Please mark it as the "Best Answer"

Harish M
Lead developer
America/New_York TX
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

jeffreykmc — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 13:19:00 GMT

Understood. My apologies. As its been stated, looks like you will need support to offer a solution at this point. Best of luck!

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Jeffrey McCormick
ECS RPA Team Lead
Fidelity Investments
Merrimack NH
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RE: Is it possible to remove defer date from the item by any processing steps?

Tejaskumar_Darji — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 16:55:00 GMT

Based on the scenario you described, it appears that there is no direct method to change the defer time of an item without locking it. However, an alternative approach could involve modifying the design of the system to use tags and priority for item locking instead of relying on deferral.

However, this approach may not always be feasible, especially if the project is already in the testing, user acceptance testing, or production phase. In such cases, a possible alternative solution could be as below:

1. Use the "Get Report Data" action to retrieve all pending items
2. Use a loop on these pending Item IDs
3. Check if the item has a future defer time. If it does, proceed with the following steps. If not, skip to the next item.
4. Retrieve the item data using the item ID.
5. Create a new work queue item using the same data as the original item but with a past deferral time.
6. Delete the original item that was future deferred.
7. You now have a new work queue item with a past defer time that can be picked up by downstream processes as a replica of the original item.

This process allows you to change the defer time of an item without locking it, but only for items with a future defer time. It may involve some additional steps but achieves the purpose with a tradeoff on the Creation Date field in the control room.

Attaching a studio snapshot here for your reference.

Let us know if this helps.

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If I was of assistance, please vote for it to be the "Best Answer".

Thanks & Regards,
Tejaskumar Darji
Sr. Consultant-Technical Lead
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