1. Developing SOA Applications with Oracle SOA Suite
  2. Using the BPEL Process Service Component
  3. Using Events and Timeouts in BPEL Processes
  4. Setting Timeouts for Request-Reply and In-Only Operations in Receive Activities
  5. What You May Need to Know About Setting Timeouts for Request-Reply and In-Only Operations
  6. Timeout Settings Relative from When the Activity is Invoked

Timeout Settings Relative from When the Activity is Invoked

You can specify a timeout setting relative from when the activity is invoked. This setting is specified as a relative duration using the syntax shown in the following example for BPEL 1.1.

<receive | bpelx:for="duration-expr">
    standard-elements
</receive>

For BPEL 2.0, the syntax is as shown in the following example:

<receive | <bpelx:for>'duration-expr'</bpelx:for>
    standard-elements
</receive>

This type uses the bpelx:for attribute to specify a static value or an XPath expression that must evaluate to an XML schema type duration. Only one of the bpelx:for or bpelx:until attributes is permitted for an activity.

If the XPath expression evaluates to a negative duration, the timeout is ignored and an event is logged to the instance audit trail indicating that the duration value is invalid.

Once a valid duration value is retrieved, the expiration date for the activity is set to the current node time (or cluster time after this is available), plus the duration value. For example, the duration value bpelx:for="'PT5M'" specifies that the activity expects an inbound message to arrive no later than five minutes after the activity has started execution.

Note:

The timeout setting attribute does not apply to the onMessage branch of a pick activity because the same functionality currently exists with the onMessage and onAlarm branches of that activity.

Timeout durations can only be specified on the following:

  • Midprocess receive activities

  • Receive activities that do not specify createInstance="true"

A receive activity can only time out after it has been instantiated, which is not the case with entry receive activities.