Work queues and work item entity types

A work item is an instance of entity type that implements the WorkItem delegate, such as StandardWorkItem. The entity type provides the database table in which the work items for your custom work queue persist. Work items in the work queue table are accessible from all servers in a PolicyCenter cluster. Thus, workers can access the work items asynchronously, in parallel, and distribute the work items to servers with the workqueue server role.

Work items have many properties that the work queue framework uses to manage work items and the process histories of work queue batches. If you use StandardWorkItem for your work queue, the only field on a work item that your custom code uses is the Target field. The Target field holds the ID of a unit of work that your writer selected. The code for your writer and your workers can safely ignore the other properties on work item instances. However, you can define a custom work item type with additional fields for your custom code to use.

Custom work item types

Guidewire recommends that you define your custom work item entities as keyable, rather than retireable. If you define a custom work item as retireable, then you also need to create a custom batch process to purge the work items after PolicyCenter processes them and they become old and stale. This batch process also needs to clean up failed work items as well. Any delay in purging failed or stale work items can prevent further operations such as archiving.