Creating Process Flows

This section describes the basics of creating process flows:

• Adding Flow Objects
• Starting a Process Flow
• Ending a Process Flow
• Timing and Scheduling Activities

Adding Flow Objects

Flow objects comprise the key graphical elements of a process design. In Intalio|Designer, all flow objects can be accessed in the Palette panel.

There are three types of flow objects:

Type	Description
Activities	Activities represent work performed by a participant in a process. Activity shapes are contained in the Basics tab of the Palette panel. There are two basic categories of activities: tasks and subprocesses.
Events	Events represent actions that affect the sequence or timing of activities in a process design. Events are categorized into start, intermediate, and end types. Accordingly, event shapes are contained in the Start Events, Intermediate Events, and End Events tabs in the Palette panel.
Gateways	Gateways represent mechanisms (such as the application of business rules on process data) to control and direct the process flow at decision points. Gateway shapes are contained in the Gateways tab of the Palette panel. For more information, see Working with Gateways and Decision Points.

 

NOTE: For more information about flow objects in general, see BPMN Flow Objects.

This section further describse the following:

• Adding Flow Objects to a Process Diagram
• Modifying Flow Object Properties
• Coloring Objects in the Process Diagram

Adding Flow Objects to a Process Diagram

All flow objects can be added to a process model from the Palette panel as well as by directly adding them from the Modeling Assistant.

Steps to add object from Palette Panel:

1. Open the Palette panel and select the appropriate tab.
   For example, activities are contained in the Basic BPMN tab, gateways in the Gateway tab, and so on.
   The Basic BPMN tab contains both tasks and sub-processes. Tasks represent individual activities; sub-process represents encapsulations of tasks.
   

   NOTE: For more information about the activities and their properties, see BPMN Flow Objects.

2. Click and drop the desired flow object icon onto a pool in a process design in the Process Window.
   The object icon displays in the targeted pool.

Steps to add object from Modeling Assistant:

1. Place the mouse pointer on the pool.
2. Notice the “Modeling Assistant” pop-up window available that displays the shapes that can be added onto the pool where the mouse is placed.
3. Click and add the desired flow object icon onto a pool in a process design in the Process Window.
   

Figure 1 - Dropping and Adding Objects onto Design

Modifying Flow Object Properties

To modify the properties of the flow object:

1. Select the desired flow object in the process design.

The endpoints of flow object are visible indicating that it is selected.

2. Open the Properties panel.

The Properties panel dynamically displays the properties associated with the selected object.

Figure 2 - Object Properties




3. Modify the properties as follows by directly changing the values entered in the desired property fields.

For example, to modify the label of the object that displays in the process design, change the value of the Label property and press Enter (or tab to another field).

NOTE: Some fields have locked values that cannot be modified, as well as dynamic properties that are available only under certain conditions. For more information about the properties of specific flow objects, see BPMN Flow Objects.

NOTE: You can also modify the label of any element in the diagram by selecting it and double-clicking it.

Coloring Objects in the Process Diagram

To make a process design more graphically informative, you can color selected activities as desired:

1. Select one or more objects in the process design.
2. Click on the Color Shapes tool [Fill Color button] in the tool bar to display the color palette.
3. Click on the desired color.

We can also fill color in any element in the diagram:

1. Select one or more objects in the process design.
2. Right click on any one of the element.
3. Go to Format > Fill Color and click on the desired color.

The selected objects redisplay as the selected color.

Figure 3 - Applying color

Starting a Process Flow

Each participant in a process diagram represents a process flow, and each process flow begins with a start event, which indicates where the process starts its execution. For an executable process, you can only use Message Start event.

NOTE: For more information about start events and their properties, see Start Events

To indicate a manually instantiated process (non executable processes only):

1. Create a new process diagram or add a new participant, as described in Creating a New Process Diagram.
2. Open the Palette panel and select the Start Events tab pane.
3. Select-and-drop the Empty start event onto the diagram, positioning it to the far left end of the pool.
   

Or you can directly add the Empty Start Event from Modeling Assistant

The Empty start event is an empty activity with no defined triggers.

Figure 4 - Start Events tab pane in the Palette panel

To start a process with a message:

1. Create a new process diagram or add a new participant, as described in Creating a New Process Diagram.
2. Open the Palette panel and select the Start Events tab pane.
3. Select and drop the Message start event onto the diagram, positioning it to the far left end of the pool.
   Or you can place the mouse pointer to far left and add Message Start Event from the Modeling Assistant pop up window
4. Draw a message link from an activity in another participant to the Message Start Event.

The process can only be instantiated by receiving a message.

NOTE: For more information about message links, see Creating Message Links.

Figure 5 - Message Start Event in a process diagram

Ending a Process Flow

You can indicate where a process ends, force a process to terminate, as well as send a message or trigger an error.

The end of a process is indicated by an End event, of which there are four kinds:

• Empty - The Empty end event simply indicates where the process execution ends.
• Message - This event sends a message when the process completes.
• Error - This event generates an error when the process completes.
• Terminate - This event forces a process to terminate even if other, parallel events in the same flow are still executing.

To end a process:

1. Open the Palette panel and select the End Event Shapes tab pane.
2. Select and drop the desired end event onto the process design.
   Or you can place the mouse pointer to right and add End Event from the Modeling Assistant pop up window
3. Draw a flow connector from the preceding object the end event.

By definition, the end event must terminate a process flow path.

NOTE: If you use the Message end event, you must configure a message link to an activity in another participant. If you use the Error end event, you must configure an exception handler, as described in Working with Looping Activities.

Figure 6 - End Event Shapes Tab

Timing and Scheduling Activities

This section shows you how to use the Timer Event to time and schedule activities. You can either specify a date or specify a time duration for the process to wait before continuing.

NOTE: You can also specify timeout limits for sub-process. For more information, see Setting a Timeout Value for a Sub-Process.

Use the following procedures:

• • Using the Timer Event
  • Specifying a Specific Date
  • Specifying a Time Duration
  • Setting and Scheduling Properties Manually

Using the Timer Event

To configure timing and scheduling for an activity:

1. Open the Palette panel and select the Intermediate Events tab pane.
2. Select-and-drop the Timer event onto the process design so it is positioned before the desired activity.
   Or you can place the mouse pointer where you need to add Timer Intermediate Event and add it from the Modeling Assistant pop up window

Setting and Scheduling Properties Manually:

1. Select the Timer event as described in Using the Timer Event.
2. Go to Mapper View.
   Mapper dynamically displays two nodes i.e. date and duration.
3. Dnd operator node in the middle section of the mapper. For more reference check for Intalio|BPMS: Data Mapper

Figure 10 - Setting Timer properties manually

4. In the text box enter the duration or instant information using the format described in the table below.

   Type	Format	Examples
   duration	PT + number of days + number of hours + minutes + seconds	PT10S (Activity scheduled in 10 seconds) PT1D4H20M10S (Activity scheduled in 1 day, 4 hours, 20 minutes and 10 seconds)
   date	YYYY-MM-DD-HH+MM+SS+mmm* *mmm = milliseconds	12:39:00.000 (Activity scheduled at 12:39) 2006-04-09T12:39:00.000 (Activity scheduled at 12:39 on April 9, 2006)




The Object Properties dialog box closes. The property is now set.

Setting and Scheduling Properties Manually