Figure: Outline View with Process Definitions
The Stardust Process Workbench visualizes the existing process definitions in the Outline view area. You can view your list of process definitions there, add new or modify existing ones.
Figure: Outline View with Process Definitions
This chapter covers the following:
In the Outline view you can create new process definitions by choosing New Process Definition from the pop-up menu of the model element.
Figure: Creating a new Process Definition
To delete a process definition from model, you select the symbol of the process definition in the Outline view and choose the option Delete in the pop-up menu of this process definition.
Figure: Deleting a Process Definition
In a model diagram, process definitions can be created, deleted and dragged/dropped from the Outline view.
Figure: Creating a Process Definition in a Diagram
If you delete process definition in a diagram, you must make a distinction between deleting a process definition with all its contents from the model information or only deleting its symbol from the diagram.
Figure: Deleting a Process Definition in a Diagram
The properties of a process definition are accessible in its properties dialog. To open this dialog, right-click the process definition symbol in the Outline view and select the option Properties.
Process definition properties are grouped into eight categories organized in a tabbed pane. The categories comprise
Figure: Properties Dialog
General properties can be modified by typing the desired strings or text elements into the provided text fields.
In the General section, you can set ID and name of the process definition and choose specific settings.
Please note that IDs containing hyphens, blanks or dots and IDs starting with digits are not supported.
If you use Auto Generation, the ID is generated automatically with the name you enter, cutting spaces and unsupported characters. By default, this check box is selected.
You can set an Integer value for the default priority of the process definition.
You can enter any +ve value for setting priority as high and any -ve value for setting priority as low. Any +ve value is treated as high priority and gets converted to 1. Any -ve value is treated as low priority and gets converted to -1.
The default value is 0. Also, refer to the section Setting the Priority via Access Point.
Via the checkbox Audit Trail Persistence you determine if the process definition should support transient execution. Refer to chapter Audit Trail Persistence Modes for details on the provided audit trail persistence modes in Stardust.
In case the checkbox is selected, a drop-down select box provides the persistence modes to choose. The following values are provided:
The default selection is Immediate.
Figure: Audit Trail Persistence Modes
In case a process definition is not applicable for transient process execution, e.g. it contains an interactive activity or an asynchronous application, only the value Immediate is available.
Note
For the time being the parameter values will only be evaluated when starting
a process definition as top level process. If invoking a process definition as a
subprocess these values will always be ignored and the persistence mode for the
process instance will be inherited from the invoking superprocess. This limitation
will be removed in a later release.
Optionally you can enter a description in the Description part. The description of the process is displayed as tooltip text in the Stardust Portal when you hover the mouse over the process name.
Figure: Process description tooltip in Portal.
The following controlling properties can be set for process definitions:
Figure: Controlling Properties
Per default, process attachments support is disabled in the process instance property page.
Figure: Process support Attachments Flag
To support process attachments, enable the Support process attachments flag. In case this flag is enabled, an In-data and an Out-data path with the Id PROCESS_ATTACHMENTS are created automatically.
Figure: Process Attachments Data Path
In case the Support process attachments flag is enabled, the Unique per root process instance option gets activated.
Figure: Unique per root process instance option.
If this flag is enabled, all process attachments pertaining to subprocesses access the root process data instead of the scope process data. That means that the process attachments list is maintained in scope of the root process instance and all attachments pertaining to the root process instance can be accessed in sub processes.
If the flag is disabled, which is the default, process attachments pertaining to the root process instance are not present for the sub processes. The sub processes have separate data in that case.
To set the priority of a process during runtime, you can use the predefined data Process Priority. For information on predefined data please refer to the section Predefined Data of the chapter Workflow Data.
To set the process priority during execution via manual activity, add an out-data mapping from the manual activity to the predefined Process Priority, so that you can enter a priority for your current process during execution.
Figure: Adding a Process Priority Data
During the process, an entry field opens for the priority, where you can choose between the priorities high, normal and low:
Figure: Process Priority Selection Dialog
To set the process priority via an access point, you can use for example an application activity. The application activity calls an application to set the priority. This value can then be transferred via out-data mapping to the Process Priority data.
Figure: Using an Application Activity for Priority Input.
The access point of the out-data mapping is the getter method of the application.
Figure: Setting an Access Point for the Priority.
The data written to the predefined Process Priority data works for all Integer values in the following way:
| Value in data mapping | Value used for process priority |
|---|---|
| value > 0 (high priority) | 1 |
| value == 0 (normal priority) | 0 |
| value < 0 (low priority) | -1 |
Deleting a diagram is done by selecting it in the Outline view and choosing Delete in the diagram's pop-up menu.
To create a diagram:
A diagram created this way can be used only to define this process.
For more information about diagrams, see the chapter Diagrams in the Stardust Process Workbench description.