Data handling in workflow activities
As a catalog administrator, internal service supplier administrator, or internal service supplier you must consider the data input and data output for each activity in a workflow. For information about how to design a workflow, see Workflow design process overview.
Overview of data input and output in a process workflow
The following image shows the Properties panel of the Get Entry activity.
You can find input data in the Input map section of a selected activity. Each activity in a workflow has a unique input map. For information about input map of workflow activities, see Service connector capabilities.
Most of activities return output data passed with the Output variable of a selected activity. You can also configure an output expression for a selected activity in the Output map section.
You can configure an activity to repeat multiple times in the Multi instance loop section of a selected activity.
Input map
You configure input for a selected activity by completing fields in the Input map section. The following table describes the types of input data that you can enter for any input field:
| Input type | Description | Example | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text string | Use a text string when you need to pass a static value to an activity. Note: You must enclose text strings in double quotes. |
| Not applicable |
| Process context variable | Select a process context variable to capture specific information from a service and service request |
| Adding a process context variable to a workflow |
| Process input variable | Select a process input variable to collect answers from a service requester. |
| Adding process input variables to a workflow |
| Output variable | Select an output variable from another activity of a workflow. |
| Using responses from a connected system in your workflow |
| Local variable | Select a local variable mapped to an output expression of another activity in a workflow. |
| Adding local variables to a workflow |
| General variable | Select a general variable to capture information from the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog platform. |
| Not applicable |
| Custom expression | Build a custom expression to pass different input types. Note: You must insert + symbol between variable types in a custom expression. |
| Not applicable |
Output map
Most of activities can pass data to other activities in a workflow. If the Output map section is available for a selected activity, you can map a local variable to an output expression, and associate the local variable with input fields of any activity in a workflow.
For information about how to configure the output map, see Configuring an output map for an activity and using it in multiple activities.
Multi instance loop
You can design a workflow to process multiple arrays of data within a single activity in a workflow. You can configure a multi instance loop for an activity and specify whether to process these pieces of data sequentially or in parallel. For more information about how to configure a multi instance loop for an activity, see Processing data sequentially and in parallel.
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