Process designer elements
Process designer uses a combination of the default Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) elements and BMC extended elements. For example, the Process designer uses Service Task element in BPMN to create Record, User Message, Expression, and Association elements. These elements are available in the palette of the Process designer UI. You can drag the desired element on the canvas to design your process.
Important
Application business analysts can customize the objects developed in their own applications and that are marked customizable by the administrator, but cannot customize the objects developed in com.bmc.arsys in Best Practice Customization mode. For example, objects in core BMC applications like Foundation, Approval, and Assignment cannot be customized in Best Practice Customization mode.
Standard BPMN elements
The following table describes some of the standard BPMN elements that BMC uses:
| Element Category | Element Name | Symbol | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Events | Start | | Indicates where a process or sub-process starts. |
| End |
| Indicates the end of a process or sub-process. | |
| Timer | | Interrupts a wait step and let the process make a decision about how to proceed after the wait step times out. | |
| Error Boundary |
| Captures errors and exceptions within a process and identifies the path that should be executed after the Business error or exception is captured. | |
| Error End |
| Displays the business errors that occurs in a process. | |
| Activities | Call Activity |  | Calls another process. It is for application integration and component reuse. |
| Connector |
| Integrates an application with third party systems. | |
| User Task |
| Represents user performing a task. The Task is represented by a record. The task is considered as complete if the completion criteria is satisfied. | |
| Receive Task |
| Represents a wait step in the process that waits for the arrival of a message. | |
| Sub-Process |
| Describes a detailed sequence. | |
| Service Task |
| Models a Service Task, which invokes a Java service method that is exposed as an Action Type through @Action annotation. | |
| Web Request |
| Integrates an application with a RESTful web service in a codeless way. | |
| Gateways | Parallel |
| Models concurrency in a process. It forks into multiple paths of execution or joins multiple incoming paths of an execution. |
| Exclusive | | Models a decision in the process, and the conditions on exit paths. | |
| Sequence Flow | Sequence Flow |
| Sequence element connects two elements in a process flow. |
| Annotations | Text Annotation | | Provides additional information for the reader of the process diagram. |
Service task elements
The following table describes the service task elements that BMC provides:
| Element Category | Element Name | Symbol | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assignment | Suggest Assignee |
| Automates the task assignment by using machine learning. |
| Cognitive | Suggest Category |
| Automates the manual task of data categorization by using machine learning. |
| PIN | Verify Pin |
| Verifies if the PIN value provided by a user matches the PIN value set for that user. |
| Records | Create Record |
| Creates a record instance for a specified record definition. |
| Delete Record |
| Deletes a record instance for a specified record definition. | |
| Get Record |
| Retrieves a record instance for a specified record definition. | |
| Get Records by Query |
| Retrieves a set of record instances based on a specified query. | |
| Get Security Label |
| Retrieves a security label for a specified record definition. | |
| Remove Security Label |
| Deletes a security label for a specified record definition. To identify if the security label is updated, see Identifying updates to the security label. | |
| Update Record |
| Updates a record instance for a specified record definition. | |
| Set Security Label |
| Restricts access of a user, group, or a role to a record. To identify if the security label is updated, see Identifying updates to the security label. | |
| User Message | Send Message |
| Sends a notification about the status of a particular activity. |
| Send Message by Template |
| You can use the existing templates to send notifications. | |
| Show Alert |
| Used to display an error, warning, note. | |
| Associations | Associate Child Records |
| Used to associate a child record instance with its parent record instance. |
| Associate Records |
| Used to associate the two record instances with the relevant ids. | |
| Disassociate Records |
| Removes the association between the two records. | |
| Disassociate All Records |
| Removes the association between all the records. | |
| Document | Create Document |
| Accesses individual attributes within the document schema |
| Expressions | Compute Value |
| Used in the workflow to calculate a value by performing an arithmetic operation. |
| Data Streaming | Publish Event |
| Stores the application event data that is used to derive usage metrics for the application. |
Platform Actions |
| Enables you to create a list of attachment or text data types from a process. | |
| Create Attachment |
| Enables you to create an attachment from a base64 encoded string. Note: Use this element to handle web API responses. | |
| Encode Attachment |
| Enables you to get a base64 encoded string from an attachment. Note: Use this element to handle web API responses. | |
| Rename Attachment |
| Enables you to rename an attachment. For example, you can rename an attachment that you have downloaded from a web API or that is stored in a record definition. | |
| Analyze User Engagement Tone |
| Enables you to analyze the tone of a written document such as an email or a chat conversation. | |
| Add Array Element To Document |
| Represents an array of objects that can store multiple inputs from processes and connectors in the array. |
Example of using a Process designer element
Consider a purchase process as an example. The purchase process involves a manager review to initiate a procurement process. If the item is available, it is shipped to the customer and a notification is sent to the customer. If the item is not available, the order is canceled and the customer is informed about the cancellation.
The following image shows a purchase process:
The purchase process can be designed in Process designer using elements available in the palette of the Process designer UI. The following image illustrates the purchase process designed using Process designer:
The following table describes the various elements used in the purchase process:
| No. | Element Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Start Event | Denotes the starting of a process |
| 2 | User Task | Manager review requires a human intervention. Hence, a user task element is used here. |
| 3 | Sub Process | After the manager review is complete, and the completion criteria is fulfilled, a procurement process is triggered. Since procurement is a larger process in itself, a Call Activity element is used here. |
| 4 | Exclusive Gateway | Depending on the availability of the item, the process progresses further. For a decision to be taken and further direct the process to an appropriate activity, an exclusive gateway is used. |
| 5 | Parallel Gateway | If the item is available, the shipment activity has to be triggered and also the customer has to be informed about the shipment. Both these activities must happen concurrently, so a parallel gateway is used. |
| 5a | User Message | The customer has to be notified about the shipment date, a User Message Service Task is used. |
| 5b | User Task | Shipping an item needs human intervention. Hence, a user task element is used. |
| 6 | Parallel Gateway | The end result of shipping an item and informing the customer should converge for the process to end. The parallel gateway is used is join the two paths of execution. |
| 7 | User Message | If the item is not available the customer has to be informed about non availability. A user message element is used to trigger this notification. |
| 8 | Update Record | If the item is not available the order has to be canceled. Update record element is used process the cancellation activity by setting the Status field of the record to Cancel. |
| 9 | Delete Record | After the order has been canceled, it must be deleted. A delete record element is used to delete the order. |
| 10 | End Event | Denotes the completion of a process. |
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