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FlowsThe Process Modeler provides features for creating and editing process flows. When you create a new flow, Process Modeler is the default editor, but you may elect to edit with Visio. If a flow was last saved using the Visio editor, you may continue to edit the flow with Visio, or you may choose to open the flow with the Process Modeler. When the physical layout of a Visio flow is changed, then saved, using Process Modeler, you see a warning that you edit the flow with Process Modeler going forward. You cannot return to Visio editing with this flow.
For a configuration example including screenshots, see PDN article 26401 Introducing Process Modeler, an alternative to Visio for creating and editing screenshots.
Some flow diagrams are large. To work with a complex flow diagram, click the collapse arrow (
) in the portal to temporarily hide the navigation panel. When done, click the expand arrow (
) to redisplay the navigation panel. You can also zoom the view by using the right-click context menu on the canvas.
You may build flows horizontally or vertically. Your default orientation is configured as a User Edit Preference. Under Flow Settings, select Portrait or Landscape orientation for any future flows you build. You will have to log out and log back in for a change to take effect.
ToolbarThe Process Modeler toolbar contains buttons that apply only to flows.
Button |
Description |
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Open the properties panel for the selected shape. |
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Preview harness of selected Start or Assignment shape. |
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Delete the selected shape. |
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Display the Flow Shape palette. Click the shapes icon to open a window which contains all of the shapes you can add to your flow. This window will remain open until you close it. Click |
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Turn Pan mode on. While Pan mode is on, you can left-click a blank area of the canvas and drag to move the diagram as a whole relative to the viewable area in the window. Pan mode and Select mode are mutually exclusive. If you click Select mode, you turn off Pan mode. However, when in Pan mode, Ctrl-click or Shift-click a shape to temporarily enable Select mode. The cursor changes to the Select icon as long as you are holding down the Ctrl or Shift keys, and will change back to the Pan icon when you release the key.
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Turn Select mode on. When Select mode is on, left-click a blank area of the canvas and drag to form a selection boundary. When you release the mouse button, the selected shapes will be highlighted. You can make perform an action, such as move or delete, that affects all the shapes. You can also Ctrl-click or Shift-click to select or deselect specific shapes and connectors. Pan mode and Select mode are mutually exclusive. If you click Pan mode, you turn off Select mode. Click a selected shape in a group and drag to move the entire group as a unit. Â All connectors having both ends on shapes in the set will also move rigidly. Any connector having one end in the set and one end on a shape not in the set will stay connected but will reroute just as if only one of its two shapes were being moved individually. Right-click a selected shape to open a context menu relevant to that shape. For example, right-click a decision shape, and you can click Open Decision Rule in the drop-down menu. When more than one object is selected, right-click when hovering over one of the selected shapes to open a context menu relevant to the group of shapes. For example, you can perform various alignment functions that affect the selected shapes. Any click outside the grouping will deselect the selection and return you to normal editing. |
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Turn on or turn off alignment snapping. In a newly created flow, alignment snapping is on by default. When you move a shape so that its center, top, bottom, right, or left edge is in alignment (either vertically or horizontally) to another shape’s center, top, bottom, right or left edge, a gray dotted line appears to assist you in understanding the relative placement of the shape you are moving. When you release the mouse button, the shape will snap to the nearest alignment guideline. The alignment guide lines are separate from the grid lines. If the grid has never been turned off, then the alignment guides will correspond with grid lines. However, if the grid has been turned off, and you have moved a shape, the alignment guide lines for that shape will always be relative to the shape’s position which may be different than a grid location. Even if grid snapping is turned back on, the shape will snap to the alignment guide line, which may not be in line with the grid line. Press the Ctrl key while you move a shape to temporarily turn off the alignment guide lines. Regardless of whether alignment snapping is on or off, you can press the Shift key to constrain the shape’s horizontal and vertical movement so that it can only be moved in line with itself. |
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Turn on or turn off grid snapping. In a newly created flow, grid snapping is on by default. When you add or move a shape, a connector on the shape is aligned with a grid point, both horizontally and vertically. When grid snapping is off, you can place or move the shape anywhere on the canvas. The alignment guide lines are separate from the grid lines. If the grid has never been turned off, then the alignment guides will correspond with grid lines. However, if the grid has been turned off, and you have moved a shape, the alignment guide lines for that shape will always be relative to the shape’s position which may be different than a grid location. Even if grid snapping is turned back on, the shape will snap to the alignment guide line, which may not be in line with the grid line. Regardless of whether grid snapping is on or off, you can press the Shift key to constrain the shape’s horizontal and vertical movement so that it can only be moved in line with itself. |
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Turn on or turn off the display of likelihood percentage on connectors in the flow. |
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Set the horizontal or vertical orientation of swimlanes in the flow. These buttons will not appear in screen flows. When a swimlane is added to a flow, the orientation setting is established, and both of these buttons are disabled. To enable them again, delete all the swimlanes and the router pool from your flow, then reset the orientation. |
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Turn on or turn off draft mode. While the flow is in draft mode it is known as a flow model, and you can reference rules and flow actions that are not yet defined. You can save and run a flow in draft mode in systems where the production level is set to a value less than 5. See About System Settings Rules.
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Use the Overlay drop-down menu to display metrics associated with the flow, such as:
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View and edit the flow using the Discovery Map, a high-level representation of the flow primarily used by business analysts. |
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View and edit the flow using the Process Modeler. After you save a process flow using the Process Modeler, you will only be able to view and edit the flow with Process Modeler. Visio is no longer an editing option. |
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View and edit the flow using Visio. If you save the flow using Process Modeler, this button no longer appears on the toolbar. |
to display a drop-down menu that allows you to click and drag a shape to add it to the canvas.
Applications created with the Application Express tool have an internal property (pzIsPrototypeMode) set to 
If you have implemented the Process Optimization tool in your application, the Overlay drop-down menu contains an The Process Modeler stencil, or set of shapes, is based on traditional PRPC shapes as well as Business Process and Model Notation (BPMN) and symbols. The symbols add meaning to help identify and differentiate the shapes. Each shape has a descriptive text name that may contain letters, digits, spaces, and even other character sets.
The shapes identify types of tasks with parameters and behaviors. Each shape has a corresponding properties panel. After you add the shape to the canvas, you can open the property panel by double-clicking the shape, or by selecting the shape and clicking the View Properties icon on the toolbar. As you complete a panel, you can reference parameters to this flow using the notation param.name, where name is the parameter name on the Parameters tab.
Shape |
Description |
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Assignment — Creates an assignment at runtime associated with a work item in a workbasket or worklist. See Assignment shapes. As you enter an assignment shape, you can assign routing for the work item using the Router tab. Optionally, as you define the assignment shape, you can associate a service level rule, also known as an SLA, with it. A clock
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Assignment Service — Waits for an external callback from an external system using Service BPEL rules.
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Annotation — Adds explanatory text comments anywhere on the flow diagram. Annotations do not affect execution of the flow. See Annotation shape. |
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Decision — Identifies an activity that can make an automated decision about the progress of the work item through this flow. See Decision task.
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End — Marks the end of the flow. See End shape.
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Integrator — Identifies an activity that can connect to an external system to send or receive data.
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Pools and Swimlanes — Identifies and groups shapes performed by separate organizational units. See Swimlanes shape. |
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Split For Each — Performs an operation or test on each element in a repeating group.
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Split Join — Sends the work item to two or more other flows, both of which must complete before the current flow resumes.
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Start — Identifies the start of this flow. See Start shape. |
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Subprocess — Creates a new process by branching to another flow without returning or calling another flow with a return.
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Utility — Specifies an activity to run at that point in the flow to perform automated processing without any user assignment.
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appears on the diagram when an SLA is applied to the assignment. See 
indicates that one or more 
indicates that one or more notifications are generated from this assignment.
appears on the shape. See 
and 
appear on the shape. See 
and 
may appear on the Subprocess to indicate that this is a Spinoff flow. See 
appears on the shape. See Associate shapes in the flow using connectors. Connectors leaving assignment shapes may be flow actions. Connectors leaving other shapes may be When conditions. See Connectors and Flow Actions.
The connectors between two shapes can either be anchored to a specific connection point, or be unanchored.
To create the connection using specific points, hover over a shape to display its connector points which appear as gray dots around the shape. Click and drag to draw a connector from a connector point on one shape to a connector point on another.
- The connector is tied to a specific anchor point on the shape.
- Valid connections display with a green connector line and a green outline around the target shape. Invalid connections are shown as a red line, with no outline around the target shape.
- When the connector is selected, these anchored connections will display as a solid gray dot at each connector point.
- If you move the shape on the canvas, the connector remains anchored to that point.
To create an unanchored connection between two shapes, hover over a shape and see the gray arrows on the four sides of the shape. Click and drag from one of the gray arrows on the shape. Complete the connection by either connecting to a specific connection point on the destination shape, or by dropping the connection when the entire shape is highlighted for an unanchored connection.
- The connector is tied to the shape, but not to a specific connector point on the shape.
- Valid connections display with a green connector line and a green outline around the target shape. Invalid connections are shown as a red line, with no outline around the target shape.
- When the connector is selected, these unanchored connections display as an open white dot on the shape at each connector point.
- If you move the shape on the canvas, the connector stays with the shape, but automatically routes to the nearest connector point.
On the Set Properties tab, optionally indicate how you want to set properties for work items as they advance over this connector. You can set properties explicitly or apply a data transform rule. A clipboard icon appears on the connector if you assign properties or a data transform on the connector.
A status indicator appears on connectors to shapes that change a work item status. For example, if the shape status is set to Pending-External, the connector to that shape will display a small red flag. All transitions connecting to the shape will display the status indicator. Following are the status indicators for the four status prefixes.
New
Open
Pending
Resolved
You can set Status on a work item using an activity, a Utility shape, or the Status tab on a shape.
The mini-map view in the lower right corner facilitates panning and zooming. When you open a flow, the minimap is collapsed. Click 
to expand the minimap.
- Click and drag the blue view window to change the visible area of the flow.
- Click and drag the square in the lower right corner to resize the view window to zoom in or out of an area of the flow.
See the Zoom in and out and Pan the process flow sections below for addition pan and zoom methods.
Zoom in and out of the process flow:
- With your cursor positioned anywhere on the canvas, use your mouse roller button to zoom in and out.
- Right-click the canvas and hover over Zoom to display the drop-down menu.
- Zoom In/Zoom Out — Click the desired direction of the zoom.
- Actual — Select to size the flow to 100% and display it from the upper left corner (0,0).
- Fit — Select to size the flow to fit on your screen and display it from the upper left corner (0,0).
- Percentages — Select the desired zoom percentage.
- Click and drag the square in the lower right corner of the mini-map to resize the view window to zoom in or out of the flow.
- Press the + or - keys on your numerical keypad to zoom in or out. Note that the + and - characters on the regular keyboard will not allow you to zoom in and out.
Pan the process flow using the mini-map in the lower right corner of your window. The mini-map displays a small version of your process flow surrounded by a blue, rectangular box. Click and drag the rectangle over the mini-map to pan your flow.
When in Pan mode, you can also right-click or left-click anywhere on the canvas, then drag the flow to the desired position. Note that if you are in Select Mode 
, you can only use right-click.
Consider these tips as you complete the flow:
- Every flow must include only one Start shape.
- Limit each flow to about 15 shapes to avoid difficult-to-follow flows. If your diagram includes too many shapes, simplify the diagram by moving a portion of the processing to a subprocess. Consult the PDN for more information about creating flows.
- You can work and test in draft mode first, and then print the diagram as a requirements specification.
- Start out simply by creating and testing the main path of the flow. Don't forget to add flexibility and robustness with supporting error flows, tickets for exceptional conditions, and so on.
- Choose likelihood values that are initial guesses. After the flow is in use, click the Flow Analysis button on the Design tab to obtain statistics for comparison. If you estimated that a connector flow action will be used 1 percent of the time, but it is in practice used 15 percent of the time, this large difference is worth researching. Productivity, costs, and timeliness are directly related to the path that a work item takes through the flow diagram.
- Include tickets and utility tasks to accommodate cancellations, rollbacks (sometimes called compensating transactions), errors, and similar exceptions.
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Flows — Concepts and terms |