Flow form — Editing in Visio
Connectors and flow actions
 

1. Drag the connector shape () onto the flow and drop it.

2. Connect the tail end of the arrow to a shape (other than an End, Notify, Comment, or Router shape). Connector arrows show as either red or blue. A red end indicates that the "from" (tail) or "to" (head) end of the connector has successfully been connected to a shape.

3. Connect the head end of the arrow to a shape (other than a Notify, Comment, Ticket or Router shape).

4. If this flow is a screen flow, special rules apply. Continue with Flow Rules — Editing in Visio — Creating and Editing a Screen Flow.

5. When the Connector Properties panel appears, complete the fields that appear.

When you connect the head end of the connector to a shape that is earlier (above) the tail end, the connector line changes to a dot-dash pattern (). This change does not affect the execution of the flow; the change helps you easily recognize such loops within the business process.

Field	Description
Application	Optional. Select the name of the application that you want to link to the shape. The value of this field is referenced with the flow diagram in application documents.
Work Type	Optional. Select the name of the work type for the application that you want to link to the shape. The value of this field is referenced with the flow diagram in application documents.
Specification	Optional. Select the name of the specification for the application and work type that details the implementation requirements for the shape. The value of this field is referenced with the flow diagram in application documents and on the Implementation tab of the corresponding Application Specification.

Three property definitions are possible, depending on where you connect the tail end of the connector:

Case 1: The connector leads from an Assignment shape

Complete the Connector Properties panel to identify the connector flow actions available to a user who performs this assignment.

Field	Description
Flow Action	Select the Action Name — second key part — of a flow action.
Likelihood	Enter a percentage between 1 and 100 that indicates how likely it is that a user selects this flow action. If only one path is possible, enter 100. Otherwise, allocate percentages among the multiple flow actions as appropriate. These can be approximate; you can change them later.

Case 2: The connector leads from a Decision or Fork shape

Typically, there are two or more outgoing connectors from a decision or fork shape, one of which is labeled Else.

Field	Description
(no label)	Select Status or Else. Select: Status — If the connector is from a Fork or Decision shape and you want to perform a comparison. The flow proceeds on this connector only if the value returned at runtime matches the value in the third text box. Else — To define a last resort, none-of-the-above connector that the flow is to use when no other connectors are valid.
(no label)	Complete this field when you select Status for the previous field. Enter a text value to match the text value returned at runtime by the decision shape (a map value, decision table or decision tree) or the utility activity.
Likelihood	Enter a percentage between 1 and 100 that indicates how likely you expect that the work item at runtime follows this connector path. If only one path is possible, enter 100. Otherwise, allocate percentages among the multiple paths as appropriate. These can be approximate; you can change them later. When the system lists connector flow actions to the user, they appear sorted by decreasing likelihood values.

Case 3: The connector leads from a Utility or Subprocess shape

A utility shape can return a literal constant result using the TaskStatus-Set method. Similarly, a subprocess called from this flow can return a literal constant result to indicate which End shape was reached. Complete these fields to have the system test the result returned in these situations to select a connector.

Field	Description
(no label)	Select Always, Status, Else, or When: Always — When only one path is possible from the shape. Status — The flow proceeds on this connector only if a value returned at runtime matches a value in the next text box. When — If the work item is permitted to flow along this connector when only when a certain when condition rule evaluates to true. In the adjacent text box, enter the name of a when condition rule. Else — To define a last resort connector that the flow is to follow when no other connectors are valid.
(no label)	The value you enter here depends on your selection in the previous field: If you chose Status, enter a text value to match the text value returned at runtime by the called flow (through a setting on the End shape) or by the TaskStatus-Set method in the called activity. When the End settings of the called flow are previously defined, SmartPrompt is available. If you chose When, enter the name — second key part — of a when condition rule. If you chose Always or Else, no further input is required.
Likelihood	Appears when Status or When is selected. Enter a percentage between 1 and 100 that indicates approximately how likely it is that the work item at run follows this path. If only one path exists, enter 100. Otherwise, allocate percentages among the multiple paths as appropriate. If you chose Always or Else, no further input is required.

About connector indicators

Connectors leaving shapes that have condition or likelihood settings are marked with indicators as follows:

• A likelihood indicator ( ) denotes a connector having a likelihood value. The indicator appears on the connector with the highest likelihood if there are multiple connectors. It also appears on connectors that have an Else setting.
• A condition indicator denotes a connector that has a When or a Status setting. The Always setting has no indicator.

In this example, the True and False connectors leaving the Decision shape have Status settings. The ManagerResolve connector has the highest likelihood value.

In this example, the connectors leaving the Update Status Completed utility have Else and When conditions. The connector leaving Create Shipping Docs has an Always setting.

You can place the shapes listed below on a connector. The system automatically re-attaches the existing arrow to the new shape and creates a new arrow that leads to the next shape. Assume you want to place a Decision shape between two Assignment shapes:

When you place the Decision shape on the Submit Order flow action connector, the flow looks like this:

Open the Decision shape and define its properties. Then open the Connector shape leading from it, define it, and add connectors to other shapes as necessary. You can drop the following shapes on a connector:

• Assignment
• Assignment-Service
• Decision or Fork — Be careful to place the new shape on only one of the connectors leading
  from these shapes. Do not place it on a single arrow that combines multiple connectors.
• Flow
• Integrator
• Split For Each
• Spinoff
• Split Join
• Start — The arrow from the preceding shape remains intact and does not connect to the Start shape. A new arrow leads from the Start shape to the next shape.
• Utility

Optional. You can choose to update some property values when the work item follows this connector path in the flow. You can also define text to be recorded in work item history.

Set Properties
Name	Optional. Identify a target property reference. When during flow execution at runtime a work item advanced on this connector, the system sets the value of this property to the value specified in the Value (next) field. For example, select .pyStatusWork if all work items using this connector are to have a new status value.
Value	Optional. Enter a literal value or property reference for the property identified in the Name field. Don't use this feature to set pyStatusWork to a resolved value. Always use the standard utility Work-.Resolve to resolve a work item.
Audit Note	Optional. Select or enter the name of a Rule-Message rule to control the text of an instances added to the work item history (the "audit trail") when a flow execution completes this connector. PRPC includes a few dozen standard messages in the Work- class. (Through field value rules, the corresponding text on work item history displays can be localized.) Alternatively, enter a brief text phrase, between double quotes. Optionally, to reduce the volume of history detail instances, your application can prevent system-generated messages from being added to work item history. See Controlling the volume of generated work item history instances and the PDN article 25196 How to control history instances written to the audit trail.

Click  Apply   when finished.

By selecting a flow action and completing the resulting HTML form, a user determines which path is followed from an assignment shape. For all other shapes, system processing determines which path is followed:

• If no outgoing connector from the shape, processing stops. The work item may remain open, but no further processing by this flow occurs.
• When only one outgoing connector exists, processing follows that connector.
• From a decision or fork shape, the system selects the outgoing connector that contains a value that matches the result of the decision rule. An outgoing connector label
• From all other shapes, the system evaluates the connectors available to it starting with the one with the highest likelihood value. Evaluation continues with the next highest likelihood connector, and so on, until one evaluates to True. The flow continues along that connector.

As a start during initial development, you can enter approximate likelihood values. Later, after this flow is used in a production setting, you can use the A  Flow Analysis   button (on the Design tab) to compare experience with likelihood values.

If the actual results vary significantly from the likelihood values, it can be valuable to understand why. You can update the flow with more accurate likelihood values at any time later; such changes don't affect the logic or operation of the workflow.

At runtime, the system presents available flow actions in a selection list, with connector flow actions (sorted by decreasing likelihood) appearing above local flow actions. In generally, you cannot control the order of the local flow actions. However, if for one assignment you want to make a local flow action appear first, add a connector to the flow that loops back to the assignment, and assign the largest likelihood value to that connector.