Process Variables in Process Definition

[romin.irani]

Hello All,

I have a defined several Process Definitions. Each of these Process Definitions contain only System Activities i.e. Nodes which have their Action Handlers.

Now, looking at all the Process Definitions -- I find that I have around 5-6 common Process variables like FromPartnerId, ToPartnerId, Content, etc. I want to define all these variables at the start of the Process Definition -- so that anyone looking at the Process Definition can easily figure out which Process Variables are needed at the minimum.

How do I do this. Currently -- the way I am doing this is in the code:

//Create process instance
ProcessInstance PI = ctx.getGraphSession().findLatestProcessDefinition("some-process-def").createProcessInstance();

//Set common process variables
Map ProcessMap = new HashMap();
ProcessMap.put("FromPartner",new String("Partner-A"));
ProcessMap.put("ToPartner",new String("Partner-B"));
........
PI.getContextInstance().addVariables(ProcessMap);

//start the process
PI.getRootToken().signal();

How do I define the above common process variables in the process definition itself -- so that at the time of creating the Process instance, I can get a list of global variables definition and then set them dynamically before launching the process.

I tried to look up the documentation in the jPDL Schema, etc -- but it doesnt seem very clear to me how to exactly define the above.

Thanks
Romin.

[vsuarez]

We are using something like this:

<process-definition name="your_definition">
 <start-state name="start">
 <event type="node-leave">
 <action name="init_vars" class="your_package.YourVaribleAssigmentHandler" config-type="configuration-property">
 <variables>
 <variable name="var1">value1</variable>
 <variable name="var2">value2</variable>
 ...
 </variables>
 </action>
 </event>
 <transition name="tr" to="next_state"></transition>
 </start-state>
 ...

"configuration-property" usage is due to we are using jdom instead of dom4j. After signalling the process instance, you haven't to "pi.getContextInstance().addVariables()", they already are into the process.