4 Replies Latest reply on Aug 10, 2012 2:01 AM by swiderski.maciej

    Pre-defined set of process variables

    cristiano.nicolai

      Hi all,

       

      I'm looking for a way of sharing a custom set of process variables across all process. After creating a few process, I got the feeling that I could create some standard variables that would be useful for every process and automatically filled by my API, two example would be the user who started the process and the process instance start time.

       

      My best guess would be to somehow extend the jBPM designer to include these variables every time a new process definition is created. It would complement the nice work that was done on the designer where it is possible to access all variables using autocomplete functions.

       

      What do you guys think? Is there a better way to achieve it? Could it be a feature request for the jBPM designer?

       

       

      Thanks in advance.

        • 1. Re: Pre-defined set of process variables
          swiderski.maciej

          Alternative approach could be to create a master process definition that will consists of just three nodes:

           

          start -> call activity -> end

           

          this process will have all the common process variables. Next you model another process that should utilize common properties and you could invoke it via call activity. And then repeat the last step for all other processes...

           

          Just an idea maybe won't fit you requirement.....

           

          HTH

          1 of 1 people found this helpful
          • 2. Re: Pre-defined set of process variables
            tsurdilovic

            Yes, definitely a nice feature request, even more so exciting if you are willing to help work on it and contribute to the community

            Please raise a jBPM Jira for this and describe your requirements.

             

            Rather than having a set of process vars, like Maciej was saying it would be nice to have "process templates" which are user configurable and allow users when create a new business process to say "use template X" and that template would be imported into ther model. The templates themselves are valid BPMN2 models that can include not only process vars but also a set of nodes that users can start from..WDYT?

            1 of 1 people found this helpful
            • 3. Re: Pre-defined set of process variables
              cristiano.nicolai

              Thanks for the feedback Maciej and Tihomir,

               

              Maciej, I agree that your idea can work but I would prefer to not have to create any kind of overhead for the runtime, not that it is a big issue, but I really see this as a design time problem and I also want to provide as much as built-in features as possible for the person who will design processes. I also want to avoid process to follow certain kind of structure, I really see it as a service that my API could provide, but to accomplish it I need these variables to be in every process. It is my vision, for this reason I brought it to table to discuss with the experts like you guys

               

              I really like this process template idea Tihomir, I can see a lot of benefits, like guidance for new process modelers. Just thinking that it might be a different feature, the reason why is that even if you import a template, the modeler still free to do pretty much anything he wants on the model. I think these "pre-defined" variables would need to be locked somehow. I just imagining the case about the user variable for storing who started the process. This will probably be the only link I would have to trace all process started for a certain person, so this variable would need to exist in all process instances. Unless a process variable is not the right place for doing it, but in the other hand you also have the possibility to reuse within the process, like assigning tasks for the same user that started the process.

               

              For sue, I can definetely help with it

               

              BTW, nice job on the jBPM Designer, great stuff

              • 4. Re: Pre-defined set of process variables
                swiderski.maciej

                Makes perfectly sense and agree that using process templates is better approach and gives more flexibility.