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Developing BPM Applications with Developer Studio
Setting workstep properties : About worksteps
 

About worksteps

Worksteps define the flow of business processes. You can create a workstep:
*In Business Processes by dragging one of these shapes into the Content pane: Start, Activity, Decision, Or-Join, Exclusive Or-Join, AND Gateway, Message, and End.
*In Web applications using these shapes: Start, Activity, Decision, Or-Join, and End.
Table 47 lists and describes the types of workstep and how they appear in a process template.
Table 47. Types of Worksteps
Workstep Type
Appearance
Description
Activity
This workstep is performed by a User (human performer). In a BPM process, an activity can be performed by an individual user or by a group of users. In a Web application, this workstep is performed only by a single user. For details, see Defining properties of Activity worksteps.
Adapter
This is an activity workstep, performed by an adapter. For details, see Defining properties of Adapter worksteps.
Subprocess
This workstep is a process by itself with its own process diagram and is external to the main process, including the subprocess worksteps. For details, see Defining properties of Subprocess worksteps.
External Activity
This is a monitoring workstep, performed by an external human performer. This workstep type is only available for Business Processes. For details, see Introducing monitoring process.
External Adapter
This is a monitoring workstep, performed by an external adapter performer. This workstep type is only available for Business Processes. For details, see Introducing monitoring process
Note: This chapter does not cover the properties of external activity and adapter worksteps. For these details, see Introducing monitoring process.
Although the properties of an Activity, Adapter, and Subprocess worksteps vary according to their performers, these worksteps have the following properties in common:
*Name. Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge assigns each workstep a default name; for instance, the first Activity workstep added to a process template is displayed as Activity 1. You can replace the default name with a more descriptive name in the Properties view for the workstep.
*Dataslots. Dataslots are used to transfer information between worksteps. You can define editable inputs (information that flows into the workstep) and read-only outputs (information that is sent out to other worksteps) in the Dataslots tab of the Properties view for Adapter, Message and Subprocess worksteps; in the Fields tab of the Properties view for Start and Activity worksteps; and in the Configuration tab of the Properties view for Managed Adapter worksteps.
*Performers. Each of these worksteps can be assigned a performer. Performer types include: User, Adapter, and Subprocess.
* Workstep properties