Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge provides the Process Refresh feature that enables you to update an installed application. Depending upon the type of change, some of these changes are applied to its currently running process instances. Although you can manage changes in a process by creating a new version of the process, the changes you want to make may be relatively minor and it may be easier to use the Process Refresh feature.
Process Refresh replaces APIs that enabled users to update some application metadata and apply it to running process instances, but this method involved numerous API calls and was prone to error. In addition, you were not able to use the APIs to add worksteps or dataslots to the application. Process Refresh not only enables you to add worksteps or dataslots, but also to change many of the properties of worksteps and dataslots. You can then use the Refresh Process template option in the Publish wizard to seamlessly and immediately apply these changes to all running and future process instances at runtime.
Note: During process refresh, do not perform any activity related to the process and its instances, until the process refresh is completed.
As an example, let us consider a loan approval process that, as shown in Figure 21, has three types of decisions: Approved, Rejected and Second Level Approval. A change in policy dictates the addition of a new type of approval called SpecialApproval, where loan approvals that exceed a specified amount require the approval of the Chief Financial Officer (this change to the existing process is shown in the dashed box in Figure 21). With Process Refresh, you can add this special level of approval and, if the changes are valid, immediately apply them to all running process instances.
Figure 21. Loan Approval Process Example
To use the Process Refresh feature:
1. Make changes to an installed application in Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge, as shown in Figure 21.
2. Verify that it has no errors, and publish it by selecting Project > Publish. For more information, see Publishing an application .
3. During the publishing, for the Publish Wizard page, select the Refresh Process Template option to apply the changes you made in the installed application to all its process instances.
4. Click Next to continue.
If the changes you have made are valid and allowed, the publish operation is successful, and changes you have made in the installed application are adopted by all running process instances.
If the changes you have made are not valid and not allowed, the Refresh Process Template button is disabled. Click << Details to display information about the changes that need to be corrected.
5. The final page of the Publish wizard appears. Click Finish to complete.
You can view the changes in the application in the existing process instances of the application.
If the changes you have made are valid and allowed, the publish operation is successful, and changes you have made in the installed application are adopted by all running process instances.
