Process flow is only one part of application development; another part is information flow. In designing an application, you must answer the following questions:
What information do you need for the business process?
How can you pass information from one step to another?
At each step, what information requires reading and processing?
Dataslots are used to manage the flow of information in an application. A dataslot is a global variable that helps manage information for a Business Process Server process. The lifespan of a dataslot is the duration of the Business Process Server process instance associated with it. Dataslots are either predefined (system-wide) or user-defined (application-specific). You can also import or export one or more user-defined dataslots using the Import and Export utility in Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge. For more information, refer to "Exporting and Importing Dataslots" section of the OpenEdge Getting Started: Developing BPM Applications with Developer Studio.
What information do you need for the business process?
