You add process probes to a business process to monitor its activities. When you add a probe to a business process, you define the elements to be included in the probe message. When the business process runs, the defined information/elements and their values are gathered and a probe message is created. The probe message is then sent to the BizTracker audit transport for tracking.
Prerequisites:
Determine the information you want to use in creating the probe message. The information can be specific literal information, data within a context variable, or probe elements.
At runtime, empty elements are automatically created for probe messages with elements that do not have values. If you define an element to be included in the probe message that does not contain data as its value, an empty element is automatically created when the probe message is created. Therefore, if you are using the empty element value to update an object SetType in BizTracker, the object cannot be updated because there is no value.
You can work around this issue in two ways:
Redefine the object SetType to use a different field for updating the SetType object; choose a field that always contains data.
Redesign the business process to use the assign activity to set default data for process probes. See the example, Setting Default Data for Process Probes.
Determine whether you want to define a Probe ID or use the default Probe ID. You can define the Probe ID using variables and literals. The default Probe ID is the host ID and the business process instance ID.
To add a process probe:
In the Business Process Editor, right-click and select Define Probe from the shortcut menu.
The Event Probes dialog box opens.
Click Add.
The Event Probe Definition dialog box appears.
Type a name for the probe in the Name field.
Use only alphanumeric characters.
Click Add to add a probe element. A probe must have at least one probe element.
The Probe Element dialog box appears.
Type the probe element name in the Name field.
Choose one of the following:
To use a literal value, click Select literal value and type the value in the Value field.
To use a context value, click Select process context variable.
In the Value list box, select the context that you want to use.
After you specify a context reference, you must then select a specific node to reference in the context reference.
Click Select Node.
The Select Element dialog box appears.
Expand the element and select the node to reference.
Click OK.
You are returned to the Probe Element dialog box. The Node Path field is now populated with the node you selected.
To specify a specific instance of a repeating node, click in the Node Path field.
Select Set subscript for <xpath to node> to set the node instance.
Select First, Last, Literal, or None.
If are using a literal, enter the instance index and click OK.
To use a probe element value, click Select probe element.
In the Value list box, select the probe element that you want to use and click OK.
To define your own Probe ID, click Add in the Probe Identifier Fields pane at the bottom of the dialog box.
The Select Probe Identifier Component dialog box appears.
Select one of the following:
To have the identifier of the machine that the business process is running on be in the Probe ID, click Host Id.
To have the unique ID the engine assigns to a business process instance be in the Probe ID, click Business Process Instance Id.
To specify a specific value to put in the Probe ID, click Literal Value and type the value in the text field.
To select a probe element, which you define using the top pane of this dialog box, to put in the Probe ID,click Probe Element and click the down arrow in the text field to select the probe element.
Click OK.
The values you selected appear in the Probe Identifier Fields pane. You can edit the values, delete a value, or move the position of the values by clicking Edit, Remove, Move Up, or Move Down.
Click OK.
You are returned to the Event Probes dialog box.
Choose one of the following:
To close the dialog box, click OK.
To add another probe, repeat steps 3 through 10.
After you add a probe, you must associate the probe with an activity.