Introducing Sybase WorkSpace Business Process Concepts

The key concepts of Sybase WorkSpace Business Process are the following:

Key concepts	In PowerDesigner
Service	Interface to an external application or business process. Sybase WorkSpace supports many different kinds of services like SOAP, database, EJB, Java, and transformation service.
Business process	Business process model.
Service invocation	Activity that invokes a service operation.
One-way operation	This kind of operation is invoked when a business process sends a message to a service.
Request/Reply operation	This kind of operation is invoked when a business process sends a message to a service and waits for a response from the service.
Receive activity	Activity that receives a request from an external user or application.
Send activity	Activity that sends back a response to a request.
Assign activity	Each assign activity is a sequence of atomic assign tasks. An assign task is an XPath expression that copies value from a variable to another variable.
Split-Join activity	A split is a point in the business process where a single activity splits into two or more parallel activities. A join is a point in the business process where two or more parallel activities converge into a single common activity.
Complex activity	Activity made of atomic activities that imply drill-down capabilities.
Loop activity	Iteration in a cycle involving the repetitive execution of one or more activities until a condition is met. The loop is a sort of complex activity.
Exception handling activity	Fault, timeout or compensation handling.
Delay activity	Defines a pause on the runtime processing and the delay for continuing the runtime processing.
Terminal activity	Defines different kinds of end activities in order to end the runtime processing of a business process or a complex activity. The end object only terminates a branch of the process.
Sequence flow	Control flow between activities.

Check Model

You can check your Sybase WorkSpace Business Process model at any time using the Check Model feature that includes Sybase WorkSpace Business Process specific validation rules. Check model may perform automatic corrections to your model or output errors and warning that you will have to correct manually.

PowerDesigner also provides custom checks on objects used to design Sybase WorkSpace Business Process objects. Custom checks appear under the different metaclasses in the Profile category of the Sybase WorkSpace Business process language. You can right-click these checks and select the Help command to find more information about the check.