Flow property sheet General tab

Chapter 4 Building an Analysis Business Process Model

Flow property sheet General tab

The General tab contains the following properties:

Property	Description
Name	The name of the item which should be clear and meaningful, and should convey the item's purpose to non-technical users
Code	The technical name of the item used for generating code or scripts, which may be abbreviated, and should not generally include spaces
Comment	Descriptive comment for the object
Source	Where the flow starts from. You can use the tools to the right of the list to create an object, browse the complete tree of available objects or view the properties of the currently selected object
Destination	Where the flow ends on. You can use the tools to the right of the list to create an object, browse the complete tree of available objects or view the properties of the currently selected object
Stereotype	Extends the semantics of an object derived from existing objects but specific to your needs. You can type stereotypes directly in the Stereotype box of the object property sheet or select a value from the list if you have previously defined stereotypes in an embedded or imported extended model definition (.XEM) or in the process language
Transport	Definition of the way data flow is conveyed. Transport is used for documentation purposes only. You can create your own type of transport in the Transport list, or you can choose one of the following values: Fax delivery Mail Telephone
Flow type	Definition of the type of the flow. You can create your own type of flow in the Flow Type list, or you can choose one of the following values: Success. Defines a successful flow Timeout. Defines the occurrence of a timeout limit Technical error. Represents a technical error Business error. Represents a business error Compensation. Defines a compensation flow
Message format	Definition of data exchanged between processes. You can choose among one of the following values: None. When selected, it indicates that no data are exchanged Undefined. Default value. When selected, it indicates that message formats will be defined later You can click the Create tool beside the Message Format list to create a message format for your flow. This property is not available when designing an executable BPM, as the exchange of information is not managed by flows

You can also open the property sheet of the source and destination objects by clicking the Source and Destination buttons located at the top part of the flow property sheet.

Besides, flows coming in and out of the process are also displayed in the process property sheet. You can display those flows from the Input Flows or Output Flows sub-tab of the Dependencies tab.