Changing the process language of a BPM

Chapter 2 Getting Started with Business Process Modeling

Changing the process language of a BPM

You can change the process language of a model at any time using the Change Current Process Language command from the Language menu. The Change Current Process Language feature can be compared to a model to model generation, in which the source model is not preserved and the selection of objects to generate is not possible.

When you change the process language of a model, the whole model content is automatically modified according to the process language you have selected. For example if you change the process language of a model from the Analysis language to an execution language, the content of your current model is automatically replaced and appropriate transformations on the whole model are performed, preventing you from doing any object selection.

For more information about the different types of transformations that occur when you change the process language of a model to an execution language, see "Generating an orchestration BPM" in the Generating Other Models from a BPM chapter.

You also may be required to change the process language if you open a BPM and the associated language file has been deprecated, or is otherwise unavailable. In this case the "Choose Process Language" dialog box will be displayed, inviting you to select a language from the list.

Process languages are frequently updated in each version of PowerDesigner and it is highly recommended to accept this change, or otherwise you will not be able to generate for the selected language.

Models from PowerDesigner previous versions
When you open a BPM that was created in a previous version of PowerDesigner (without any process language attached to it), the Analysis process language is automatically attached to the model in the current PowerDesigner version.

To change the process language of a model:

Select Language→Change current process language to open the corresponding dialog box.

Select a process language.

Select one of the following radio buttons:
- Share the process language definition – use the original process language file in the "Resource Files\Process Languages" directory. Any changes made to the process language are shared by all linked BPM.
- Copy the process language definition in model – make a copy of the original process language file in the "Resource Files\Process Languages" directory. The current process language is independent of the original process language, so modifications made to the process language in the Process Languages directory are not available to the BPM. The copied process language is saved with the BPM and cannot be used without it.
  WARNING!
  Caution
  PowerDesigner is delivered with a set of process languages. It is strongly advised to make a backup copy of each process language before you start modifying them.

Click OK.

A message box informs you that the current process language has been changed.

Click OK.

The whole model content is modified according to the process language you have selected.