Different Ways of Structuring Activities
The BPEL language provides ways to structure and nest activities. Process Developer groups the structured activities in the Gateway and Control Flow palette of the Process Editor. Basic activities execute based on rules and conditions set by a parent container.
In addition to using structured containers, you can also structure activities by linking them with the edge tool. For more information, see Using Links.
Overview of Control Flow Items
The following table provides brief definitions of control flow activities.
Container Name | Description |
|---|
Gateway | Allows incoming and outgoing links and various conditions for them, depending on the type. Equivalent to the BPEL empty activity. |
Pick | Executes a selected activity based on an incoming message or a time-out event. Includes the Create Instance property to start a process. |
Fork Join | BPMN equivalent of a BPEL flow activity, described above. |
If | Executes a selected activity based on branch conditions |
While | Executes an activity repeatedly until its condition evaluates to false |
Repeat Until | Executes an activity at least once and repeats until its condition evaluates to true |
Scope | Provides a context for set of activities, with correlation, compensation, fault handling, event handling, termination handling, and local partner links and variables |
For Each | Iterates over a list of document elements |
Sequence | (Process Developer Classic only). Executes activities in an ordered list |
Flow | (Process Developer Classic only). Executes all activities in parallel |
Ungrouping Selected Structured Activities
You can ungroup an If or Repeat Until activity, if they are not contained within a sequence. Right-mouse click on the activity and select Ungroup. Ungroup breaks the structured container and all of its contents into individual activities, links and gateways, shown in the same position. You can also select Ungroup for a sequence, which is the blue border enclosing activities.
Ungrouping an If or Repeat Until allows you to link to an activity that was contained. Without ungrouping, you can only link to the If or Repeat Until.