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About workflow fields

Workflow fields are all of the data fields and system fields associated with a single workflow. A field is a workflow property, which means that it can be used in one or more steps of a workflow. When the workflow is running, a field value set at one step will be available in subsequent steps that use the same field. The value of each field in a workflow is limited to the current instance of the workflow; each time the workflow runs, the values in the fields can be different, and can change as the workflow processes.

Data fields

The workflow author defines data fields to hold values that will be used by a participant at a step, or as a value for a conditional test or decision. A data field definition includes a name, data type, and an initial value. The workflow author, workflow administrator, and application developer typically work together to determine what fields are needed and how they will be used.

System fields

The Process Engine automatically creates the fields it needs to process a workflow. Although you use and reference system fields in your workflow, you cannot directly edit the values they contain.

Exposed fields

The workflow administrator can expose workflow fields in a roster, queue, or event log. Exposing a field makes it available for use in a search filter, when defining an index, and when logging information to the event log. Adding a field to the list of exposed fields does not create the field—the workflow author does that. In the same way, removing a field from the list of exposed fields does not delete the field—it simply makes the field unavailable for the uses listed above.

To take advantage of exposed data fields at runtime, the names and types of the data fields that the workflow author defines in Process Designer must match the names and types of the fields created in the Process Configuration Console, including case. (The numeric data types are the exception to this rule—you can mix integer and float data types.)

CAUTION Exposing workflow fields adds to the system overhead, both in space and performance. Additional performance impact can occur in the following cases:

  • Event logs: Exposing workflow fields affects the transmission of information to the Process Analyzer Engine, as well as the the size of the Process Analyzer database and performance of the Process Analyzer software.
  • Workflow rosters: Exposing workflow fields that change frequently can degrade performance. In addition, all fields that you expose display by default to the user. If an exposed field does not exist for a particular work item, a default value displays.