Process Designer provides palettes of pre-defined steps in the docked palette of the
steps section that you add to the workflow map to represent different types of activities. You can
work with the docked palette or click the right arrow icon >> Open Palette Window to work
with a floating palette. Each type of step provides an appropriate interface where you define the
parameters for processing that step.
In defining a workflow, you drag a step of the appropriate type from a step palette, and
position the step wherever you like on a workflow map. See Add a
step for additional information. You can reposition one or more steps, and their
connected routes by dragging them. You can also change one type of step to another (for example,
change an activity step to a submap step) by right-clicking on the step, and selecting Change Step Type from the menu.
In additional to FileNet-provided step palettes, you can also define your own custom palette,
My Palette, to include any steps you want either from other palettes or from a workflow map. See
Step Palette for additional information.
To edit and work with the steps in the map, go to the
steps section of the toolbar and click Steps to choose from the following
options:
- New
- Add a new Activity, Submap, System, or Component step or an annotation.
- Cut
- You can cut map items (steps, routes, annotations, and associations)
in the workflow map.
- Copy
- You can copy map items (steps, routes, annotations, and associations)
in the workflow map.
- Paste
- You can paste map items (steps, routes, annotations, and associations)
in the workflow map.
- Delete
- Delete the selected map items.
- Add to My Palette
- Add the selected step to My Palette.
- Change Step Type
- Change the selected step to a different type: an activity step,
a submap step, a system step, or a component step.
- Change annotation color
- Change the color of the annotation. You can choose from blue,
gray, green, pink, or yellow.
The steps section contains a list of the out-of-the-box
step palettes that are provided. Your system might have custom palettes
supplied with expansion products, such as FileNet® Web Site Manager.
- The BPM palette contains basic steps you can use for most
workflows.
- Activity Step - for general workflow
activities that will be processed by a participant or sent to a work
queue for processing by one of a pool of participants or by an automated
process. See About activity steps.
- Submap Step - to call another
workflow map in the current workflow definition.
- System Step - to specify one
or more built-in system functions that perform logic-control and other
functionality in the workflow, such as setting time limits for specific
activities in the workflow. See About system
functions.
Note that the system
functions accessible in the system step are identical with the system
functions on the General System palette, Timer palette, Checkpoint
palette, and Web Services palette. The System step allows you to combine
multiple system functions into one step.
- Component Step - to execute operations
in an external program as part of the workflow. See About component steps.
- The General System palette contains steps for miscellaneous
system functions (Assign, Create, DbExecute, Delay, Log, Return, TerminateBranch,
TerminateProcess, WaitForCondition) that can be used at any point
in the workflow. See About system functions.
- The Timer palette contains steps for timer system functions
(BeginTimer, SuspendTimer, ResumeTimer, EndTimer, EndAllTimers) to
specify processing time limits for a series of steps. See About setting a time limit for processing.
- The Checkpoint palette contains steps for checkpoint system
functions (BeginCheckpoint, RollbackCheckpoint, EndCheckpoint) to
roll back work item data field values to the values held at a previous
point in processing and, if necessary, resume work item processing
at that previous point. See About checkpoint
processing.
- The Web Services palette contains steps for Web Services
system functions (Invoke, Receive, Reply) to specify where the workflow
will either invoke a service provided by others, or receive and reply
to Web Services requests. See Web Service
system functions.
There are two types of steps that Process Designer automatically
adds to a map when necessary. These steps are not on any step palette.
- Launch step, which is the first
step in the workflow. This step is created automatically on the main
map and cannot be removed.
- Start step, which is the first
step on any submap. Execution of the submap starts at this step. The
start step acts as an activity step by default (you can specify a
participant, and so on), but you can change it to another type of
step if that is appropriate for your workflow design.