You can use Process Designer to
easily create a workflow definition through a graphical user interface.
The following example shows a simple workflow with two parallel
steps.
From
Process Designer, you
can do the following activities:
- Create steps and routes by using drag-and-drop.
- Define data fields that might be required while the process is
running, such as loan ID or customer number.
- Create placeholders for content-related attachments, including
documents, folders, and custom objects, that users might need to view
or modify during the process.
- Define expressions and rules that control routing and that can
be used to set data field values.
- Specify users and groups who can participate in each step, including
the ability to specify a user's role, such as the user who initially launched
the workflow.
- Specify visibility of data fields and attachments for users who
participate in a step.
- Predefine steps for commonly required tasks, such as launching
another workflow, waiting for another workflow to complete, and setting
timers.
- Create submaps that simplify the workflow graph and that can be
reused by being called from multiple steps.
- Inherit submaps, including data fields, attachments, and workflow
group definitions, from other previously defined workflow definitions.
- Specify a programmatic component that is executed for a step.
- Define milestones at key points in the workflow that can be used
to monitor progress.
- Set up deadlines to indicate when a step must be completed.
- Validate the workflow and launch step before testing.
- Integrate and coordinate web service operations across and beyond
the enterprise with process orchestration.
- Create and edit collections (multiple processes in a collection)
that are saved as a single XPDL file.
- Add annotations to the workflow map. An annotation is a note that
you can associate with any step or route in a workflow map. Annotations
are displayed on the workflow map that is displayed in Process Designer; they are not displayed
in a running workflow at an individual step.