Working with structured activities

A structured activity contains one or more other activities that are arranged on one or more separate paths. Here are some tips on how to work with these activities in the editor.

Here is a list of the structured activities that are relevant to this topic:
Choice activity The switch activity icon
This activity evaluates the conditions on two or more control paths and follows the appropriate one. It can contain case and otherwise elements.
Parallel activity The flow activity icon
Use this activity to nest other activities that will execute concurrently. A link is used to connect the activities that it contains.
Receive choice activityThe pick activity icon
This activity halts the process in order to listen, and follows the control path that is appropriate to the first message it receives. It can contain receive and timeout elements.
Scope activity The scope activity icon
Use this to act as a behavioral container for one or more activities in your process.
Sequence activity The sequence activity icon
Use this to nest a series of activities into your process that will execute sequentially.
While loop activity The while activity icon
Use this activity to repeat one or more activities as long as specific conditions are in place.

To work with a structured activity, proceed as follows:

  1. Choose a structured activity from palette, and drop it to the canvas. The activity will appear with a shaded rectangular workspace.
    Note:
    • If this is a choice or a receive choice activity, it will contain a default element representing a single control path.
    • With the exception of the parallel activity, all structured activities differentiate the activities that they contain into separate control paths. In a parallel activity, you create the control path yourself with links.
  2. Populate the workspace with activities from the palette. If this is the first activity that you're dropping to the workspace, it will automatically appear in the first path. If there are already activities on the path, then a black line will appear as you hover over the path showing where you can drop the new activity.
  3. To create a new path in the structured activity (only some structured activities support multiple paths), hover over the activity's icon until the action bar appears, and select an element from it.
  4. You can expand or collapse this structured activity by clicking either the miniature plus (The expansion icon) or minus (The collapse icon) icon.
Related tasks
Linking activities within a parallel activity
Working with parallel processes

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