Adding a timeout to a transition

A timeout imposes a duration or an expiration on a state so that it will not be maintained indefinitely while waiting for an operation that may never occur. When the timeout expires, the transition on which it is defined is followed (assuming the proper conditions are met).

If a state has outbound transitions with timer events, the timers are set whenever a state is entered. For external self transitions, the timers will be reset to their full value each time the state is re-entered. For internal self transitions, the state is not considered to have been left or re-entered, so, the timers are not reset.

To add a timeout to an existing transition, proceed as follows:
  1. On the canvas, select and hover over the transition that you want to modify.
  2. In the action bar that appears, click the timeout icon as shown in this image.
    The timeout element as it appears in the action bar.
  3. In the Properties area, click the Details tab.
  4. Select the Type of timeout. You have the following choices:
    Option Description
    Duration Choose this when you want transition to occur after a certain period of time has elapsed.
    Expiration Choose this when you want the transition to occur after a specific time and date has been reached.
  5. Select the Implementation. You have the following choices:
    Option Description
    Visual Choose this to use the visual snippet editor to graphically compose Java™ code.
    Java Choose this to write the Java code yourself.
    Literal Choose this to enter the desired values directly into customized fields.
Your newly created timeout will appear on the canvas on top of the transition that it is associated with.

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