Designing Start Nodes

A Start node represents the starting point of a business process. Depending on the method by which your business process starts, the Starting Event of your process can contain any combination of Client Request, Client Request with Return, or Subscription nodes. You design the Starting Event of your process by double-clicking the Starting Event place holder placed just below your Start node.

To create a new business process, complete the tasks described in Creating a Business Process Application. When you create a new business process, it initially contains an empty Start node, a Starting Event place holder, and a Finish node, as shown in the following figure:

The first action in the business process is specified at the Start node. That is, you specify how the business process is started at run time by defining a Starting Event. The empty node attached to the Start node, as well as the gray check box , shown in the preceding figure, indicate that the start method for this business process is not defined.

While you are building your business process by adding process nodes to it, you can go back to the start node to check the stateless status of your process. If your process at any time becomes stateful, the stateless property in the Start node property editor displays false. To learn more about stateless and stateful business processes, see Building Stateless and Stateful Business Processes.

The Start Node also indicates any business-process-wide problems, such as when a control declaration has an error or when an incorrect variable type is used for a variable. Any such problems are indicated by an appearing next to the Start Node. If you place your cursor over this icon, WebLogic Workshop will display a message about the problems.

To Define the Start Method for Your Business Process

You can design the start node properties by invoking the starting event node builder. Node builders provide a task-driven interface that allow you to specify the logic required at nodes in your business process.

Double-click the Starting Event placeholder on the Start node in the Design View to display the Start node builder.
In the node builder, select the method by which you want your business process to start:

Invoked via a Client Request

Select this option if you want your business process to start as the result of receiving a message from a client.

Invoked synchronously via a Client Request with Return

Select this option if you want your business process to start as the result of receiving a synchronous request from a client. Any nodes added between the receive and send nodes inside the Client Request with Return group will be executed within the scope of the synchronous operation.

Subscribe to a Message Broker channel and start via an Event (Time, Email, File, Adapter, etc.)

Select this option if you want your business process to start as a result of receiving an asynchronous message from a Message Broker channel. You create a static subscription to a Message Broker channel on this node. This option also allows you to start your business process via an event through File, JMS, Email, or Timer controls, which facilitate publishing events to Message Broker channels.

Note: In WebLogic Integration, subscriptions to Message Broker channels defined at a Start node are referred to as static subscriptions, and subscriptions defined using a Message Broker Subscription control are referred to as dynamic subscriptions. See "Note about Static and Dynamic Subscriptions" in @jpd:mb-static-subscription Annotation.

Subscribe synchronously to a Message Broker channel and start via an Event

Select this option if you want your business process to start as a result of receiving a synchronous message from a Message Broker channel. You create a static subscription to a Message Broker channel on this node. This option also allows you to start your business process via an event through File, JMS, Email, or Timer controls, which facilitate publishing events to Message Broker channels.

Invoked via one of several Client Requests or Subscriptions (Event Choice)

Select this option if you want your business process to start as a result of receiving one of a number of possible events. When an Event Choice node is used at the start of a business process, you can configure it to contain Client Request, Client Request with Return, or Message Broker Subscription nodes.

To close the node builder, click the X in the top right-hand corner.

The drop target on the Start node is populated with an icon representing the method by which the business process starts.

To learn more about specifying the appropriate start node for your business process, see: