Placeholders

The BPEL Designer diagram provides placeholder the mark places on the diagram where you can insert an element. The behavior of element placeholders illustrates how the BPEL Designer enforces the rules of the WS-BPEL 2.0 specification.

When you drag an element from the Palette, you can see placeholders showing acceptable drop points for this element. These drop points reflect the construction logic of the diagram. As you move the mouse pointer on the diagram, a placeholder that is active for the current mouse pointer position is highlighted. Align the dragged element with one of the placeholders and release the mouse button to insert the element.

Some placeholders are always present on the diagram marking the places where it is necessary to insert an activity so that the BPEL process is valid. These are the places inside container elements, for example the If element.