Chapter 3 Creating an Application

This chapter takes you through the process of creating a new application. First it outlines the process.

• Application Creation Overview
• Getting Information from the Administrator
• Creating a New Application
• Using Sample Applications
• Deleting an Application

1. Get information from the PAE administrator.

See "Getting Information from the Administrator" on page 63 for more information.

2. Launch Process Builder and create a new application.

See "Creating a New Application" on page 63 for more information.

3. Design a process map, including all activities that users need to perform.

See Chapter 4, "Designing a Process Map," for more information.

4. Define the groups and user roles for process steps participants and non-participants (observers).

See Chapter 5, "Defining Groups and Roles," for more information.

5. Define the assignees for a step.

See "Setting Activity Assignments" on page 81 for more information.

6. Define the data fields, and set up the file attachments you need.

See Chapter 6, "Defining Data Fields," for more information.

7. Design the forms to display the appropriate data fields and to attach the necessary files.

See Chapter 7, "Designing Forms," for more information.

8. Set the form access, thereby associating the form with the appropriate step and with the appropriate participants for that step.

See Chapter 7, "Designing Forms," for more information.

9. Decide which users, if any, are allowed to perform searches. Also decide which fields are searchable.

See Chapter 9, "Setting Up Searching," for more information.

• the application properties DB User and DB Password, the database user and password which has the privileges to create database tables
• the content store properties URL, Public User and Public Password. These properties are the URLs on the Enterprise Server to which the attached files are posted, and the user and password for accessing the URL
• the person or people allowed to administer the application (the people you add to the "admin" group)
• the PAE administration user and password needed when you deploy the application to a cluster

1. Launch Process Builder.
2. In the Select an Application dialog box, click New Application.
3. Fill out the dialog box fields.

See "The New Application Dialog Box" on page 64 for details.

4. Click OK. This displays a default set of empty resource folders and a blank process map.

See Chapter 4, "Designing a Process Map" for details.

5. Set the application's properties in the Inspector window.

Application name. Enter a name for your application.The field is required. It can contain only the following characters: A to Z; a to z; 0 to 9 and _ (underscore). All other characters are not allowed.

Corporate user directory. This directory contains all valid users and groups for the corporation, and is the source of the user information you need in order to set up user groups and roles for the application. The available directories that appear in the drop-down list are defined in the preferences.ini file.

Application folder. This is the full physical path to where you want to save this application on your local machine. By default the path is the main applications folder on your local machine, NAS_Root/builder/Applications. The following folders are available from the drop-down list:

• Applications: The main folder for storing applications.
• Application Templates: The folder where you store applications that you base other applications on. For example, if your applications share many elements in common, you might want to designate a template application, save it to this folder, and use it as a basis for future applications. A sample template application, Default, is included in this folder as an example.
• User Applications: A folder for applications stored by user. On Unix, this folder is your default user home directory.
• Sample Applications: A folder that contains all the applications shipped as samples with Process Builder. This folder is defined in your preferences.ini file.
• Scratch Folder: A folder for storing temporary, or scratch, versions of your applications. This folder is defined in your preferences.ini file.

1. Double-click the application's name at the top of the application tree view or select the application's name and click the Inspector icon, or right-click the application's name and choose Properties.
2. Fill in the fields.

See "The Application Properties Dialog Box" on page 66.

3. When you're done, close the window by clicking the close box.

The changes you make are saved automatically.

Name. The name of the application that appears in the list of applications. This field is required.

Description. A longer description of the application. This description appears in Process Express. The user has to have enough information between the Display Name and the Description to identify the application they want from a list of applications, so it's important to make these two fields descriptive.

Display Name. The longer, more descriptive name displayed by Process Express. If you are updating an existing application by saving it with a new application name, you can still keep the same Display Name, so that the name users see can be the same from version to version of the application.

Application Unique ID. An internal unique ID generated automatically to track each application. This ID identifies the application, and differentiates applications with the same name. If you do a "Save As" on an application, you can save the application using the same name, but the unique ID will be different. If you attempt to deploy an application that has the same name as an existing deployed application, but a different unique ID, you are prevented from deploying.

Priority Field. To set up your application so that process instances can be prioritized, use this property. First you need to create a data field of class ID Select List to represent the priority. The field must have the value of an integer between 1 and 5 (1 is the highest priority; 5 is the lowest). Next you choose this field to be your priority field using this property. Then you put the priority field in a form so that the person responsible for prioritizing work items can select a priority value for the application's work items. If you do not use it, all process instances have a priority of 3 (normal). The behavior of your application is not affected by the value of this field.

Title Field. The data field that contains the title of a process instance. This field is required. This field appears in Process Express as the title of the process instance, so you need to set this property to a field that has a value that describes the process instance and that end users will find helpful. This field will also be the title of any email notifications sent. It is often best to create a special field to be the title field. The field must already exist before you can fill it in here. This field is required.

Corporate Directory. The corporate LDAP directory this application uses for user and group information. A pop-up window lets you choose a directory, either based on a cluster or by name. The listed directories are derived from the corporate user directory values in your preferences.ini file. The directory you choose must be the same as the directory of the cluster to which you will deploy the application. If you choose the directory based on a cluster, your directory will be up-to-date, even if the administrator changes the directory for the cluster. However, if the administrator changes the directory for the cluster, you have to make sure your users and groups correspond in both directories.

• Make sure your company's corporate directory contains an admin user.
• Use another user ID, such as your own or a test user ID.

1. Open the application.
2. In the application tree view, highlight the name of the application, right-click, and choose Properties.
3. Click the right arrow in the Corporate Directory property field. A selection dialog box appears for the corporate user directory.
4. Choose whether to set the directory based on the cluster or not.

• If you have a cluster available during the design phase, choose the cluster-based directory, and select the cluster you want.
• If you don't have access to a cluster, choose to point to a specific directory. A drop-down list appears, listing all corporate directories identified in the preferences.ini file. Note that if you point to a specific directory, you may need to change this value when you deploy the application. This will be necessary if your deployment cluster uses a corporate directory different from the one you chose.
5. Click OK.

1. In the Select an Application window, select an application.

If this window is not open, you can open it as follows. From the Application menu, choose Delete.

2. In the Select an Application window, click the Delete button.

A confirmation dialog box appears.

3. Click Yes to delete the application.