In addition to the actions available on the Eclipse Workbench toolbar (for example, New, Save, Search, External Tools), the Design Studio for OSM Process editor palette provides access to specific actions that enable modeling of OSM processes. The palette appears as a collapsible sidebar in the Process editor. If you prefer to access the palette tools from a view, you can include the Palette view in your perspective.
The Process editor palette contains four drawers. Click a drawer to expand or collapse the drawer. Click the Pin Open button to pin the drawer into the open position. The tools in the Process editor palette drawers are grouped by type:
Tools
Activities
Flows
Exception Paths
About the Process Editor Tool Drawer
About the Process Editor Activities Drawer
About the Process Editor Flow Drawer
About the Process Editor Exception Paths Drawer
The Tool drawer contains tools for selecting and positioning activities within the Process editor.
| Field | Use |
|---|---|
| Selection Tool | Select existing components. Click the Selection tool, then click any activity in the Process editor to make that activity active. Press the Esc key to activate the Selection tool when other tools in the Tool drawer are active. This tool is the default cursor tool. |
| Pan Tool | Select to reposition the contents in the Process editor. To make the Pan tool active, click the Pan Tool icon in the Process editor tools palette, then drag the graphic into the desired position. If the Selection tool is active, you can activate the Pan tool by pressing the control key and clicking the left mouse button. |
| Zoom Tool | Select to magnify a section of the Process editor. Drag a selection rectangle with the Zoom tool, and that part of the image will be magnified to fill the editor. If the Selection tool is active, you can activate the Zoom tool by pressing the control key and the shift key simultaneously. To reset the graphic to the original size, right-click in the Process editor and select Reset Zoom.
Additionally, you can press the Control key and use a mouse wheel to zoom in and out of a graphic. Note: You can magnify and reduce the size of a graphic by using the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons in the Process editor toolbar. Click the Zoom In or Zoom Out button to increase or decrease the size of the graphic. |
| Magnify Tool | Use to magnify the area of the diagram positioned under the pointer. Press the Alt key and simultaneously click and hold the left mouse button to activate the Magnify tool. Release the mouse button and Alt key to deactivate the tool. While this tool does not appear in the tools palette, it is available for use in the Process editor and accessible by the key stroke shortcut noted above. |
An activity is a unit of work that the system performs. Activity types include processes, subprocesses, and tasks.
| Field | Use |
|---|---|
| Task | A task is an activity that cannot be broken into a finer level of detail. To place a task activity within the Process editor, click Task, then click inside of the Process editor. The Create Task wizard appears, where you can define attributes for a new task or select an existing task. |
| Subprocess | A subprocess is an activity that is included within a process. Subprocesses can be broken into a finer level of detail (a process) through a set of activities. To place a subprocess activity in the Process editor, click the Subprocess button, then click inside of the Process editor. Right-clicking the subprocess activity lets you edit the display name and assign an order. |
| Rule | Rules are tasks that evaluate data to determine if a specified condition exists. Rule tasks are evaluated by the system and have completion statuses of true or false.
Note: Before you create a rule task, you must first define the data elements in the Order editor Order Templates tab. To place a rule activity in the Process editor, click the Rule button, then click inside of the Process editor. Right-clicking the rule activity lets you edit the display name, assign an order, and create an activity reference. |
| Timer Delay | A timer delay pauses an operation until a specified order rule evaluates as true.
Timer delays and event delays work identically, but differ in how the rule evaluation is triggered:
To place a timer delay activity in the Process editor, click the Timer Delay button, then click inside of the Process editor. Right-clicking the timer delay activity lets you edit the display name, assign an order, or create an activity reference. By default, timer delays use the null_rule. Oracle recommends using a custom order rule instead. See "Designing Timer Delays" for more information. Note: The frequency at which the OSM server evaluates a delay rule is determined by your OSM server configuration. See "Installing OSM in GUI Mode" in OSM Installation Guide for more information. |
| Event Delay | An event delay pauses an operation until a specified order rule evaluates as true.
Timer delays and event delays work identically, but differ in how the rule evaluation is triggered:
To place an event delay activity in the Process editor, click the Event Delay button, then click inside of the Process editor. Right-clicking the event delay activity lets you edit the display name, assign an order, or create an activity reference. See "Designing Event Delays" for more information about event delays. |
| Join | Enables you to combine a set of flows into a single flow. The unified flow can join based on all transitions completing or any one transition completing.
To place a join activity in the Process editor, click the Join button, then click inside of the Process editor. Right-clicking the join activity lets you edit the display name, assign an order, or create an activity reference. |
| End | An event is an occurrence during the course of a business process. Events affect the flow of the process and usually have a cause (trigger) or an impact (result). The end event indicates where a process will end.
To place an end event in the Process editor, click the End button, then click inside of the Process editor. Right-clicking the end event lets you edit the display name, assign an order, or create an activity reference. |
| Redirect | A redirect activity describes a mechanism used to redirect an operation to a different process.
To place a redirect activity in the Process editor, click the Redirect button, then click inside of the Process editor. Right-clicking the redirect activity lets you edit the display name, assign an order, or create an activity reference. |
Flows describe how tasks are completed and determine the order of tasks in the process. To describe the flow between any two activities in the Process editor, click the appropriate flow button in the Process editor palette, then click the source activity in the Process editor. A dynamic flow line appears, enabling you to connect the source activity to any other activity in the Process editor. Click a destination activity to create the directional flow.
You can use the following options to describe the flow within a process. Each of these flow options describes a different transition status:
| Field | Use |
|---|---|
| Flow | Refers to the flow that originates from a start event and continues through activities via alternative and parallel paths until it ends at an end event. |
| True Flow | Denotes that the activity executed and completed with a result that allows the process to continue to the next activity or end. |
| False Flow | Denotes that the activity executed and completed with a result that prevents the process from continuing to the next activity. |
| Next Flow | Denotes advancement to the next activity. |
| Back Flow | Denotes a return to the previous activity. |
| Finish Flow | Denotes the completion of an operation. |
| Cancel Flow | Denotes the cancellation of an operation. |
| Success Flow | Denotes that an operation completed successfully. |
| Failure Flow | Denotes that an operation did not complete successfully. |
Note:
Flows are represented in the Process editor by transition arrowheads. When the Mandatory Check option for a corresponding flow is not enabled, the flow is represented as a hollow arrowhead. When Mandatory Check is enabled, the flow is represented as a solid black arrowhead. To ensure that the system verifies that mandatory fields are present when a task completes, enable the Mandatory Check option for the corresponding flow in the Properties view. To access the Properties view, right-click the corresponding flow and select Show Properties, or see "Process Editor Flow Properties General Tab" for more information.Exception paths are used in conjunction with redirect and end activities to define process exceptions. Process exceptions let you alter the normal process flow from anywhere within a process (or subprocess) at any time during the process execution. You can also model an exception with role restrictions, thus allowing only selected roles to throw the exception.
See "Designing Exception Paths" for more information about exception paths.