Use a Send Activity

Use a send activity to asynchronously start another process. It helps in parallel initiation of multiple processes and can be used to communicate between independent processes.

Note the following:

• A send activity can trigger an independent process that starts with either a form start or message start event.
• A send activity is different from a call activity. Unlike a call activity, it doesn't call a resuable process but calls and triggers another independent process. Also, unlike a call activity which waits for the called process to complete, a send activity triggers the called process but doesn't wait for the called process to complete. That is, the main process with the send activity and the process triggered by the send activity can run asynchronously.

To use a send task activity in a business process:

1. On the Activities palette, expand System and drag and drop a send activity onto the process flow.
2. Double-click the send activity. Alternatively, select the activity, then click and select Open Properties to open the activity's properties pane.
3. In the properties pane of the send task activity, enter a name for the activity in the Name field and an optional description in the Description field.
4. Under the Implementation section of the properties pane, enter the following details:
   1. In the Type drop-down field, choose Process call.
   2. In the Process drop-down field, select the process that you want to trigger with the send activity.
   3. In the Target node drop-down field, choose the target node for the selected process.
      Note that the target node can be one of the following in the called process:

      • message start event
      • form start event
5. Close the properties pane to save the implementation details in the send activity.
6. In the called process:
   • For a message start event, define input arguments.
   • For a form start event, define data associations to pass the input arguments to the next activity in the process flow. See Configure Data Association.

After activation, in runtime Tracking page you will see that the main process and the process triggered by the send activity (called process) are running and completing asynchronously.