Processes
Processes are collections of items used to orchestrate the execution of tasks, scripts, dependencies, sub-processes and other types of items. See Process Item Types.
Processes can be automated to run based on date and time and other events. See Process Triggers.
Like tasks, processes can also be defined with variables. These variables can be used to map data to the process items and can be used to store data coming from process items and even from events that trigger the processes. See Process Variables.
Processes can also be defined with actions to better handle exceptions and notifications. See Process Actions.
Following is an example of a process flow where Task A and Task B start when the process starts but must complete before Task C runs. Once Task C is completed, the process is finished.
Process Lifecycle
When a process is initially scheduled (a runtime instance of the process is created for some production date), it usually starts off in a SCHEDULED status waiting for the date and time constraints to be met. However, it could be created to be scheduled with a HOLD status, requiring the operator to release it before it starts to run. It will stay in this initial status until its process goes active and its dependencies are met.
Once the date and time constraints have been met, the process will go ACTIVE. At this point, process items will attempt to go active.
When all items within the process have completed or a terminator has been hit and all active items have completed, the status of the process will be changed to COMPLETED NORMAL.
Some process items can be set to fail the parent process when an error occurs. In this event, the process status will be set to ERRED once all active items have completed. While the active items are still running, the process will be in a ERROR PENDING status.
If the process is set to skip or defer if another instance is currently running, the status will reflect SKIPPED or DEFERRED.
Process Properties
This table describes the required fields to create a Process:
| Field | Description | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concurrency |
Action to take if another instance of this process is already running. Available options:
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| Log Level |
Select the level of detail to be logged from the Log Level drop-down list.
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| Categories |
Group of categories associated with this process used as a filtering mechanism in process views. See Category |
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| Retention | Overrides the global retention period for this process with the number of days specified in this field. | ||||||||
| Retain History |
Select/Clear the Retain History check box to turn on/off writing of history for this process. It must be selected if there will be any process dependency items on this process from within another process.
This is mainly used to turn off writing the history for processes that have perpetual triggers, where it is going to run a high number of times throughout the day. Turning off the recording keeps it from cluttering up their history reports and helps with the performance of the application.
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| Start on hold | Start the process on hold. Once it is a hold state, an operator must release it for it to start. |
Process Items
In this window, add tasks, dependencies and other items as represented by the icons. Join the items using the Linker tool. See Creating and Running a Process for instructions on adding items to the diagram. See Process Items Icons table for each of the icons description.
Triggers
Under the Triggers section, specify the scheduling criteria for the process (See Triggers for more details).
Resources
Under the Resources section, specify the resources used by this process(See Using Resources for more details).