Creating a Workflow

Assign an alert to the Start shape that will initiate the workflow.
Drag and drop the tasks or gateways onto the canvas and connect them in the desired order.
Associate the appropriate events, services, user interfaces, and performers.
Validate the workflow. If there are any validation errors, resolve them before continuing.
Save.
Once the workflow is complete, validated, and ready for production, mark the workflow as Active. The workflow will not initiate any process instances until you have checked either the Activate Now checkbox in the Save As window, or the Activate checkbox in the Information tab of the workflow.

Note

It is possible to loop a workflow and link a task to a past task.

Available Shapes

Use the following table to decide which types of tasks and shapes to use for your workflow:

Node	Description
Receive Task	A task that waits for the arrival of a message. The process stays in this wait state until a specific message is received.
Service Task	A task that uses a service. This can be a web service or an automated application.
User Task	A task that requires a human performer to complete the task with the assistance of a software application.
Exclusive Gateway	A task that evaluates the state of the workflow and based on the condition, breaks the flow into one of the two or more mutually exclusive paths.

Assigning Events, Services, and User Interfaces

Note

In order for an Alert or Event to initiate a workflow, its parent thing or thing template must implement the PTC.BPE.BusinessProcessManageable thing shape.

In order for tasks and shapes to be considered valid, you must assign an event, service, or user interface to the shape. The table below identifies what must be assigned to different tasks and shapes:

Shape	Required
Start	Event
Receive Task	Event
Service Task	Service
User Task	User Interface—the mashup that is called when completing a User Task. Performer—the user that completes the User Task