Subprocesses

What is a subprocess

Workflow subprocess (in English subprocess) is a separated fragment of a larger business process that performs a specific, repetitive set of activities. It is used to organize and design workflows in a modular way - this allows complex processes to be divided into smaller, easier-to-manage parts.

Subprocesses make it easier to reuse the same procedures in different parts of the system, increase the clarity of BPMN diagrams, and enable independent testing and modification of individual stages of the process. As a result, the organization gains greater flexibility, consistency, and ease of maintenance of its business processes.

Working with subprocesses

Creating a subprocess

We create and save a subprocess in the same way as a process.

Adding a subprocess to a process

When editing the process to which we want to add a previously created subprocess, we add an element of type Task.

Then we change its type to Call Activity (context menu Change element will be displayed after selecting the block and clicking the key icon).

Figure 1. Task type change menu

In the next step for the selected block Call Activity in the right panel we expand section Called element. First we set the element type (property Type) to BPMN, and after expanding the next fields we enter in the field Called element the process created earlier - placing it as a subprocess in the edited process.

Figure 2. "Call Activity" menu

Subprocesses and dependencies

Since a subprocess is part of another process, when saving the process definition in the version save window, we will receive information about dependent artifacts.

Due to such a dependency, it is impossible to delete the subprocess definition from the repository.

Deleting the main process is possible and is not confirmed by any window. However, a message appears at the bottom of the screen allowing you to undo this operation.

When downloading the process artifact that is the main process (option Download in the context menu of a given process), the subprocess of this process will also be downloaded.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<exportArtifactWithDependencies>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <additionalData></additionalData>              
            <content>PD94bXZlbnQ{...}XRpb25zPgo=</content>
            <folderPath>/developers/mwachowska/</folderPath>
            <majorVersion>1</majorVersion>
            <minorVersion>6</minorVersion>
            <name>podproces.bpmn</name>
            <type>bpmn</type>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <exportArtifact>
        <additionalData></additionalData>
        <content>PD94bW{...}lvbnM+Cg==</content>
        <folderPath>/developers/mwachowska/</folderPath>
        <majorVersion>1</majorVersion>
        <minorVersion>3</minorVersion>
        <name>proces_glowny.bpmn</name>
        <type>bpmn</type>
    </exportArtifact>
</exportArtifactWithDependencies>

When importing a process with subprocesses into an application, they will also be automatically added to that application

Versioning and use of subprocesses

In the field Binding we can specify the subprocess version.

• By default, latest is set, meaning always the newest version.
• However, we can indicate a specific version (version) or bind the subprocess version to the deployment of the main process (deployment).

The same subprocess can be used in many main processes, therefore its update may affect all related processes. After testing and before production deployment, it is recommended to bind it to a specific stable version.

Open instances always use the subprocess version that existed when the main process was started. New instances, if Binding = latest, will use the new subprocess version.