Subprocesses

What is a subprocess

Workflow subprocess (Eng. subprocess) is a separated fragment of a larger business process that performs a specific, repeatable set of actions. It is used to organize and modularly design workflows – this way complex processes can 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 allow 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

Editing the process to which we want to add a previously created subprocess, in the main process we add an element of type Task.

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

Illustration 1. Task type change menu

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

Illustration 2. Call Activity menu

Subprocesses and dependencies

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

Because of such a dependency it is not possible to remove the subprocess definition from the repository.

Removal of the main process is possible and is not confirmed by any dialog. However, a message appears at the bottom of the screen allowing this operation to be undone.

When downloading the artifact of a process that is a main process (option Download in the context menu of the given process), the subprocess of that 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>

During import into an application of a process that has subprocesses, they will also be automatically added to that application

Versioning and use of subprocesses

In the Binding field we can specify the version of the subprocess.

• By default it is set to latest, meaning always the newest version.

• However, we can point to 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 to a specific stable version.

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