Process Variables definition and documentation inside the BPMN definition itself?

[alf.m...@gmail.com]

Hi guys,

We'd like to know a simple way to document which are the process variables for a process definition, and for the involved tasks.

The motivation for this is to make easy for any developer working with the process to know which are the variables that are being used at any point of execution by the process. We'd like to know the variables being used for:

- for every start event
- for every user task
- for every service task
- for every receive task
- may be for some other elements

It would be nice to know which variables are expected as available for a specific task, and which variables are set/removed after that task is executed.

The closest feature we saw inside the modeler where the form fields, but they don't show up inside service tasks.

Since it looks like impossible to set those variables from the designer, it would be nice if we could set those variables directly into the bpmn xml file. But if this is neither possible, then, we want to be able to specify which variables are expected as input and which variables are set/removed as output for every single task.

We also wonder how BPMN 2.0 supports this feature (we didn't find anything related to this), and also, we'd like to know how do you manage to specify these variables, without having to use the bmpn annotation artifact, which would make the diagram dirty with lots of annotations...

Thanks in advance!

[Daniel Meyer]

Hi Alfonso,

with camunda BPM 7.2.0-alpha2 we introduced input / output mappings for activities. It is still undocumented (working on the docs) but you can already have a look at the testsuite to find out how it works:

https://github.com/camunda/camunda-bpm-platform/tree/master/engine/src/test/resources/org/camunda/bpm/engine/test/bpmn/iomapping

Maybe this could help you to realize your usecase?

Cheers,

Daniel

[Bernd Rücker (camunda)]

Hi Alfonso.

 

As an addition: In current projects we normally use Java Accessor classes to define process variables and encapsulate access to them. You can find an example here: https://github.com/camunda/camunda-consulting/blob/master/patterns/data-in-processes/src/test/java/org/camunda/consulting/patterns/data/ExampleProcessDataAccessor.java  (work in progress). Works pretty well for Java process applications.

 

Cheers

Bernd

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