Create new process instance

Question

Hi,
How can we create a new instance of process other than global activity. Is there any way out for this?

Answer 1

Hi Anuraq,
Know I'm leaving out a couple, but here are ways you can create a new work item instance in a process:
1) Here's how you can create an instance in a process using logic in an Automatic activity's method. This uses the "Fuego.Lib.ProcessInstance.create()" method shown below inside a process:
// "args" is an associative string array (Any[String])
argsIn as Any[String]
// this assumes that the Begin activity has two argument variables
//   named "nameArg" and "amountArg" and you're setting them
//   to the variables "name" and "amount" respectively
argsIn["someArgVarName"] = "Hello"
argsIn["someBpmObject"] = myBpmObject
// logic here to determine the name of the process to create an instance in
idOfProcess as String
idOfProcess = <hard coded string that has the id (not the name of the process to instantiate>
ProcessInstance.create(processId : "/" + idOfProcess, arguments : argsIn, argumentsSetName : "BeginIn") ProcessInstance is in the Catalog inside Fuego.Lib.
The processId parameter (the "idOfProcess" variable in the above logic) is the thing I most commonly screw up with this. It is the text you see when you right mouse click the process in the Project Navigator tab -> "Properties". Look at the value in the "Id" field and not the "Name" field here (the name without any space characters). Prefix it with a "/" as is shown here and if you've deployed this using an organization unit (OU) then prefix this to the string also.
The third parameter is almost always "BeginIn". Begin activities in a process can have many incoming argument mappings, the default is "BeginIn". To see yours, double click the process's Begin activity and look at the mapping's name in the upper left corner of the dialog.
"argsIn" is the set of incoming argument variables you want passed into the process. A common mistake is to type in the names of the incoming argument variables without the double quotes like this:
// this will *NOT* work
argsIn[someArgVarName] = "Hello"
argsIn[someBpmObject] = myBpmObject
. . .Here is the correct syntax:
// this *WILL* work
argsIn["someArgVarName"] = "Hello"
argsIn["someBpmObject"] = myBpmObject
. . .In this example, the process has two argument variables. It does not matter if the incoming argument variables are primitive type arguments (e.g. String, Integer, Decimal...) or BPM Objects, it is always done the same way. In this example, there is a String incoming argument called "someArgVarName" and a BPM Object incoming argument called "someBpmObject".
2) Global Creation Activity - automatically creates an instance based on human interaction - requires no logic other than to set the argument variables you want passed into the process mapped to instance variables. If it's decided in the screenflow associated with this activity that you do not want to create an instance after all, it just needs to hit an Automatic task in the Global Creations's screenflow that has the logic "action = CANCEL"
3) Global Interactive Activity - also based on human interaction it can create an instance if inside the Global Interactive activity's screenflow it hits an Automatic task that has the Instance.create() logic shown above.
4) Using the Fuego.Papi.Instance.create method using logic inside a process.
5) Using the Java PAPI:
fuego.papi.Arguments arguments = Arguments.create();
arguments.putArgument("inArgument", "MyArgument");
String consolidatedProcessId = "/SomeProcessNameId";
String argumentSetName = "BeginIn";
fuego.papi.InstanceInfo instance = session.createProcessInstance(consolidatedProcessId,argumentSetName,arguments);6) Using the PAPI-WS (Web Service) API you can create an instance in a process using a web service call.
7) A process can create a new instance in another process using the Subflow activity which synchronously creates an instance in a child subprocess and waits for the result to return once the instance in the child subprocess reaches the End activity in the process. From the parent process, you'd match the incoming and outgoing argument variables of the called child process with instance variables in your parent process.
8) A process can create a new instance in another process using the Process Creation activity which asynchronously creates an instance in a child subprocess (fire and forget) but does not wait for the child to respond to the parent. Once the child process begins, the parent continues its flow. From the parent process, you'd match the incoming argument variables of the called child process with instance variables in your parent process.
Dan