Multiple gateway & split gateway

Question

Simple question.
Is the multiple gateway used when the same copies must be passed to different users in the same time. And each user cannot view the copy or result modified by other users.
Is the split gateway used when same copies will be sent to different branches. Users in the same role can view the copy?
Oracle BPM 10.3 Help Studio Reference does not give very detail information
Edited by: YE on Apr 22, 2009 2:33 PM

Answer 1

Hi Ye,
Yes that's one scenario.
A Multiple activity (called "Split-N" in releases before Oracle BPM 10g) is used in three scenarios:
(1) Voting design pattern - It's fairly common to want to form a committee at runtime of participants. The size of the committee can be a decision made at runtime. A copy of the work item instance is assigned to each of the people on the committee. Each participant has a "vote", but cannot act on the other committee member's work item instances votes since the instance is assigned to each person specifically using participant.next for the copied instance.
(2) RFP design pattern - The companies responding to the proposal are assigned the instance typically as the copied instance flows into an activity that is inside a parametric role. The parametric role in this example would be based on the supplier's name so only people in that supplier's company can respond the the proposal.
(3) Changing granularity of a work item instance. Although not suggested for work item instances that can break down into hundreds of individual work items, it is a simple technique to have a single batch job (e.g. batch of claims coming in) and breaking this down into its invidual components (e.g. each individual claim would become a separate work item instance inside the Multiple / Join).
In the first two patterns above, the end user participants involved would not have access to instances in other copies spawned by the Multiple activity.
Use Multiple when you're using any of these patterns and the number of copies spawned is determined at runtime.
A Split activity on the other hand is used when you do not need to determine the number of copies spawned at runtime. There is always more than one transition coming out of a Split activity. A copy of the instance variable flows through each of the unconditional transition leaving the Split and through each of the conditional transitions that evaluate as true coming out of the Split.
Whether you decide to assign a specific copy of a work item instance coming out of either a Multiple or Split to a specific end user is based on your need inside the process. Assigning a work item instance to a specific participant can be incredibly useful, but it is an option that can be used anywhere inside a process. It is not a requirement of either the Multiple or Split activity.
Hope this helps,
Dan