Gateways Introduction to Controlling the Process Flow

Adding Delays, Deadlines, and Time Based Cycles to Your Process 18-3 4. If you want to delay the process until a specific date, then you must configure the timer event as time date. If you want to delay the process for a certain period, then you must configure the timer start event as cycle. See Section 18.7.1, How to Configure a Timer Event To Use a Specific Date and Time for more information on how to configure a timer event as time date. See Section 18.7.3, How to Configure a Timer Event to Use an Interval for more information on how to configure a timer event as cycle.

18.2.2 What Happens When You Add a Delay to the Process Flow

A token that arrives to the intermediate timer event remains in the timer event until the time specified by the timer event arrives. If you configure the timer event to use a date, then the token remains in the timer event until the specified date. If you configure the timer event to use a cycle, then the token remains in the timer event until the specified time passes.

18.3 Designing a Process to Start Based on a Time Condition

You can add a timer start event to your process to configure it to be triggered based on a time condition. When the time condition specified in the timer start event evaluates to true, the BPMN Service Engine creates a new instance in the process. For example, in a process to report working hours you can add a timer start event that creates an instance in the process one time a day. You can configure your process to start on a specific date or to periodically create an instance. In both cases you can choose to use a fixed value or to use an expression that specifies the corresponding date or interval When deploying a process containing a timer start event specifying a past date, the BPMN Service Engine automatically creates an instance of the process. Figure 18–2 Starting a Process Based on a Time Condition This diagram shows a process that starts with a timer event. The timer start event creates an token each time its time condition evaluates to true.

18.3.1 How to Design a Process to Start Based on a Time Condition

You can design your process to start when a specific date arrives or to periodically start after a certain elapsed time. To design a process to start based on a time condition: 1. Open the BPMN process.

2. If you want your process to have a single start event, then you must right-click the

start event and select Change Trigger Type and then Timer.