How to Add a Project Data Object

Handling Information in Your Process Design 8-13 ■ Use capital letters only to distinguish internal words. ■ Keep names simple and descriptive. ■ Use whole words, avoid using acronyms, unless they are widely known. ■ Avoid using the same name for a process data object and a project data object.

8.12 Scope and Access

The scope an access varies according to the structure used to store information: ■ Process Data Objects : You can access them from any task within the process. The Process Engine creates them when it creates an instance in the process. Generally the process data objects have different values for each instance in the process. After the instance arrives to the end event, you cannot access process data objects anymore. ■ Subprocess Data Objects : You can access them from any task within a subprocess. The Process Engine creates them when the subprocess is triggered. After the instance leaves the subprocess, these data objects are no longer available. ■ Project Data Objects : You can define project data objects at a project level, however the scope of project data objects is a process. Project data objects are predefined for all the processes in a BPM project. The value of a project data object may vary between processes. Generally project data objects have different values for each instance in the process. You can access project data objects from any process in a project, however the value assigned to it during a process is lost when the process finishes running. Figure 7-12 shows the difference between the scope and the life span of project data objects. ■ Arguments : You can only access arguments from within data associations. You use arguments to pass information between processes or process components. When the Process Engine runs a process or a process element that contains a data association, it maps the value of the arguments to the data objects defined in the data association. Figure 8–3 Scope of the Data Structures in a Process 8-14 Modeling and Implementation Guide for Oracle Business Process Management Figure 8–4 Scope and Life Span of Project Data Objects

8.13 Introduction to Data Associations

Data associations are used to pass the information stored in data objects in the following contexts: ■ To and from another process or service invoked from a BPMN process ■ To and from a Human Task service ■ To and from an Oracle Business Rule ■ To and from a script task. This BPMN flow object is used to pass data objects through data associations. Table Figure 8–4 lists the flow objects where you can define data associations. It also lists the objects implemented. You can use data associations to define the input and output from a flow object to an external service or process. It is important to note that although the inputs and outputs are defined in the data associations for a flow object, the defined values are passed to the implemented systems and services. You can use expressions to evaluate and change the input and output values

8.13.1 Introduction to the Data Association Editor

The data associations editor enables you to configure the input and output values passed between a flow object and a its implementation. Table 8–3 Flow Objects that Accept Data Associations Flow Objects Implementation Message start and end events Services and other BPMN processes Message throw and catch events Services and other BPMN processes Send and receive tasks Services and other BPMN processes Script tasks Do not contain an implementation, are used to pass data objects through data associations. User tasks Oracle Human Tasks Business rule tasks Oracle Business Rules Service Tasks Services and BPMN processes