Using Interactive Activities Using the User Task in Project Templates

6-16 Modeling and Implementation Guide for Oracle Business Process Management Figure 6–18 The Service Task within the Sales Quote Example Process This graphic shows a user task labeled Finalize Contract with a sequence flow extending to a service task labeled Save Quote. The Save Quote task has a sequence flow extending to an end event.

6.4.1.2 Implementing Reusable Services in Project Templates

Oracle BPM enables you to incorporate reusable services in project templates. These services are components of the business catalog.

6.4.2 Introduction to the Call Activity

The call activity allows you to call a reusable process from within the current process. The process being called becomes a child process of the calling process. When calling a reusable process, the call activity of the parent process waits until the child process completes before continuing. Figure 6–19 shows the default notation for the call activity. Figure 6–19 The Call Activity The call activity is represented by an empty rectangle. Data objects of the parent process are not automatically available to the reusable process. Data objects must be passed to and from the child process using argument mapping of the call activity.

6.4.2.1 Reusable Processes

Oracle BPM supports a type of process called reusable processes. In BPMN terminology, this is sometimes referred to as a reusable subprocess. Reusable processes allow you to create processes that can be called from other BPMN processes. Reusable processes allow you to create processes that can be called from other BPMN processes. For example all your processes may need to charge a credit card, so you can create a charge credit card reusable subprocess Reusable processes have the following characteristics: ■ Must start with one none start event ■ Can contain multiple end events. ■ Can only be called by other BPMN processes. Modeling Business Processes with Oracle BPM 6-17

6.4.2.2 Behavior of the Call Activity When Calling a Reusable Process

The following figure shows how control flow is passed to a child process and back to the parent process.

1. A token reaches the call activity in the parent process

2. A new instance of the child process is created.

3. The child process continues running until an end event is reached or an error

occurs.

4. The process flow returns back to the call activity in the parent process.

5. Flow of the main process continues.

6.4.3 Introduction to the Send Task

The send task sends a message to a system or process outside the current process. Once this message is sent, the task is complete and running of the process continues to the next task in the process flow. The send task is frequently paired with the receive task to invoke a process or service and receive a response in return. The send and receive tasks are used to invoke processes and services asynchronously. If you are invoking a process or service synchronously, use the service task. Figure 6–20 shows the default notation for the send task. Figure 6–20 The Send Task The send task is represented by blue rectangle with a yellow envelope in the middle. The envelope has an outgoing arrow to represent the send action. For information on implementing the send task to invoke a process or service, see Using Send and Receive Tasks to Define a Synchronous Operation in a BPMN Process in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Modeling and Implementation Guide for Oracle Business Process Management.

6.4.3.1 The Send Task in Context

See Chapter 6.4.5, Using the Send and Receive Tasks to Communicate Between Processes for information on using the send and received tasks to communicate between processes. Note: The send and receive tasks perform similar functionality to the throw and catch message events. However, you cannot use the send task to invoke a process that is initiated with a message start event.