Subprocess activity

An activity that starts a process as a child of the current process. You can use the child process to complete activities related to the parent process.


Subprocess activity

Configure the Subprocess activity

To configure the Subprocess activity, do the procedure in this topic.

Examples

Good to Know

How to Start

  1. On the Application Explorer screen, do one of these:
  2. Do one of these:
    • Add an activity:
      1. In the Process Builder, in the Activity Library, open the Common Common icon tab.
      2. On the Common Common icon tab, drag the Subprocess Subprocess icon activity onto your process.
    • Change an activity:
      1. In your process, double-click your activity.

Procedure

  1. Complete the fields on the General Configuration screen.

    For more information, refer to Configure General Options for a System Activity.

  2. Click Subprocess Subprocess icon.
  3. On the Subprocess screen, do one of these:
    • To use a specified process model for your subprocess, do this procedure.
      1. Select Predefined Subprocess (Only From This Application) or Predefined Subprocess (From All The Application).
      2. Click Subprocess Template Subprocess Template icon.
      3. On the Subprocess Model screen, in the Subprocess Model field, select the process from the list.
      4. Click Subprocess Configuration Subprocess Configuration icon.
      5. On the Subprocess Configuration screen, do this procedure.
        1. To specify the format for the name of the subprocess, do one of these:
          • To use the name of the process model to create the process instance name, in the Subprocess Instance Name Format field, select Name .
          • Select Custom to specify a different format.

            In the Custom field, enter the name of the process, or drag a process data variable from the Process Data screen.

        2. (Optional) To add a GUID to the custom subprocess name, select If the subprocess name already exists, append the name with @${GUID}.
        3. To specify the name of the process that starts the subprocess, do one of these:
          • To let the parent process start the subprocess, in the Subprocess Initiator Name, select Process Initiator.
          • To let a different process start the subprocess, select Custom.

            In the Custom field, enter the name of the process, or drag a process data variable from the Process Data screen.

      6. Click Subprocess Mapping Attributes Subprocess Mapping Attributes icon.
      7. On the Mapping Attributes screen, do one of these:
        • To share all the process data variables from parent to child, select Share all Attributes (Basic).
        • To copy all the process data variables from parent to child, select Copy all Attributes (Advanced).
        • To specify variables to share from parent to child, do this procedure.
          1. Select Map Specific Attributes (Advanced).
          2. Click Schema Mapping Schema Mapping icon.
          3. On the Schema Mapper screen, drag the variables from the parent process model schema to child process model schema as necessary to connect them.
    • To use a subprocess you created based on a variable in schema, do this procedure.
      1. Select Dynamic Subprocess (Advanced).
      2. Click Subprocess Configuration Subprocess Configuration icon.
      3. On the Subprocess Configuration screen, do this procedure.
        1. In the Subprocess Model field, enter the name of the process, or drag a process data variable from the Process Data screen.
        2. To specify the format for the name of the subprocess, do one of these:
          • To use the name of the process model to create the process instance name, in the Subprocess Instance Name Format field, select Name .
          • Select Custom to specify a different format.

            In the Custom field, enter the name of the process, or drag a process data variable from the Process Data screen.

        3. (Optional) To add a GUID to the custom subprocess name, select If the subprocess name already exists, append the name with @${GUID}.
        4. To specify the name of the process that starts the subprocess, do one of these:
          • To let the parent process start the subprocess, in the Subprocess Initiator Name, select Process Initiator.
          • To let a different process start the subprocess, select Custom.

            In the Custom field, enter the name of the process, or drag a process data variable from the Process Data screen.

      4. Click Subprocess Mapping Attributes Subprocess Mapping Attributes icon
      5. On the Mapping Attributes screen, do one of these:
        • To share all the process data variables from parent to child, select Share all Attributes (Basic).
        • To copy all the process data variables from parent to child, select Copy all Attributes (Advanced).
        • To specify variables to share from parent to child, do this procedure:
          1. Select Map Specific Attributes (Advanced).
          2. Click Initial Attributes Initial Attributes icon.

            An initial attribute is a process data variable in a subprocess that is populated with a value from the parent process when the parent process starts the subprocess.

          3. (Optional) To share the parent process's variables with the subprocess if the subprocess uses the same data, do this procedure.
            1. On the Initial Attributes screen, in the Name field, enter the name of a variable to connect with a subprocess.
            2. In the Value field, enter the value for the attribute, or drag a process data variable from the Process Data screen.

              The value in the child process is connected to the variable in the parent process.

            3. To add more attributes, click Add Add icon.

    For more information, refer to Configure a Subprocess.

  4. (Optional) Click Advanced Advanced icon > E-mail Notifications E-mail Notifications icon.

    For more information, refer to Configure E-mail Notifications for Any Activity.

General Configuration

Specifies the basic settings for the Subprocess activity.

Figure: General Configuration screen

General Configuration screen

Fields

Field Name Definition

Display Name
Function:
Specifies the activity name that shows in your process.
Accepted Values:
One line of text that can have spaces.
Default Value:
None
Accepts Process Data Variables:
No
Example:
This is a common configuration field that is used in many examples. Refer to:
  • Examples - Step-by-step use case examples, information about what types of examples are provided in the AgilePoint NX Product Documentation, and other resources where you can find more examples.

Description
Function:
Specifies an optional text description for your activity.
Accepted Values:
More than one line of text.
Default Value:
None
Accepts Process Data Variables:
No

Subprocess

Specifies the type of subprocess you want.

Figure: Subprocess screen

Subprocess screen

Fields

Field Name Definition

Predefined Subprocess (Only From This Application) / Predefined Subprocess (From All The Application) / Dynamic Subprocess (Advanced)
Function:
Specifies the process you use as your subprocess, or the format for the name of your subprocess.
Accepted Values:
  • Predefined Subprocess (Only From This Application) - Specifies the process model within this application to use as the subprocess.
  • Predefined Subprocess (From All The Application) - Specifies the process model within any application to use as the subprocess.
  • Dynamic Subprocess (Advanced) - Specifies a custom variable process name format to select process to use dynamically as the subprocess.
Default Value:
Predefined Subprocess (Only From This Application)
Example:
Refer to:

Subprocess Model

Specifies the process model for a subprocess.

Figure: Subprocess Model screen

Subprocess Model screen

Fields

Field Name Definition

Subprocess Model
Function:
Specifies the name of the process.
Accepted Values:
A valid process name.
Default Value:
None
Example:
Refer to:

Version
Function:
Specifies the version number of the subprocess.
Accepted Values:
A version number from the list.
Default Value:
None
Accepts Process Data Variables:
Yes
Limitations:

Zoom In (+) Zoom Out (-)
Function:
Allows you to increase / reduce the size of your process to view more detail or less detail about the process.

Subprocess Configuration

Specifies the format for the name of the subprocess. For example, the format can contain the name of the subprocess, the session ID, and the name of the Subprocess activity in the parent process. You can use the name to manage your processes in Manage Center.

Figure: Subprocess Configuration screen

Subprocess Configuration screen

Examples

Fields

Field Name Definition

Subprocess Model
Function:
Specifies the name of the process that starts as a subprocess when the process goes to this activity.
Accepted Values:
The name of a process in your AgilePoint environment.

If you have specified process data variables, the schema link is available to configure the subprocess name based on your variables.

Default Value:
None
Accepts Process Data Variables:
Yes

Subprocess Instance Name Format
Function:
Specifies the name of the subprocess.
Accepted Values:
  • Name - Specifies the default format for the subprocess name. AgilePoint uses this format to generate the name.
  • Custom - Specifies your own format for the subprocess name.
Default Value:
Name
Accepts Process Data Variables:
Yes

If the subprocess name already exists, append the name with @${GUID}
Function:
Adds a GUID to a custom subprocess name when the name already exists in the AgilePoint system.
Accepted Values:
  • Selected - Specifies that a GUID is added to the custom subprocess name.
  • Deselected - Specifies that a GUID is not added to the custom subprocess name.
Default Value:
Selected
Accepts Process Data Variables:
Yes

Subprocess Initiator Name
Function:
Specifies name of the process that initiates the subprocess.
Accepted Values:
  • Process Initiator - Determines that the parent process initiates the processing of the subprocess.
  • Custom - Specifies a process other than the parent process that initiates the activities of subprocess.
Default Value:
Process Initiator
Accepts Process Data Variables:
Yes

Mapping Attributes

Specifies how to map variables in a subprocess.

Figure: Mapping Attributes screen

Mapping Attributes screen

Fields

Field Name Definition

Share All Attributes (Basic) / Copy all Attributes (Advanced) / Map Specific Attributes (Advanced)
Function:
Specifies if the parent process shares or copies all the process data variables or only the selected variables with the child subprocess.
Accepted Values:
  • Share All Attributes (Basic) - Shares all the process data variables from parent to child.
  • Copy all Attributes (Advanced) - Copies all the process data variables from parent to child.
  • Map Specific Attributes (Advanced) - Shares selected process data variables from parent to child.
Default Value:
Share All Attributes (Basic)
Limitations:

Mapping Attributes screen for Dynamic Subprocess (Advanced) option is available in these releases:

Specify Initial Attributes

Specifies a set of process variables to pass to a subprocess. You can share the parent process's variables with the subprocess if the subprocess uses the same data.

The subprocess can have its own data only within the subprocess, or it can share its data with the parent process. For example, a subprocess can access the data of the parent process, such as the reviewer name and review completion date.

Figure: Initial Attributes screen

Initial Attributes screen

Fields

Field Name Definition

Name
Function:
The name of a variable you want to connect with the subprocess.
Accepted Values:
One line of text with no spaces.
Default Value:
None

Value
Function:
The value in the child process to associate with the variable in the parent process.
Accepted Values:
An XML variable in the subprocess.
Default Value:
System.String - Indicates that AgilePoint system accepts the values as String data type only. In itself, this is not a valid value.
Accepts Process Data Variables:
Yes

Add Add icon
Function:
Adds a row.

Delete Delete icon

Function:
Deletes the row.