Processes › Define Process Properties › Add Objects to Processes

Add Objects to Processes

If you plan to schedule your process (that is, run it as a job or a custom script), you do not need to assign it to an object. Add objects to your process only if you'll be defining manual actions, system actions, or subprocesses within your process steps.

You can add the following types of objects to your process:

• A primary object
• One or more linked objects

Note: If you add Project as the primary object to your process, you can also select a template to be associated with the project process and specify a key (Template Key) that can be used to provide a reference to the template used in the process.

You can either manually add a linked object, or the system adds it automatically in some cases.

Before adding a linked object, you must first create the object (as an attribute of the primary object) in Studio and link it to the primary object using a data type. For example, to assign an application lookup to every instance of an asset object, you must create an attribute called "Application" on the asset object using the following information:

• Attribute Name= Application
• Attribute Id= application
• Data Type= Lookup
• Lookup= Application Browse

After creating the Application attribute, you must add this attribute to the Create and Edit views of the asset object.

Note: See the Studio Developer’s Guide for more information.

Select a Partition and Partition Association Mode for an Object

If a partition model is defined for an object in Studio, the Partition and Partition Association Mode drop-downs appear on the Primary Object Properties page when selecting that object as the primary object for a process. The list of selectable partitions varies according to the partition model that was assigned to the object. The list of selectable partition association modes is the same for all objects. They are listed below:

• Partition only. All processes are available to users who are assigned to this specific partition. For example, if you select Corporate IT as the partition and Partition Only as the partition association mode for the Asset object, only users who are associated with the Corporate IT partition level have access to the processes that include the object. Users associated with the IT Organization partition, an ancestor level, or the Corporate IT-New York partition, a descendant level, do not have access to these processes.
• Partitions, ancestors, and descendants. All processes are available to users assigned to this specific partition, and to users assigned to the ancestor or descendent of this partition. For example, if you select "Corporate IT" as the partition and Partition, ancestors, and descendants as the partition association mode for the asset object, not only users assigned to the "Corporate IT" partition, but also users assigned to the ancestor and descendant of this partition have access to the processes that include the object.
• Partitions and ancestors. All processes are available to users assigned to this partition, and to users assigned to the ancestor of this partition.
• Partitions and descendants. All processes are available to users assigned to this partition, and to users assigned to the descendant of this partition.

You can change the partition values for an object at any time. This invalidates and de-activates the process. You must re-validate and re-activate the process to incorporate any partition changes.

To add an object to a process

1. Select Processes from the Data Administration menu.

   The Available Processes page appears.

2. Click the process name for which you want to add an object.

   The Process Definition: Properties page appears.

3. Click Objects from the content menu.

   The Process Definition: Objects page appears.

4. Click Add Primary Object.

   The Primary Object: Properties page appears.

5. Select an object type. The object key is automatically populated.
6. If the object is associated with a partition model, select a partition and a partition association mode for the object.
7. From the Available for On-demand Start drop-down, select:
   • Yes. Users can start the process on-demand from the Processes tab of an object instance. The process is included in the Available Subprocesses list and can be invoked at runtime as a subprocess. If the process is set to auto-start, the process will auto-start when the start condition (if any) is satisfied.
   • No. Users cannot start the process on-demand from the Processes tab of an object instance. The process is included in the Available Subprocesses list and can be invoked at runtime as a subprocess. If the process is set to auto-start, the process will auto-start when the start condition (if any) is satisfied.
8. Click Submit.

   The Process Definition: Objects page appears displaying the selected object key, object type, and partition.

9. Add any linked objects for the primary object:
   1. Select the primary object for which you want to add a linked object and click Add Linked Object.

      The Linked Object Properties page appears.

   2. From the Attribute drop-down, select the linked object. Based on the selected linked object, the Attribute Object Type field is automatically populated.
   3. Select an attribute partition code. This option appears only if a partition model was defined for this attribute in Studio.

      Note: See the Studio Developer’s Guide for more information.

   4. Enter the linked object key and click Submit. The Process Definition: Objects page appears listing the newly added linked object under the primary object. From this page, you can add additional linked objects, remove objects, or exit the current process.
10. Click Continue to proceed to the Process Start Options page to specify a start option for the process.

Link Documents to Projects

A document process can link to its associated projects. This allows you to route documents to project roles with full document management functionality. You can also send action items from a document process to the object roles defined on the associated project. This type of linking only applies to document processes for projects, not resources or the Knowledge Store.

To link a document with a project

1. Create a process with Document as the primary object.
2. Add a project as a linked object to the Document object.
3. Add steps to the process and create a manual action inside a step
4. Assign the action item to the object roles available on the project instance. The basic roles on a project include (but are not limited to):
   • Participants
   • Staff
   • Manager
   • Owner
5. Assign the action item to any custom resource fields available on the project instance.

When this document process is kicked off, the process engine sends the action item to the resources assigned to the object roles or the resource fields for the project.

Define a Process Start Option

A process start condition can be defined for all primary and linked objects and their parent or grandparent objects. On the Process Start Options page, you can select from the following start options:

• On-demand. If you select this option, you can activate this process manually. Go to the Processes tab of the primary object included in this process. From the Available Processes page, select this process and click Start.
• Auto-start. You can auto-start a process only if its primary object has been event-enabled in Studio (that is, when this object was defined in Studio, the Event Enabled check box was selected). If you select this option, the process activates automatically when the start conditions are met. (For example, when Idea is submitted for approval and when business unit is Sales, start the process “Idea Approval Process for Sales.”) Define the conditions to auto-start this process by selecting a start event or setting a start condition:
  • Select a start event: From the Start Event drop-down, select an event and click Save. The list displays all events registered for the selected process objects. Typically, for all objects, the start events are Create and Update.

    If you select Update as the start event, a check box appears. If you select this check box, at any given time, there will be only one running process instance allowed to be auto-started for each object instance.

  • Set a start condition: You can use object attributes defined in the selected partition to build start conditions by checking states between attributes (for example, if project state changes from Development to QA, trigger the process to start).

To set a condition

1. Click the Set Condition link.

   The Condition Builder page appears.

2. From the Object drop-down, select the object on which you want to configure a rule.
3. Specify the left parameters of the condition by selecting a radio button and then selecting an attribute value (current or previous) for the selected object.

   The Process Start Options page appears.

4. If you select the Create start event, you can only select the current attribute value for an object. There are no previous and current values for an object create event. The same applies if you select a linked object (including parent and grandparent objects).
5. Specify the right parameters of the condition by specifying an operator and a constant or by selecting an object and an attribute value.
6. Click Add to add and evaluate the expression in the Expression box.
7. To define additional start conditions, select Add from the And/Or drop-down and repeat the above steps. To define alternative start conditions, select Or from the And/Or drop-down and repeat the above steps.
8. Click Submit.

   The Process Start Options page appears.

9. Click Save and Continue.

   The Process Definition: Start Step page appears.