4.5. Process Elements

4.5.1. Generic Properties of Visualized Process Elements

All Process elements have the following visualization properties, which can be defined in their Properties tab:

Background
The background color of the element in the diagram
Border color
The border color of the element in the diagram
Font color
The color of the font in the element name
Font size
The size of the font in the element name
Name
The element name displayed on the BPMN diagram

4.5.2. Defining Process Element Properties

All process elements, including the process, contain a set of properties that define the following:

  • Core properties, which include properties such as the name, data set, scripts, and others.
  • Extra properties, which include the properties necessary for element execution (see Section A.6, “Process Elements”), data mapping (variable mapping) and local variable definitions (see Section 4.9.1, “Global Variables”), and properties that represent an extension of the jBPM engine, such as onExitAction, documentation, and similar.
  • Graphical properties, which include graphical representation of elements (such as colors, or text settings).
  • Simulation properties, which are used by the simulation engine.

In element properties of the String type, use #{expression} to embed a value. The value will be retrieved on element instantiation, and the substitution expression will be replaced with the result of calling the toString() method on the variable defined in the expression.

Note that the expression can be the name of a variable, in which case it resolves to the value of the variable, but more advanced MVEL expressions are possible as well, for example #{person.name.firstname}.

To define element properties, do the following:

  1. Open the process definition in the Process Designer.
  2. On the canvas, select an element.
  3. Click 3140 in the upper right corner of the Process Designer to display the Properties view.
  4. In the displayed Properties view, click the property value fields to edit them. Note that where applicable, you can click the drop-down arrow and the relevant value editor appears in a new dialog box.
  5. Click Save in the upper right corner and fill out the Save this item dialogue to save your changes.