When you map the finished BPM, its navigation to application screens and its route when processed will depend on the results of defined variables. These variables are defined in the Variables tab. You can define any variable you need to for routing purposes, but any BPM starts with four default variables:
- Person ID: This is the ID of the person, if any, whose records the process updates.
- Org ID: This is the ID of the organization, if any, whose records the process updates.
- Reference ID: If the process does not update person or organization records, this is the ID that identifies the records the process does update.
- Source: Once initiated, this defines how the process was started. If a user manually initiated the process, the value will indicate the process was initiated online. You can also configure your BPM to initiate upon the receipt of a document, or as the result of a batch, or some other way.
The default variables are always local. Other variables may be local, in, or out. A local variable is a process level variable whose value is the result of executing a process task. An in variable is a parameter passed from another process when it is being called as a call activity. An out variable is a parameter that will be passed somewhere else, usually to a second BPM that uses the first BPM as a calling activity.
This post is part of the BPM topic. Click here to open the BPM Overview.