Overview of Groups
Groups are used to specify related sets of activities. The main uses of groups are the following:
-
To create a set of activities that have a common error transition — similar to a
try...catch
block in Java. This allows you to have a set of activities with only one error-handling transition, instead of trying to individually catch errors on each activity. For more information, see No Action Groups. -
To create sets of activities that participate in a transaction. Activities in the group that can take part in a transaction are processed together, or rolled back, depending upon whether the transaction commits or rolls back. For more information about transactions, see Transactions.
-
To create sets of activities that are executed conditionally, such as in an
if ... then ... else if ...
construct in a programming language. -
To create sets of activities that are to be repeated. You can repeat the activities once for each item in a list, while or until a condition is true, or if an error occurs. For more information about loops, see Overview of Loops.
-
To create a critical section that synchronizes process definitions. For more information about critical sections, see Critical Section Groups.
-
To specify that the first activity that completes should determine which transition(s) to take to continue processing. This allows you to wait for one or more incoming events and continue processing based on what incoming event was received first. For more information about this type of group, see Pick First Groups.
Activities can be grouped or ungrouped. Also, groups can be maximized to display all activities in the group or minimized to show only a small icon for the whole group. This allows you to collapse and expand groups in a process definition to better display the relevant portions of the process you wish to view. Maximized groups can also be resized.
To group a set of activities, perform the following procedure:
Procedure
-
Choose the Select tool (the arrow pointer in the tool bar).
-
In the design panel, draw a box around the desired activities.
-
Choose View > Create a Group from the menu, or click Create a group
icon.
-
The group configuration appears in the configuration panel.
-
Specify the type of group to create and any other configuration parameters required for the group. For more information about the fields of the group configuration tab, see Group Configuration tab table.
-
Draw a transition from the start of the group to the first activity to execute in the group. The start of the group is the green start arrow on the left side of the group box.
-
Draw a transition from the last activity to execute in the group to the end of the group. The end of the group is the red end square on the right side of the group box.
To ungroup a set of grouped activities, perform the following procedure:
Procedure
-
Choose the Select tool (the arrow pointer in the tool bar).
-
Select the group in the design panel.
-
Choose View > Remove a Group from the menu, or click Undo the group
.
To minimize or maximize the display of a group, perform the following procedure:
Procedure
-
For groups that are currently maximized, click the down arrow in the upper right-hand corner of the group or double click anywhere in the group to minimize the group.
-
For groups that are currently minimized, double click the group icon to maximize the group.
The following figure illustrates minimizing and maximizing a group.
Minimizing and maximizing groups
To resize a maximized group, perform the following procedure:
Procedure
-
Maximize the group, if it is not already maximized.
-
Choose the Select tool (the arrow pointer in the toolbar) and select the group in the process definition.
-
Click and drag the desired anchor point on any side or on the corners until the group is of the desired size.