Starting an Instance of a Process

Starting an instance of a process results in initiating the first task of the process. This typically results in one or more work items being sent to one or more work lists.

The process instance is considered complete when the final task in the process is completed.

Procedure

  1. Click the Start Process Instance button in the upper-left part of the Workspace screen:

    This causes an Open selection to appear in a drop-down menu.

    Note that once you start an instance of a process template, the name of that template may also appear in the drop-down menu. For example:

    This allows you to more easily start an instance of a process template that you commonly work with.

  2. Select the menu item Open.

    The Start Process Instance dialog is displayed:



    This dialog lists all process templates to which you have access for starting instances.

    Note: Process templates that have start parameters are not shown in this list because those processes cannot be started directly; they must be started via business services.

    By default, the number of available process templates that can be listed is limited to 500. To increase this number, change the value of the queryMaxResultSize property in the bx.properties file.

    For more information about properties files, see BPM Properties Files.

    If needed, you can refresh the list by either clicking the refresh button or by selecting Refresh Processes from the View menu.

  3. Select the desired process template from the list by clicking it to highlight it.
  4. Click Start to start an instance of the selected process template.

    The instance of the template is started, possibly causing a work item to be sent to one or more work item lists.

    This also results in an entry being added to your process instance list. From the process instance list you can view information about the process instance, including its progress through the process. For information, see Process Instance List.