An EAI step enables iProcess to control updates to external applications and receive data back from applications to use in the procedure. If your system environment is set up so that all the disparate systems are in the same transaction environment, the external data updates and iProcess case data updates can be performed as part of a single global transaction.
Graft steps enable you to attach multiple sub-procedures or external processes to a specific point in your procedure. An external application is used to start a number of sub-processes using TIBCO iProcess Objects calls and these are grafted to the main procedure using a graft step. The graft step acts like a wait because the step is not released until all of the sub-processes have completed.
You would use Graft steps when you want to start an arbitrary number of sub-processes when the case is run depending on what case data is entered. A graft step can only work by using an external application and using TIBCO iProcess Objects calls.
See Using Graft Steps for more detailed information about setting up a Graft step. You also need to refer to the TIBCO iProcess Objects Client help for more information about using TIBCO iProcess Objects calls to start graft steps.
SSOLite is a set of stored procedures, available in the iProcess database, that provide applications with direct access to a limited subset of iProcess functionality.
An application can use SSOLite stored procedures to issue instructions directly to the iProcess background processes (by inserting messages into the iProcess message queues) to perform the following iProcess operations:
iProcess provides the ability to open a form for any step of a procedure without using a work queue item and without having to start a case of that procedure. This is useful when you need to open many forms that detail information from disparate sources during one step. For example, an insurance system may include a step that requires multiple information sources such as:
See Using Caseless Forms for detailed information.
Events can be used to respond to external events occurring in systems outside of iProcess. For example, a case can be suspended until an external event occurs. You can also use events to update case data using Process Variables - for example, updating CDQP parameters.
The TIBCO iProcess Engine can be enabled to publish iProcess Engine activity information to external applications. An activity is any instruction in the iProcess Engine that creates an audit trail entry, for example,
Case started or
Event Issued. You can configure any combination of step and/or activity to be monitored. This enables an external application to monitor important business events during the processing of cases.
iProcess enables work items to be opened from outside of iProcess using iProcess Workspace (Windows)
staffw.exe options from the command line. This means that external applications can interact with work items, such as opening a specific work item, updating the work queue item list or setting a filter on the work queue items list.
A script is a collection of statements that can be called from various places within a procedure. Scripts are most useful where a sequence of operations, perhaps external to iProcess, need to be invoked. An example may be passing data to an external credit checking system as part of a loan application.
iProcess provides many functions that can be used on their own or in scripts to perform specific operations such as running external programs or requesting data from external applications.
See TIBCO iProcess Expressions and Functions Reference Guide for details of all the functions and their parameters.
iProcess enables you to use the DDE protocol to communicate with other DDE compatible programs. Data can be passed between two Windows applications while they are running.
See TIBCO iProcess Expressions and Functions Reference Guide for more detailed information.
You can use VBA projects in iProcess procedures. iProcess for VBA is an extension to TIBCO iProcess Workspace (Windows) that enables you to use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to develop VBA projects for use with iProcess.
A VBA project is an application developed in VBA, comprising one or more VBA forms, dialogs and code. You define a VBA project for a procedure step, either in place of or in addition to an iProcess form.
You can transform iProcess procedures into the Workflow Standard XML Process Definition Language (XPDL) and vice versa. This means that, as long as the vendor supports XPDL, process definitions can be used by different vendors, regardless of the workflow system that was used to produce them originally. For example, you can take a process definition that has been created by third party vendor, Enhydra™ JaWE (Java Workflow Editor) and load it into iProcess and vice versa.
