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Using Extended Attributes

XPDL has the concept of extended attributes. Extended attributes can be defined by the user or vendor to capture any additional entity characteristics that need to be exchanged between systems. Entities in iProcess that do not have an equivalent in XPDL are saved as extended attributes during translation. This section describes how to use extended attributes between iProcess and XPDL.

About iProcess Extended Attributes

Entities in iProcess that do not have an equivalent in XPDL are saved as extended attributes. The benefit of this is that you do not lose parts of the procedure. This is especially true if you are transforming an iProcess procedure more than once. For example, if you transform an iProcess procedure into XPDL and then transform it back into iProcess, you could lose parts of the iProcess procedure if they were not defined as extended attributes.

Extended attributes are intended to be used by any user or vendor who wants to capture additional entity characteristics. This means that other XPDL vendors could name their extended attributes with the same name as an iProcess extended attribute. To overcome this, iProcess extended attributes are defined within an ExtAttr element from the iProcess namespace. For example:

This means that the TIBCO iProcess Workspace (Windows) can distinguish between iProcess procedure extended attributes and other vendor extended attributes even if they have the same names.

Types of iProcess Extended Attributes

There are two types of extended attribute definition:

•	an extended attribute that contains an XML element definition:

•	an extended attribute that is defined as a simple name value pair:

About the XPDLExtrAttr.XSD Schema Format

When you install the TIBCO iProcess Workspace (Windows), the XPDLExtrAttr.xsd schema is copied to the directory where you installed iProcess Workspace (Windows).

If your XPDL source contains some iProcess Extended Attributes, then when you load the XPDL source into the TIBCO iProcess Workspace (Windows), it is validated against the XPDLExtrAttr.xsd schema. If the extended attributes are not valid, the XPDL will not load.

Understanding the iProcess Extended Attributes

The following table describes the extended attributes that are used by iProcess:

Extended Attribute	Description
Addressees	Defines the addressee or addressees to whom the step is sent.
Alternatelcon	Defines the alternative icon if an alternative icon has been specified.
Annotation	Defines the text that documents the iProcess entities.
AuditComplete	Defines the expression for the value of an EAI Step Call-Out Completed message in a case audit trail.
AuditInitiated	Defines the expression for the value of an EAI Step Call-Out Initiated message in a case audit trail.
ColorRef	Defines the link color.
CondPredict	Defines how to handle conditions during case prediction.
ControlType	Defines the transaction control type.
Deadline	Defines the deadline.
DelayedRelease	Defines delayed release settings.
Description	Defines the object description.
Duration	Defines the duration of the step between the step being active and released.
DynGraftError	Defines error handling properties.
DynStepFlags	Defines step property flags.
EAIData	Defines EAI type specific step definition data.
EAIRunType	Defines EAI type for run-time processing because this may be different from the EAI type at design-time.
EAIStepFlags	Defines EAI step property flags.
EAITypeData	Defines the EAI type data because this may be different from the EAIData.
Elbows	Defines elbow-joint objects on the link.
Expression	Defines the expression.
ExtAttr	The element that defines iProcess extended attributes.
ExtendedDescription	Defines the second step description.
FieldDetails	Defines the original field type/length /format specification.
FieldMark	Defines the field marking.
FieldRef	Defines the unique ID of a field reference.
FieldType	Defines the field type.
FormDef	Defines complete form layout definition.
GraftStepFlags	Defines graft step property flags.
InputMappings	Defines input parameter mappings.
Label	Defines any labels.
LayoutOptions	Defines the default layout/link style options.
Link	Defines the workflow process links that have no XPDL equivalent (see WithdrawStepLink for more information).
LinkStyleFlags	Defines extra link style flags.
LinkFlags	Defines extra link connection properties.
NonFlowObject	Defines procedure objects not involved in the process (see non-workflow objects for more information).
OldSubProcParam	Defines the sub-procedure field mappings.
OutputMappings	Defines output parameter mappings.
PredictDuration	Defines predicted duration.
ProcProperties	Defines procedure properties.
PublicStep	Defines any public steps.
ReturnSubProcName	Defines the array data field for return of grafted sub-procedure names.
RoleName	Defines the roles.
SchemaFormat	Defines the version of the iProcess Extended Attributes schema you are using. If it is not present when the XPDL document is loaded then it is assumed to be compatible with the schema format currently employed by the loading software.
Script	Defines any scripts.
ScriptRef	Defines the unique ID of a script.
StartStepArray	Defines date field for sub-procedure start steps.
StepCommands	Defines the initial/keep/release command expressions.
StepFlags	Defines the step property flags.
StepPriority	Defines the work item priority settings.
SubProcCallParams	Defines the details of the sub-procedure I/O parameter mappings.
SubProcedureDetails	Defines details of the sub-procedure to call.
SubProcNameArray	Defines data fields for sub-procedure names.
SubPStepFlags	Defines step property flags.
SwimLanes	Defines the details of the swim lanes.
Template	Defines reference to the sub-procedure I/O parameter template procedure used by this object.
TextPosition	Defines the annotation label position.
UserName	Defines the name of the user.
XPDLExtAttr_XSD_Version	Defines the version of the iProcess Extended Attributes XSD.

Note that:

•	You can define some or all of the extended attributes, depending on your requirements. For example, you could specify the LinkStyleFlags extended attribute without specifying the LinkFlags extended attribute.

•	Some extended attributes are ignored in the absence of another extended attribute. For example, the TextPosition attribute is ignored if the ObjType extended attribute is not present.

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