Workflow Application

These are some of the attributes for application entity which are defined by WfMC specification:

Table 6.14. General attributes

NameM/ODescription
IdMUsed to identify the workflow application definition.
NameMText used to identify an application (may be interpreted as a generic name of the tool).
DescriptionOShort textual description of the application.
Extended attributesOOptional extensions to meet individual implementation needs.
Invocation ParametersOParameters that are interchanged with the application via the invocation interface.

There is more than one way of getting Workflow Application Declaration settings. One way would be choosing an icon at main toolbar. Another way would be selecting Package's Applications in a Package tree component, and then right clicking and selecting Properties action (or directly selecting this action from Edit menu).

User can create new instance for application entity, edit some existing application or delete it (modification and deletion of application entity is not allowed if it is the entity from externally referenced package). The picture on the right shows a property panel for editing application attributes.

Workflow applications that are defined for the package are accessible by any activity that is defined at any package's workflow process.

When defining a Tool for an activity, you'll be able to chose amongst all applications defined inside the particular WorkflowProcess definition, Package definition, or inside definition of the Package's external packages. If the application from the process level has the same Id as the one from the package level (it overrides the one from the package level), the one from the package level won't be displayed. The same stands for overriding the application from external package.

As it is shown on the picture, there are two choices for Invocation Parameters:

Formal Parameters

Formal Parameters are parameters that are interchanged with the application via the invocation interface. They are passed during invocation and returned of control (e.g. of an invoked application or invoked sub-process).

The order of formal parameters can be changed by dragging an item with the mouse.

Using appropriate toolbar buttons, you can create a new FormalParameter, edit, delete or duplicate selected one, as well as to get all the references to the selected FormalParameter.

The attributes that define Formal Parameter are:

Table 6.15. Formal Parameter

NameM/ODescription
IdMIdentifier for the parameter
ModeM
  • IN Input Parameters

  • OUT Output Parameters

  • INOUT Parameters used as input and output

NameOName of the parameter
Is ArrayOIf it is an array type
Data TypeOData type of the formal parameter
Initial valueOInitial value for parameter
DescriptionOTextual description of the formal parameter
LengthOThe length of the data.

External Reference

An External Reference can be used instead of formal parameters. External Reference is a reference to an external definition of an entity.

External Reference has the following attributes:

Table 6.16. External Reference

NameM/ODescription
XrefOIt specifies the identity of the entity within the external document.
LocationMIt specifies the URI of the document that defines the type.
NamespaceOIt allows specification of the scope in which the entity is defined.

With External Reference, Application (and some other entities) may be defined by XML schema (for e.g. location = http://abc.com/schemas/po.xsd), by a Java class (for e.g. location = "com.abc.purchases.PO"), by WSDL document (for e.g. location = "http://abc.com/services/poService.wsdl")...