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Version: 10.2.9

Add nested Business Processes

When designing a Business Process (BP), you can include another BP in it. This allows you to reuse process designs and improve BP testing, monitoring, and visualization.

BP with Sub Process

Sub Process Expanded

Prepare BP for nesting​

To use a BP as a nested process, complete the following steps:

  1. Create a Business Process from scratch or from an existing Operation on the Sub-Process tab in the Reusable components side panel.

    If you create the BP from an existing Operation in the Reusable components panel, editing the Operation's configuration will affect other BPs where it is used. For details, read Edit sub-process.

  2. Test the BP in the development environment and fix errors if needed.

  3. Create an Operation from the BP.

As a result, the BP Operation appears on the Sub-Process tab in the Reusable components side panel.

Add BP Operation as sub-process​

Let's assume that you designed an OCR BP, tested it, and created an Operation. Our aim is to include this OCR Operation as a nested process into another BP. For that, follow the steps below:

  1. Open the BP and navigate to the Workflow tab. On the side panel, open the Sub-Process tab and drag the OCR Operation from the side panel to the canvas.

  2. Connect the OCR sub-process to other BP steps.

  3. Verify that the BP input file column names match the OCR sub-process data variables. If your BP is a schema-based one, check the contracts.

Edit sub-process​

After you add a sub-process to a BP, the following inheritance rules apply:

  • If you edit a sub-process step (parameters, name, and so on), the source Operation is updated accordingly, and vice versa.
  • If you change the connections inside a sub-process, the source Operation is NOT updated, and vice versa.

If you want to change a sub-process step without affecting the source Operation, follow the instructions below:

  1. Expand the sub-process by clicking + in its top left corner.

  2. Right-click the target step and select the Copy action.

  3. Delete the target step.

  4. Drag the copied step inside the sub-process and connect the step to others. You can also delete other sub-process steps or drag new steps inside it if needed.

info
  • WorkFusion supports multiple BP nesting levels.
  • Sub-processes do not have their own BP options (streaming threshold, due date) and input data file. They receive data from the preceding BP step and pass the result data to the subsequent one.

Explore alternatives​

Instead of adding a sub-process, you can also try the following solutions:

Set sub-process steps​

Using the steps, you can start a sub-process from another BP based on a specific event or initiate transaction processing from another transaction within a different BP. Work.AI supports two sub-process step types:

  • Asynchronous Sub-process Execution

  • Synchronous Sub-process Execution

For details, refer to Start Business Process by internal event.

Add bot step​

Configure a bot step that creates or updates a specific folder on an external server registered as described in Start task and Business Process from Data Source. This can be the event that starts a new BP or task.

Use task-start plugin​

Use the task-start plugin to start another BP or task, depending on the current BP results. For details, refer to Bot Task plugins | task-start.

TROUBLESHOOTING

When you have trouble creating an embedded BP, read the support guide to resolve the problem.