Create Business Process
There are two ways to initiate the creation of a Business Process (BP):
Select Business Processes > Create.
Select Business Processes > View all and click the Create New button.
As you click Create or the Create New button, a new Business Process definition is created and added to the BP list.
Avoid creating multiple BPs with the same name as it might confuse you when scheduling.
The general workflow to create a Business Process is as follows:
Set data contracts if you want to create a schema-based BP. In such a BP, each step or an entire BP has contracts defining variables expected as input and those produced as output.
Instead of creating a BP, you can also copy an existing BP or import a BP package.
Provide Business Process data
On the Data tab, set up the input data source for the BP tasks in one of the following ways:
Upload data file
The input data file is always a CSV file that can include raw data or URLs to documents stored in S3.
For useful tips on creating CSV files, see the guide.
If you want the Business Process data to be sourced from a file, follow the steps below:
Click the Upload data button or anywhere on the canvas.
In the popup window, click the link to upload and select the file in the dialog. Alternatively, you can drag the input file to the window.
To remove the selected file and select another one to upload, click the cross button.
Work.AI automatically determines the File Separator and File Encoding parameters. To change the parameters, click Show options and select the File Separator and the File Encoding from the respective drop-down menus.
Click Upload to finish. The content of the uploaded file is displayed on the Data tab.
To remove the uploaded file, click the Remove Data button.
Set to run without input file
Select the No Data checkbox if the BP requires no input data file. For example, this comes in handy when the data is generated in subsequent steps or downloaded from a Data Store or an external data source at runtime.
Source data from external system
Select the Streaming Records from External Sources checkbox, to do the following:
Next to the selected Streaming Records from External Sources checkbox, you can see Signal ID. This ID is unique for each Definition, and you can rename it at your discretion. This parameter is also passed with a BP package during import and export operations.
If you are satisfied with the uploaded data, navigate to the Design tab and start designing the BP workflow.
Import Business Process package
It is strongly recommended not to update or import the same BP during the execution of its instances as it can cause undesired effects or return warnings.
To import a BP package to Control Tower, follow the steps below:
In the Business Processes list, click the Actions button in the top right corner, and select Import package.
Click Add and select the archive with the BP package.
To preview the BP package before importing it, click the Preview Package button.
If the BP with such a name does not exist, the system informs you that there are no conflicts, and you can click Import Package.
If a BP with such a name already exists on the Control Tower instance, the system suggests two options:
Create a new version of the BP and leave the existing one unchanged (default).
Choose an existing BP to overwrite.
After selecting the required option, click Import Package. The new BP appears in the Business Processes list.
For instructions on exporting BP packages, read the Migrate Business Processes topic.
When you have trouble creating a BP, read the support guide to resolve the problem.