Terminology TerminologyThis section explains all the terms used in the OmniFlow processing. The user can have an overview about the components for which the API calls are used and can be integrated with external applications.
The entire business logic is termed as Process. It can be better defined as a definition of what flows to whom and in what sequence. It is a flow chart representation of the sequences in which tasks must be performed from initiation to completion. It is a chain of worksteps linked together, through which the workflow moves until it reaches a logical conclusion. Processes can be serial, parallel, or conditional.
The concept of a Process can be better understood with an example. A company is divided into various departments, for instance the Reception, the HR department, the Technical department and so on. At the time of recruiting, various applications fly in the respective company. But the selection of the right candidate has to go through various processes. The applications / resumes first come in the reception, and from there they are forwarded to the HR. Then it is the work of the HR people to further distribute the wanted resumes to the required departments. The technical resumes are forwarded to the technical department, and so on. This whole workstep comprises of process, that is from the reception to the HR and from there to the respective departments.
Process is designed in an easy to use graphical interface provided by the OmniFlow Process Modeler Application.
Workstep is a logical unit, in a process, where specified set of actions / processing has to be performed either by a fully automated program or by an interactive program where people act, enter / change data, set decision variables and so on. Relating to the above example, each of the departments such as the HR department and the technical department can be co-related to form a workstep.
There are two types of worksteps:
Custom workstep
System workstep
Custom workstep implies that the user has to explicitly login to the desktop to perform the intended operation. Custom worksteps can also be termed as Manual Worksteps.
System workstep implies that the processing is done by the system or an external application. The user does not have to explicitly login to perform the intended operations at these worksteps. They can also be termed as Automated Worksteps. There are a total of seven such worksteps, namely, Introduction, Distribute, Decision, Hold, Collect, Discard and Exit. From the above the Distribute, Decision, Hold and Collect can also be termed as the Flow control worksteps, which perform operations like routing workitems to alternate worksteps, splitting workitems for parallel processing, collecting the split workitems and so on.
Workitems is a unit of task that has to be processed in the workflow.
Workspace implies the entire screen in which you can design the graphical representation of the process.
Streams can be defined as predefined filters on a workstep, which decides who is the next person to view the workitem.
Example
This can be understood with the help of the following example; resumes come in an organization for the various posts opened. The resumes are first handed over to the HR people who further distribute the resumes to the required departments.
The resumes of VB are handled by ‘A ‘and resumes of VC are handled by ‘B’. ‘A’ and ‘B’ further distribute (stream) the resumes to their respective departments.
A rule is a list of one or more actions that are to be executed when the associated list of conditions, if any, are satisfied. Rules are used for defining all the processing that has to be performed on any particular Workstage. Rules are always executed sequentially, one after another, in the sequence in which they are defined.
For Example:
> IF Technical Area =’VB’
Then
ROUTE TO AppDepartment
> ROUTE TO SystemDepartment.
In the above example, the first rule is defined with condition, while the second rule is defined without condition. This means the second rule will be executed always, whenever the condition for the first rule is not met.
ToDoList is a reminder list, which contains a set of tasks called ‘ToDoItems’ that are to be performed by the user on the Workitem at the particular Workstep at which the ToDoItem is associated.
Actions are the explicit rules that are defined for users on the Desktop. It is on the user’s discretion whether to perform these Actions on the worksteps or skip them.
Exception signifies an objection during process flow. Example, for a ‘Recruitment’ type of process, if the applicant has not attached his age proof certificate or experience certificate or he / she has suffered from any serious disease and so on, the user can raise objections at any stage during the processing and can clear it at a later stage if the need is satisfied.
Variables are used for processing rules and in monitoring workitems. There can be three types of variables- System Defined, User Defined (Queue variables) and External Database variables.
System variables are those variables whose value is maintained / set implicitly by the system. For example, CreationDateTime, ExpiryDateTime, WorkItemState and so on.
User Defined (Queue) variables are the temporary variables used mainly for processing rules at different Worksteps. Both the variables can be defined and modified. User can define a maximum number of 26 variables.
To keep the Workflow system efficient and capable of processing millions of transactions, only 26 queue variables can be defined. However you can also import external application data variables in the form of a database table (where each column corresponds to an external database variable). Once imported into the Workflow system they act like normal process variables.
At each worksteps or flow control steps, events can be defined. These events can invoke trigger that can send messages or invoke exception-processing programs. Triggers can be used by the system for sending mails / fax, generating responses, invoking data form for data entry, communicating from external systems for data updating and retrieval, informing supervisors of exceptional conditions and so on.
Interfaces are the customized programs for defining properties. These settings are reflected on the Omniflow Desktop.
System Defined workstep processing is performed by the system, or an external application. A user does not have to perform the related operations explicitly. For example, Print, Fax, Mail, Workflow Entry, Workflow-Exit, and so on. There are seven such worksteps: Introduction, Distribute, Decision, Hold, Collect, Discard and Exit.
