Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a graphical representation for specifying business processes in a business process model. BlueSpice provides an intuitive GUI (graphical user interface) for creating BPMN diagrams. Each element (node and edge) can be represented by its own wiki page, which publishes the information according to the Linked Data Principles. The feature is based on the open source project bpmn.io. The extension Page Forms is used to facilitate the input of information for each element.
How to start
To get to the BPMN editor, you can choose between 3 options:
- The Entrypoint Processes in the main navigation. Note that administrators can deactivate this link in the configuration manager. On the Processes page, you can click the link New Process in the page tools panel.
- The link Processes in the Overview section of the Global actions menu.
- The menu item New process of the plus-icon button in the header bar.
Select one of these links to open the BPMN editor.
Creating a diagram
To create the diagram:
- Enter a process name.
New process dialog. - Click Done. The BPMN editor opens. At this point, the diagram contains a start event. You cannot save the diagram until the diagram meets the minimum requirements for saving.
Before continuing with the diagram, let's look at the functionality of the BPMN editor.
Features of the editor
The editor includes the following elements:
| Element | Functionality | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cancel | Leaves the edit mode without saving any changes. |
| 2 | Center diagram | Centers the diagram on the page in view mode. |
| 3 | Save changes | Saves the diagram and any wiki pages that need to be created. |
| 4 | Toolbar | Contains all commands for editing a diagram. |
| 5 | Start event | The start event is already added to the diagram. You still need to add the required label. |
| 6 | Toggle linting overlays | Shows errors and warnings. You need to click this button if your diagram cannot be saved. |
| 7 | bpmn.io info | Link to the bpmn.io website. Unless you are interested in the technical background of the editor, you can ignore this button. |
Adding the diagram shapes
Each diagram needs a start event and an end event. To create a meaningful diagram, you should familiarize yourself with the elements that are defined in the BPMN standard.
The main elements of a BPMN diagram are:
- events (such as the start or end event),
- activities (mainly different types of tasks), and
- gateways (decision points between different paths).
If you are not familiar with BPMN, you can refer to the Camunda BPMN 2.0 Symbol Reference.
To add a shape, click the predecessor shape. Select a symbol to append the next shape. Each shape needs to have a label.
The most basic diagram you can save has a start event with a label and a connected end event with a label.
Besides adding a shape, you can choose other commands:
- Wrench: Specify the type of event, activity or gateway.
- Trash:Delete the shape.
- Paint brush:Choose a background color for the shape.
- Arrow: Manually create a connection between two existing shapes.
Saving the diagram
When your diagram is complete, you can save it. You cannot save if one or more of the following issues exist:
- Not every shape has a label
- The start or end event is missing
To find the issues, click on the linting button at the bottom of the diagram. It will highlight the problems in the diagram. For example, a missing end event can trigger multiple errors:
After correcting the errors, you can save the diagram. The save-dialog will ask if you want to create all description pages:
