Defining Process Flows

To create a new process flow, complete the required fields on the General tab. The execution options determine what happens when a process flow runs. You set the execution options on the General tab of the Process Flows window.

The minimum requirement for creating a process flow is filling in the required fields on the General tab. However, the process flow cannot do any 'work' until you add components to it.

You can define certain objects by clicking the icon to the right of their field. Applications Manager will display the selector window where you can define the new object. For example, you can click the Application icon to display the Application Selector window. Fields marked with an '*' on their right are required.

Jobs and process flows should not be edited while running the STAGING job or executing exports and imports.

Procedure

To add an Applications Manager process flow:

1. From the Process Flows Selector window, click New.

Applications Manager opens the Process Flows window shown above.

For information on using selector windows, see Adding, Editing, and Deleting Applications Manager Objects.

2. Enter a name and description for the process flow on the General tab of the Process Flows window.

The name may be up to 30 characters long and the description may be up to 99 characters long. Process flow names can include letters, numbers, periods, colons, underscores, and hyphens. The first letter of a process flow name must be a letter or number.

3. Select an application.

Applications are the general category to which jobs and process flows belong (such as inventory or accounts payable). They are used on the Requests window to limit the list of jobs and process flows. For information on defining applications, see Defining Applications.

4. If appropriate, select an agent from the Default agent field. You can use this field to:
   • Select the default agent for the process flow: The default agent is only used for process flow components whose jobs are assigned to agent groups. For the process flow component to execute on the default agent, two conditions must be met:
   • The default agent must belong to the agent group assigned to the job.
   • The Agent field in the Execution group box on the General tab for the component must be set to 'No Selection'.
   • Assign the process flow to a multi-execution agent group: When a multi-execution agent is assigned to a process flow, the process flow and its component will run on every agent in the agent group definition.

A process flow's agent setting can be overridden on the process flow's Schedule tab or on the Submit window when requesting the process flow on an ad hoc basis.

For more information on agent assignments for process flow components, see How Agent Assignments Are Handled for Process Flow Components.

5. Assign values to the fields in the Execution options box.

These fields are described in Entering Execution Options for Process Flows.

6. If you wish, you can edit the information on the other tabs in the Process Flows window at this time.
7. To add the process flow definition to the list of process flows, click Apply. Or to add the new definition to the list of process flows and close the Process Flows window, click OK.

Applications Manager displays an error message to alert you to any required fields that have not been filled in.