Modeling message and data flows

In BPEL, the message flow is handled by 3 types of activities: receive, reply and invoke. A “Receive” activity can be represented in BPMN using either a start event with message trigger or a “Receive” service task. A “Reply” activity can be represented in BPMN using a “Send” service task or an end event with message or error trigger. Use “Service” task in BPMN to model an “invoke” activity.

You can add a message to a process or a sub process using the “Add Message” context menu in outline view. Alternatively, you can copy a message in WSDL or XSD and paste into sub-process in outline.

Use properties view to reference a message object from a service task, or a start event with message trigger or an end event with message/error trigger.

The information is passed between the different activities in an implicit way through the sharing of globally visible data containers." Containers may exchange specific data elements via the use of "Assign" statements.

  <assign>
 <copy>
 <from container="PO" part="customerInfo"/>
 <to container="shippingRequest" 
 part="customerInfo"/>
 </copy>
 </assign>

You can add an assignment to an event or a task using the “Add Assignment” context menu in the outline view. You may want to make an assignment visible in the BPMN diagram by creating a task with task type set to “None”.