Creating a process

Adding a process

There are two different ways to create a new regular process.

  • In the Ribbon, go to the Home tab and click the Process button in the Processes group.
  • In the Configuration Components pane, right-click on any process or the Processes folder and select Insert > Insert Process or Insert Self Replicating Process.

Regardless of the method, a new process is created with a default name (Process1, Process2, etc), an Input task and an Output task. The defaults are configurable in the Default configuration behavior preferences screen.

  • While a configuration is limited to a maximum of 512 processes, any given process can have as many tasks as necessary (see: About Tasks).

    • Adding a startup process

    You may create a startup process in two different ways.

    • In the Ribbon, go to the Home tab and click the Startup Process button in the Processes group.
    • In the Configuration Components pane, right-click on any process or the Processes folder and select Insert > Insert Startup Process.

    In addition, you may convert a regular process into a startup process:

    • Right-click a regular process and select Startup to convert the process into a startup process.

    Note that a self-replicating process can't be converted into a startup process.

    Adding a subprocess

    To add a PlanetPress Workflow subprocess:

    • In the Ribbon, go to the Home tab and click the Subprocess button in the Processes group.
    • In the Configuration Components pane, right-click on the Subprocesses folder and select Insert > Insert Subprocess.
    A branch in a process can be converted into a subprocess; see Converting a branch to a subprocess.

    Editing a process

    Designing a process is done by dragging tasks from the Plug-In Bar onto the process in the Process area. Each task then needs to be configured via the Task properties dialog (see About Tasks). For a list of all operations you can perform on tasks in the Process area, please refer to The Process area.

    Processes can be deleted, duplicated, renamed, disabled, grouped etc. via the Configuration Components pane. For a list of all operations that can be performed on processes in the Configuration Components pane, please refer to Configuration Components pane.

    Special workflow types

    PlanetPress Workflow supports multiple input and output types, in so many different combinations that it would be hard to give example processes for each possibility. However, some types of processes like HTTP and PDF processes will probably be used more often than other types of processes. You will find a description of each of these special workflow types and at least one example of an implementation that uses them in the chapter: Special workflow types.