Data handling overview

How to effectively use the different kinds of data available within Bonita Platform

In a BPM-based application, use:

  • Business variables for information that:

    • is mostly used by Bonita

    • has meaning after a process instance is archived

    • is used at several places in the process

    • is read by a process to orientate its flow

    • is shared across several process instances

    • is displayed in an application page

  • Task-level process variables for:

    • intermediate computation results (for example a connector result to be used as input of the next connector)

    • information that is private to the process, not used elsewhere in the application

  • Pool-level process variables for information that:

    • can be read by the process to orientate its flow

    • can be used at several places in the process

    • is private to the process, not used elsewhere in the application

  • External databases, with connectors, for information that:

    • is used by multiple applications besides Bonita

Key benefits of using business data:

  • Control of indexing strategy

  • Definition of custom queries to efficiently read the data

  • Full control of lifecycle of the data through the set of processes that handle it (add, update and delete)

  • Improved performance compared with process variables or external databases

  • Easier application maintenance

An application page accesses business data using the bdm REST API. A page also contains page variables, which have no meaning outside the page.

The data that is passed from a form to a process is defined using a contract. Define a contract for process instantiation and for each human task. These contracts are part of the process definition. A form has access to business data and documents using the context and the REST API. A form also contains form variables, which have no meaning outside the form.