Process links

Process actions can be attached to Operaton activities through process links. Configured actions will be executed when the process reached the desired activity. This makes it possible to extend the functionality of a process beyond what Operaton offers through BPMN.

Currently, the following types of process-links are supported by Valtimo:

• Form

• Form-flow

• Form View Model

• UI component

• Plugin

• Building block

Creating process links

There are two ways of creating process links:

• Manually via the UI

• Using auto-deployment via the IDE

Via UI

To configure process links, admin privileges are required.

• Go to the Admin menu

• Go to the Process links v2 (beta) menu

• Select the activity of the desired process.

  • Depending on the type of activity, a list of supported process link types might be shown.

• Follow the steps

Select process link type

Creating a form process link

A form process link can be added to user-tasks and start events. When the process reaches the user-task, a user will be presented with the configured form when opening it. For start events, the form is shown when a user starts a case or supporting process.

More information about forms can be found in the forms documentation.

Display options for start event forms

When linking a form to a start event, additional display options are available:

• Display type — Choose Modal (default) to open the form in a popup dialog, or Panel to open it in the case detail panel (the same way user task forms can). The panel option is only available when starting a supporting process from a case detail tab that exposes a panel. If no panel is available, the form falls back to opening in a modal. Forms using view models or custom UI components always open in the modal.

• Modal size — When using the modal display type, you can configure the modal size: Extra small, Small (default), Medium, or Large.

Creating a form-flow process link

A form-flow process link can be added to user-tasks. When the process reaches the user-task, an instance of the form-flow will be created and be made visible to the user.

More information about form-flows can be found in the form-flow documentation.

Creating a plugin process link

When configuring a plugin process link, a wizard is presented to choose between the available plugin configuration, actions and (optionally) additional settings for that action.

Creating a plugin process link

Any text fields for configuring the process link itself support several ways of providing values through value resolvers:

1. A fixed value. This value will be put directly into the template without alterations. For example John

2. A value retrieved from the case-data. This value should start with doc: and should end with the path to the case-data property. For example doc:/firstname.

3. A value retrieved from a process variable. This value should start with pv: and should end with the name of the process variable. For example pv:firstname.

Creating a building block process link

Building block process links are used on Call activities to start a reusable building block. In the wizard, you select the building block and version, configure plugin mappings, and map inputs and outputs.

For a step-by-step guide, see Building blocks.

Creating a Form View Model process link

A Form View Model process link can be added to user-tasks and start events. Instead of using a static Form.io definition, it connects to a server-side view model that controls the form data. This allows backend logic to populate, validate, and transform form fields dynamically.

On the backend, a FormViewModelLoader provides the initial view model data and handles updates, while a FormViewModelUserTaskSubmissionHandler (for user tasks) or FormViewModelStartFormSubmissionHandler (for start forms) processes the submission. The user task handler is responsible for dispatching CompleteTaskCommand to complete the Camunda task.

Creating a UI component process link

A UI component process link can be added to user-tasks and start events. It renders a custom Angular component instead of a Form.io form, giving full control over the user interface.

More information about creating a custom UI component process link can be found in the custom UI component process link documentation.

Via IDE

Available since Valtimo 10.6.0

Process links can also be configured using auto-deployment. These process links will be created at application startup. When a conflicting configuration is found on the target activity, creation is skipped and a warning is logged in the application logs.

auto-deployed process links can be added by creating a json file with the following filename structure: <process-id>.process-link.json. This file can be placed anywhere in the resource folder of the application.

This is an example of an auto-deployment file for two user task for a process:

[
   {
      "activityId": "do-something",
      "activityType": "bpmn:UserTask:create",
      "processLinkType": "form",
      "formDefinitionName": "do-something"
   },
   {
      "activityId": "do-another-thing",
      "activityType": "bpmn:UserTask:create",
      "processLinkType": "form-flow",
      "formFlowDefinitionId": "do-another-thing:latest"
   },
   {
      "activityId": "review-task",
      "activityType": "bpmn:UserTask:create",
      "processLinkType": "form-view-model",
      "formName": "review-task-form"
   },
   {
      "activityId": "custom-review-task",
      "activityType": "bpmn:UserTask:create",
      "processLinkType": "ui-component",
      "componentKey": "my-custom-component"
   },
   {
      "activityId": "delete-object-from-objectsapi",
      "activityType": "bpmn:ServiceTask:start",
      "processLinkType": "plugin",
      "pluginConfigurationId": "7d77d894-6458-4213-8bc0-9a65d523845b",
      "pluginActionDefinitionKey": "delete-object",
      "actionProperties": {
         "objectUrl": "pv:myObjectUrl",
         "someOtherProperty": "${VALTIMO_MY_PROPERTY}"
      }
   },
   {
      "activityId": "CallSubsidyCalculatorActivity",
      "activityType": "bpmn:CallActivity:start",
      "processLinkType": "building-block",
      "buildingBlockDefinitionKey": "subsidy-calculator",
      "buildingBlockDefinitionVersionTag": "1.0.0",
      "pluginConfigurationMappings": {
         "zakenapi": "3079d6fe-42e3-4f8f-a9db-52ce2507b7ee"
      },
      "inputMappings": [
         {
            "source": "doc:applicantName",
            "target": "applicantName"
         }
      ],
      "outputMappings": [
         {
            "source": "calculatedSubsidy",
            "target": "doc:calculatedSubsidy",
            "syncTiming": "END"
         }
      ]
   }
]

The auto-deployment configuration file supports environment variables such as ${VALTIMO_MY_PROPERTY}. At runtime, these placeholders are replaced with the values of the corresponding environment variables.

Important: You must explicitly whitelist which environment variables can be used in these files. Add the following to your application.yml:

valtimo:
  import:
    whitelistedPaths:
      - "VALTIMO_.*"
      - "GZAC_.*"

This ensures that only environment variables matching the given patterns are available in the deployment file.

Editing process links

Process links that have been attached to Operaton activities, can also be edited. Admin privileges are required to edit process links.

• Go to the Admin menu

• Go to the Process links v2 (beta) menu

• Select the activity of the desired process.

• Change the settings using the provided form

• Save the new configuration by clicking on Complete

Note: It is not possible to change the type of existing process links (form, form-flow or plugin), nor is it possible to change the selected plugin configuration. To do that, please unlink the current process link and create a new one.

Edit a process link

Unlinking process links

Process links that have been attached to Operaton activities, can also be unlinked (deleted). Admin privileges are required to unlink/delete process links.

• Go to the Admin menu

• Go to the Process links v2 (beta) menu

• Select the activity of the desired process.

• Click on Unlink

Unlink a process link