Designing processes - EMC Community Network

Creating the Data Model
submitter_address, and equipment_type. Within each SDT, you can also organize attributes into related
groups that give visual structure to the data type. For example, within the customer SDT, you can
have an address group that contains the attributes for city and state.
SDT definitions are global and can be used by any process. An SDT used by an installed process
cannot be deleted nor should any of its attributes be modified or deleted. However, it is possible
to add new attributes to an SDT that is in use.
Process variables store transient data; that is, data that is not needed after the workflow terminates.
Typically, this data is fetched from a non-Documentum system of record (another database, for
example) or is used for an internal calculation. The Process Engine manages the lifecycle of a
process instantiating the process variables when the workflow is started and destroying them when the
workflow terminates.
Creating an SDT for each object in your workflow can help to simplify your data model. However,
you should organize your SDTs in a logical manner, corresponding to business entities. If you have
too many SDTs, you can end up with performance problems with the TaskSpace task list. If that
occurs, then you need to consolidate the SDTs.
Understanding packages
A package is associated with a Documentum object, such as documents or image files, which is
passed between activities in an executing process.
To act on a document in any way, it must be attached to the process as a package or it must be held in a
case folder. When documents are held in a case folder, you can attach the folder as a package, but
you may want to consider attaching other key documents as separate packages. This enables users to
act on the documents separately, so that you can perform operations such as conducting conditional
routing based on the package metadata itself.
Package data is persistent. However, package data is not shown in TaskSpace task lists or task forms.
To enable package attributes to appear in TaskSpace, you first map the attributes to process variables by
using a Process Data Mapping activity template. After you map these attributes to process variables,
you can base decisions on the package attributes, such as transitioning to the next activity. Conversely,
process variables are not persistent and must be mapped so that you can base decisions on the package
attributes, such as routing the process to the next activity back to package attributes if you want the
data to persist beyond the life of the process.
Package attributes versus SDTs
During the design phase, decide when you will be using packages and when you will be using process
variables. The decision is important and is a key part of successful design and implementation:
• If the customer wants to store and search data in the task list template, use SDTs.
• If the customer wants to persist data beyond the process instance, use package attributes.
• If you want both, you must initially use SDTs and then map them to package attributes at the end
of the process.
Some additional considerations include:
30 EMC Documentum xCelerated Composition Platform Version 1.6 Best Practices Guide