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Process Automation Designer architecture

Understand how Process Automation Designer works in the Now Platform® to automate cross-functional processes and consolidate them into task-oriented views for your end users.

Process Automation Designer consists of a design time environment that lets you produce a runtime view of a record's life cycle. The design time environment is a space where process owners can create process definitions. Meanwhile, the runtime experience is where end users, such as Workspace agents, follow the process to complete records.

Design time environment

The Process Automation Designer design time environment consists of these components:

Process definitions

A process definition is where a process owner configures and organizes multiple instances of Flow Designer content into a coherent business process. A process definition consists of a trigger, a sequence of lanes, and a sequence of activities.

Trigger definitions

A trigger definition specifies the conditions that must be met to run a process definition. A user with the admin, pd_admin, or pd_trigger_author role typically creates and configures a trigger definition that process authors can use as a template. A trigger definition specifies the record operation and table conditions that must be met to start running a process definition. A process owner typically selects a trigger template when creating a process definition.

Trigger instances

A trigger instance is produced when you select a trigger template. The trigger instance stores the conditions that a record must meet to start running the process.

Lanes

A lane is a logical grouping of activities in a process definition. A process owner creates a lane to group activities and specify the start rule for when the lane should start running. A lane represents one stage in your overall business process.

Activity definitions

An activity definition maps Flow Designer inputs and outputs to an activity instance. An activity definition contains:

The automation plan to map the triggering input record data to action or flow inputs
The activity experience to map action or flow outputs to a user-facing view of the process definition

A user with the admin, pd_admin, or pd_content_author roles typically specifies the automation plan and activity experience when creating an activity definition.

Activity instances

An activity instance is produced when you add an activity to a process definition. The activity instance stores the automation plan data mappings from the activity definition. You can change these data mappings when the default values do not fit your process. The process can specify the start rules for when the activity should start running.

Start rules

A start rule specifies when a lane or an activity starts running. A process owner can use start rules to specify what parts of a process run simultaneously and what parts run serially.

For more information about how to use and navigate the Process Automation Designer user interface, see Exploring Process Automation Designer.

Runtime experience

Process Automation Designer produces these runtime components:

Process executions: A process execution stores the details of running a process definition in a context record. You can use a process execution to troubleshoot and verify that process definitions run as expected.
Activity executions: An activity execution stores the details of running an activity instance in a context record. You can use an activity execution to troubleshoot and verify that process definitions run as expected.
User-facing views: A user-facing view is a user interface that displays the output or results of a process definition, such as a playbook. A workspace administrator can specify a user-facing view as part of setting up a playbook experience. See Set up a playbook.

During runtime for a process definition, your instance:

Evaluates any conditions specified in the trigger definition and processes the trigger.
Processes the event and starts running the process definition in the background.
Builds the automation plans from each activity into an entire process plan.
Runs the process plan for your process definition.
Stores the process execution information in the Process Execution [sys_pd_context] table.
Supplies data for a user-facing view of your process execution.

Your instance processes a process definition during runtime by evaluating trigger conditions, processing the event in the queue, building and running a process plan, storing process execution details, and providing data for a user-facing view.

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Process Automation Designer architecture

Understand how Process Automation Designer works in the Now Platform® to automate cross-functional processes and consolidate them into task-oriented views for your end users.

Design time environment

The Process Automation Designer design time environment consists of these components:

Process definitions

Trigger definitions

Trigger instances

A trigger instance is produced when you select a trigger template. The trigger instance stores the conditions that a record must meet to start running the process.

Lanes

Activity definitions

An activity definition maps Flow Designer inputs and outputs to an activity instance. An activity definition contains:

The automation plan to map the triggering input record data to action or flow inputs
The activity experience to map action or flow outputs to a user-facing view of the process definition

A user with the admin, pd_admin, or pd_content_author roles typically specifies the automation plan and activity experience when creating an activity definition.

Activity instances

Start rules

A start rule specifies when a lane or an activity starts running. A process owner can use start rules to specify what parts of a process run simultaneously and what parts run serially.

For more information about how to use and navigate the Process Automation Designer user interface, see Exploring Process Automation Designer.

Runtime experience

Process Automation Designer produces these runtime components:

Process executions: A process execution stores the details of running a process definition in a context record. You can use a process execution to troubleshoot and verify that process definitions run as expected.
Activity executions: An activity execution stores the details of running an activity instance in a context record. You can use an activity execution to troubleshoot and verify that process definitions run as expected.
User-facing views: A user-facing view is a user interface that displays the output or results of a process definition, such as a playbook. A workspace administrator can specify a user-facing view as part of setting up a playbook experience. See Set up a playbook.

During runtime for a process definition, your instance:

Evaluates any conditions specified in the trigger definition and processes the trigger.
Processes the event and starts running the process definition in the background.
Builds the automation plans from each activity into an entire process plan.
Runs the process plan for your process definition.
Stores the process execution information in the Process Execution [sys_pd_context] table.
Supplies data for a user-facing view of your process execution.

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