BPMN Beta - Activity can't be used as a hyperlink

[irfaans]

I would like to reuse a BPMN Activity of type Sub-Process in a higher level process diagram. It seems that all links to it are also duplicate when dragged onto the higher level process diagram. How can I do this? Aside, it works quite well with a normal uml Activity by specifying it as a hyperlink.

[colinc]

Unless I'm mistaken you should really be embedding the lower level diagram into a higher level task as a composite element rather than adding any elements from it to the higher level diagram.

If you want to refer to the subprocess from multiple places you should be using a link element instead.

If you are just trying to show an association rather than a flow you can always make the link but still do not include the sub-process task on the higher level diagram

Hope that helps!
Colin

[irfaans]

I have tried the link option. It seems to carry the links between two sub-processes as well. Any way around this?

[colinc]

I'm not quite certain what you mean here.

To clarrify a little what I proposed (which I'm not sure addresses your problem).

If you are using a subprocess from more than one location you should be using an intermediate link event that directly calls a start event in your subprocess (or a task that encapsulates your subprocess).

You should not be directly flowing to a lower level process from a higher level process.

If what you are after is to 'call' a subprocess from more than one location, in a similar way to association a UML element to more than one element, BPMN does not really support this.  Instead you must explicitly flow to the higher level element which contains the subprocess and then flow back (better support for this seems to be on the agenda for a future BPMN version).

If all you are after is to illustrate task association, just use a trace link between the elements.

I'm not sure I'm completely understanding your issue, does this make sense?

Colin

Ps. Of course this is just my understanding of BPMN, I have been known (on many occasions) to be wrong before!

[irfaans]

Sorry, I should've been more specific, anyway, I'll try and explain it with an example.

Using BPMN add-in:

1. On a common activity diagram, define sub-process A, B and C. I then define the detail activity diagram for each sub-process.
2. On a new activity diagram called, Process-1, I drag-and-drop sub-process A, B and C. I then link A-B and B-C.
3. On a new activity diagram called, Process-2, I drag-and-drop sub-process A and C. I then link A-C.

The result of the above is that the link A-C is replicated in in Process-1 which is not what I intended.

I can hide this link, but we're hoping to extract this in an XPDL file (not sure if this is possible yet)