BPM: Loops without using script

[lucakuehne]

Hi

I got a feature request for the Advanced Pack:

Could you please add the ability to create loops (like while or foreach) in BPMs using the visual designer, without the need to use a script?
That would make it much easier for users to create processes involving loops and the flowchart is much clearer to view.

I'm looking forward for your reply.

Luca

[yuri]

Hi Luca,

Could you provide more details how you see this feature to be implemented. I'm not sure I understand.

[lucakuehne]

Hi Yuri

Yes of course. I got a usecase as an example:

I have a script (in my case placed in a BPM-flowchart) where I want to create a call for every contact in this call. I can access the 'Opportunity.contactsIds' attribut of a opportunity, but I can't loop trough it to do some action for each contactId in the array.

So there schould be a new drag/drop-object which could be like a sub-process, which takes an input variable, in my case the 'Opportunity.contactsIds' and now I can place for example tasks inside the loop-object and for every item of the passed array (''Opportunity.contactsIds'), all added objects like tasks, user taks, etc. in the loop-object should be executed.

It could look something like this:


Hopefully you'll get what I mean. :-)

Kind regards
Luca Kühne

[yuri]

It's planned to develop the ability to pass multiple related records as a targets into sub-process.

[lucakuehne]

And then you could do some action for each record in the sub process?

[yuri]

Yes. The sub-process will be executed multiple times for every related record.

[lucakuehne]

Sounds amazing :-) Is there an ETA or a release in which you plan to release this feature?

[yuri]

No ETA. I hope it tackle it in 1-2 months.

[lucakuehne]

Okay thank you Yuri. At least I got a gut feeling for an ETA now.

[lucakuehne]

Hi Yuri
Is there an update on this enhancement? :-)

[yuri]

Hi Luca,

You must have seen that I was (and still am) very busy with v7.0. After that I want to rest.

[lucakuehne]

Yes of couse, but I still wanted to check if there was an update after about 3/4 of a year :-) There may have been some updates before the 7.0-work.

[lucakuehne]

Hi yuri

Any updates on this feature? Also, is there already an issue in the GitHub repo for this?

[yuri]

Will be implemented soon.

1. A collection of items defined by a formula expression. Each item of the collection instantiates a separate instance of the sub-process.
2. It will be also possible to pass a specific target record to the sub-process, where the ID is defined by a formula expression.

By combining these two abilities it will be possible to have multiple sub-processes for different targets. By using formula functions (record\findRelatedMany) it's possible to have sub-processes for related records.

Advanced Pack is not available on GitHub as it's not open source.

[yuri]

The new v2.10.0 release has multi-instance sub-processes. See in the docs: https://docs.espocrm.com/administrat...ce-sub-process

[rabii]

Hi Yuri
any chance that this could be explained using an example, i still couldn't figure out how to use the new multi-instance processes. Any flowchart that can explain this will be a plus and will be much appreciated.
Of course if possible i know how busy you are.
Many thanks

[yuri]

The flowchart will be the same as the regular sub-process. The only difference is that multi-instance has ||| icon displayed.

The logic is very simple. You write formula expression that evaluates to an array. Each element of the array will instantiate a separate sub-process instance.

The most useful case is to have an expression that evaluates to an array of record IDs. Then it's possible to have multiple sub-process instances for different targets.

Please read the documentation thoughtfully. Also read the tooltips on the sub-process form. The logic is very simple. It took me a lot of time to design and implement this feature. The documentation covers this feature fully.