The Attributes panel displays the settings of a selected BPMN element. You can use the panel to manage the element's attributes. You can also drag & drop attributes from the panel to the pane to display them in the diagram.

If you use the panel preset, the attributes panel is displayed in the lower left corner. To return to the panel preset, go to the user preferences and use the button Reset Panels.

Go to Customizing Editors and Panels for detailed information about panel management in general.


The attributes of the BPMN model itself are shown if you click on the empty diagram pane.

The standard attributes for BPMN elements are:

  • Name
  • Description
  • Symbol Type

Some elements contain additional attributes:

Creating an Attribute on the Diagram Pane

It is possible to display the attributes of a BPMN element on the diagram pane.

Click on the name of the desired attribute and move it to the diagram pane using drag & drop.

The attribute is displayed on the pane.

You can change the formatting of the display in the Styling panel.

Go to page Styling BPMN Elements for detailed informations about the styling options for BPMN elements and attributes.

Managing the Attributes' Content

In the attributes panel, all attributes of an element are displayed. Some standard attributes are used for all elements, while other attributes are only available for specific elements. Find below a list of all attributes.

Standard Attributes

Attribute NameAttribute View in PanelDescriptionAvailability
Name

Click here to insert or change the Name of the related element. Generated elements (like e.g. message) cannot be renamed.

  • All BPMN elements.
Description

If you want to insert a description for your element, click here to open a text editor where you can enter and format your text:

  • All BPMN elements.
Symbol Type

The attribute Symbol Type displays the type of the current element.

Open the drop-down menu to change the symbol type. Possible options are the other BPMN element types of the same element category.

When you change the symbol type of a BPMN element that already has an execution diagram associated with it, the following happens:

  • If the execution models of both elements are of the same name (On Event/On Exit/Get Data/Decision) and same type (basic/message/return), the execution diagram is kept.
  • If this is not the case, the execution model is deleted.
  • All BPMN elements.

Additional Attributes

Attribute NameAttribute View in PanelDescriptionAvailability
Form

Attribute Form is only available for the element User Task. Use the selection list to assign a form to the user task. All forms you have created within the same service are displayed in the list:

Once you have selected a form, an icon appears. It allows you to open the selected form directly:

Go to chapter Modeling Forms for further information about the creation of forms.

Image

It is possible to create images on the diagram pane using the corresponding icon in the elements toolbar. Use the attribute Image to upload a picture into the empty frame or insert a link to an existing picture.

Roles

Attribute Roles is only available for the element Lane. Use this attribute to assign different roles to the lane. To do this, click the icon and the role editor will open. The number of roles assigned to a lane is displayed in the attributes panel.

Sequence Flow Type


Attribute Sequence Flow Type is only available for the element Relation. Most relations can only be of regular type. In these cases the sequence flow type Regular is displayed in read-only mode.

There is one exception for outgoing flows of exclusive gateways.
On these flows, the attribute Sequence Flow Type shows you a selection list with two options to define the type of the sequence flow in the attributes panel:

  • Regular: Normal process flow. If you are using an Exclusive Gateway, you have to define the condition on the regular outgoing sequence flow(s).

  • Default sequence flow: If the conditions of all other flows are not fulfilled, the flow marked as default is used. The default sequence flow is unconditional (without execution).

Timeout

Attribute Timeout is only available for the Timer Event.

To set the duration of the timer, the event should be trigged by a persisted property of type integer or datetime. You have two options to set the timeout in the attributes panel:

  • Integer: Define the number of seconds the event has to wait.
  • Datetime: Define the absolute datetime when the event should fire.

Timer

Attribute Timer is only available for the Timer Start Event.

Hover over the timer settings to display a detailed settings view:

To define the timer settings, click the icon  and an editor will open. For detailed explanations see How to Use the Scheduler/Timer.

Trigger Events

Attribute Trigger Events is only available for the elements Message Event and Plain Event (as a boundary event) and for the element User Task. Use the selection list to assign which event triggers the default process flow of a BPMN process. The pop-up also contains a filter that you can use to search for a specific event:

How to Use the Scheduler/Timer

If you click icon in the attribute panel, a separate editor will open. Here you can define the settings of your Timer Start Event.

You have two options with different settings:

Scheduler

Use the scheduler if you want to define a pattern for your Timer Start Event, for example to start the model every monday, every hour etc.

Setting Description Default
Allow Parallel Executions If checked, each time a scheduler pattern matches, the scheduler activity diagram is executed - even if another execution is already running.
If not checked, the next execution cycle is suppressed if an execution diagram is already being run.		 Checked
Year(s) Insert a positive integer or a pattern. *
Month(s) Use numbers 1 to 12 or a pattern. *
Weekdays(s)

Valid input:

  • Mon or Monday
  • Tue or Tuesday
  • Wed or Wednesday
  • Thur or Thursday
  • Fri or Friday
  • Sat or Saturday
  • Sun or Sunday
  • a pattern
 *
Day(s) Depending on the month, valid input are numbers from 1 to 31 or a pattern. *
Hours(s) Use 0 to 23 or a pattern. *
Minute(s) Use 0 to 59 or a pattern. 0
Seconds Use 0 to 59 or a pattern. 0

Timer 

Select the timer if you want to define a cycle for example to start the model after one week, after two hours etc.

Setting Description Default
Repeat Interval Enter a valid time duration expression (see page Time Durations in the BRIDGE documentation for detailed information).
This setting defines the time interval between two calls of the timer action.		 -
Occurrences Insert a positive integer to define the count of repetitions. If you want the timer to be endless, check Always (default). Always
First Occurrence Enter a valid time duration expression (see page Time Durations in the BRIDGE documentation for detailed information).
This setting defines the wait interval after service start before the timer is executed for the first time.		 0 seconds

Duration Expression Wizard

The settings Repeat Interval and First Occurrence contain the icon .

Click the icon to open a wizard that supports you to define the necessary duration expression.

Insert positive integers in the desired fields.

The result is shown below.

Click Save to close the wizard.

The duration expression is displayed in the corresponding field.

Once you are familiar with the notation of the duration expression, you can also insert it directly in the field.

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