Using the Palette BPEL Activities
An activity is a step in a BPEL process and performs the process logic.
The following are brief descriptions of the activities used in the Process Designer. Click the specific activity for more detailed information, such as their associated properties and instructions on how to use them.
In order for the debug process to work effectively, you must assign an unique name for each BPEL activity in your process.
For more detailed information see the BPEL specification.
Actions
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Empty | An activity that does nothing when it executes. |
| Invoke | The Invoke activity directs a Web service to perform an operation. |
| Receive | The Receive activity receives the process input and initiates the process execution. The activity is complete when the message arrives. |
| Reply | The Reply activity sends a message in response to a message that was received through a Receive activity. The Reply activity matches a Receive. Use a Reply to send a synchronous response to a Receive. |
| Assign | You can use the Assign activity to assign values to variables. It can copy data from one variable to another, as well as copy, construct and insert new data using expressions or literal values. |
Controls
These activities are containers which can enclose subsets of other basic activities.
| Control | Description |
|---|---|
| If | The If activity performs conditional execution based on whether or not one or more conditions are met. |
| Pick | The Pick activity waits for one of several possible messages to arrive or for a time-out to occur. When one of these triggers occurs, the associated child activity is performed. When the child activity completes then the Pick activity completes. |
| While | The While activity executes an activity repeatedly until its condition evaluates to false. The While condition is evaluated before the execution takes place, in contrast to Repeat Until, where the condition is evaluated after the execution takes place. |
| For Each | The For Each activity contains a Scope activity and executes it for a specified count. You determine the number of iterations that will execute by defining expressions for a start and final value. These values are inclusive, so a start of one and a final of 10 causes the enclosed scope to execute 10 times. The execution iterations can occur either in parallel or in sequence. |
| Repeat Until | The Repeat Until activity executes an activity repeatedly until its condition evaluates to true. The While condition is evaluated before the execution takes place, in contrast to Repeat Until, where the condition is evaluated after the execution takes place. |
| Wait | The Wait activity tells the business process to wait for a specified amount of time or until a deadline is reached. Exactly one of the expiration criteria must be specified. |
| Sequence | The Sequence activity arranges and executes a collection of activities sequentially in an ordered list. In a Sequence, the first activity in a sequence executes, and when it finishes, the second activity begins. |
| Scope | The Scope activity provides a container where you can enclose a subset of activities, creating the structure and conditions to have them execute as a manageable unit. A Scope activity can contain fault, event, and compensation handling for the activities nested within it, and also have a set of defined variables and a correlation set. A unit of work enclosed and executed within a Scope can be reversed. For example, if a customer cancels a paid order, the money must be returned and the order cancelled without affecting other orders. |
| Flow | The Flow activity executes all activities concurrently. This means that you can define two or more activities to start at the same time. The activities start when the Flow starts and the Flow finishes when the activities contained within in complete. You can use links within a Flow to define dependencies between activities and control the order in which they are executed. |
Faults
| Fault | Description |
|---|---|
| Exit | The Exit activity stops an executable business process immediately. |
| Throw | The Throw activity generates a fault from inside the business process. Specifies a standard or custom fault. To learn more about error handling, see How do I Handle Faults? |
| Rethrow | The Rethrow activity passes to the parent Scope the fault that was originally caught by the immediately enclosing fault handler. You can only use the rethrow activity within a fault handler catch and catch all elements. |
| Compensate | The Compensate activity starts compensation on all inner Scopes that have already completed successfully, in default order. Only use this activity from within a fault handler, another compensation handler, or a termination handler. |
| CompensateScope | The CompensateScope activity starts compensation on a specified inner Scope that has already completed successfully. Only use this activity from within a fault handler, another compensation handler, or a termination handler. |
Extensions
These activities are not standard BPEL activities, but extensions of those activities that provide additional functionality to your process.
| Extension activity | Description |
|---|---|
| RESTful | The RESTful activity provides the ability to invoke RESTful services within your process. |
| The Email activity provides the ability to send and receive email notifications within your process. | |
| Log | The Log activity provides the ability to log information, errors, and warnings within your process. |
More Information