Workflow-business data and process data (I)

When it comes to workflows, you may think of Microsoft's WF, a self-developed workflow platform software, or development using state fields for tracking, no matter what the form is, it is playing the role of business flow. Therefore, it is also important to distinguish and correctly understand business data and process data, as well as the relationships between them. This is of great significance for normal development.

Process data, as its name implies, is the system data that can support process flow. This depends on the system of your own workflow. Generally, process templates are the basis for process flow, it defines how the process flows and generates tasks. A task is a business node attached to a process instance and is generated according to the definition of the process and the current work phase, the process engine can interpret and execute process templates and process instances, which is also the basis of the workflow. Process data contains a lot of information. For process definition, from Process Template definition to process node definition, various parameters of process nodes and routing relationships of process nodes, the data permissions, CC, and to-do information corresponding to nodes are the basis for generating process instances and node instances, and the basis for the proper running of processes, especially node routing, it determines the flow types supported by the system. For a process instance, it is generated according to the process definition and corresponds to the instance information of each business data, including the process instance startup information, status information, and node instance information of each stage, it identifies the status and process phase of the current business data.

Business data, that is, the business objects that the flow is supported by the process, such as an application report and a contract signing. It adds the data of the Process relationship to a common data table, each piece of data corresponds to at least one process instance (we are one-to-one). Therefore, business data has the concept of Process status, which can identify the status of the current business data, whether the application is just submitted, processed, or paused. It is not appropriate to identify the business status by using the process status. Each type of business has its own status identity. For example, if a document is published, the stage at it is not replaced by the Process status, the business status is much higher than the Process status. The process completion does not mean that the business is approved, or may not agree, or else the business is completed for other reasons. Therefore, when creating a business table, the business status is added to the table, and the business status changes are driven by flow.