XPDL (XML Process Definition Language) – is a standard form for describing business processes in XML. Business process modeling tools, such as Business Studio, allow exporting a process to an XPDL file. ELMA BPM allows importing such files, in order to automate the described business processes.
In one procedure, you can import one process and its internal sub-processes, if such are described in the import file.
To run the XPDL process import wizard, click XPDL in the toolbar on the Process List page (fig. 1).
Fig. 1. XPDL import in the process list.
At the first step, select an XPDL configuration file. The file information will be displayed below (fig. 2). If the file contains several business processes, you will see a list of available processes and will be able to select the ones you want to import.
Click Next to continue.
Fig. 2. Selecting an XPDL file to import.
At the second step, specify the basic settings, similar to those defined when creating a new process, such as the process name, process group, class and database table names, process KPIs and metrics (fig. 3). The process group, selected in the process list when starting XPDL import, is selected by default.
Click Next to continue.
Fig. 3. Process parameters.
At the third step (fig. 4), you need to bind the swimlanes in the import file with the swimlanes in ELMA. To bind a static swimlane, you only need to select an organizational structure item and click Move.
Fig. 4. Swimlane settings.
For advanced swimlane settings in a dedicated interface, click Bind. Using this interface, you can bind the swimlanes from the import files with any type of swimlane in ELMA.
To cancel binding, click Clear.
Click Next to start importing the business process to ELMA. Once the import is complete, a process draft is created. The process is added to the process list, to the selected group.
At the fourth step, you can see the import result (fig. 5).
Fig. 5. Import results.
Import results show which elements were imported successfully, and which are not supported by ELMA.
