PROCESS MAKER DOCUMENTATION

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………3

PROCESSMAKER INSTALLATION…………………………………………..3

PROCESS FLOW…………………………………………………………………4

USERS, ROLES, GROUPS, PERMISSIONS…………………………………...5

DYNAFORMS……………………………………………………………………..6

CASES……………………………………………………………………………...7

JAVASCRIPT……………………………………………………………………...8

TRIGGERS………………………………………………………………………...8

DATABASE………………………………………………………………………..9

PM TABLES………………………………………………………………………10

EMAIL CONFIGURATION……………………………………………………..10

WEB SERVICES………………………………………………………………….10

INTEGRATION WITH OTHER ENTERPRISE SOFTWARES……………..10

ONLINE COMMUNITY AND SUPPORT……………………………………...11

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INTRODUCTION

Process Maker is an open source business process development software. It is a workflow automation tool.

The beauty of this tool is that it helps business users to login into the system using their username and password, run business case which is assigned to them, complete their task and send the case to the next person in the process. The system automatically takes care of sending emails, storing files etc which eliminates the need for manual work. The tool also helps to monitor the status of the case, escalate the case if required and review the case at any later date. Thus the tool helps in automation process and improves the organizational efficiency.

The website for process maker is www.processmaker.com

INSTALLATION

The process maker edition that can be downloaded is Process Maker 1.6-4142- Release candidate.exe (Latest Version-The existing Nortel RF travel Process is implemented in this version) or Process Maker 1.2-2985 (Stable Version).

The process maker editions can be downloaded from this link:http://sourceforge.net/projects/processmaker/files/

Process Maker has a WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySql, and PHP) stack in it. It is browser based. It can be installed in the local host or the IP address of the machine. All Apache, MySql servers must be uninstalled before installing process maker.

The process maker installation uses BITROCK installer which has WAMP bundled into it. So, the server or the database need not be configured manually. It is a one step installation process. Just double click on the installation software and it will install Apache, MySql and Process Maker software. The installation would prompt for:

IP ADDRESS OF MACHINE – This can be local host or the current systems (where the Process Maker is being installed) IP address.

PORT NUMBER FOR APACHE – This is typically 80.But any other port can be used if 80 are not available.

PORT NUMBER FOR MySQL – This is typically 3306.But any other port could be used if it is not available.

PASSWORD FOR MySQL – The username for MySQL database that will be used for database connections is root. Password for accessing MySQL must be given in this step.

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PASSWORD FOR PhpMyAdmin (GUI that Process Maker provides for accessing MySQL database) – The username for PhpMyAdmin is administrator. Password for accessing PhpMyAdmin must be given in this step. After installation of Process Maker it can be accessed using this address:http://your-ip-address:your-port-no/sysworkflow/en/green/login/login.html and login information is: Username: admin Password: admin

More information about installation, configuration on Windows as well as Linux, UNIX is found at: http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/Main_Page

PROCESS FLOW

After logging into the system as an Admin, click on the Process Tab to go to the process menu.

Click on New to start creating a process or click import to Import a process (but the process must be of .pm format).

Give a name to the process and it would show up under the list of processes. Click on edit process to start creating the process.

A workspace opens up where the process could be drawn as a workflow. At the top of this workspace is the toolbar which helps to draw the process.

Fig: Process Flow

The process must be implemented as a series of tasks with each task having one or more steps (steps are nothing but forms) and each task being assigned to a user or group of users.

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Right clicking on the process map gives many options from which Add Task should be selected to create a task. Right click on the task -> Select Properties to edit the task name and details.

After the tasks are added they can be connected using the connectors found in the toolbar. The toolbar provides several connection options such as parallel connection, conditional evaluation, parallel evaluation etc. Using these connectors it is possible to route a task to two other tasks which would be executed in parallel or tasks could be routed based upon some conditions. Demos about various connectors are available at Process maker site:http://www.processmaker.com/demos/ To assign a user or group of users to a task right click on task -> Select Users and User Groups->Assign User. Other properties such as Case Labels, Notifications (Sending email to the next person to whom the task is assigned to), and User Assignment could be set up from the properties menu which appears when right clicking on a task.

More information about how to draw the process could be found at:http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/Processes

USERS, GROUPS, ROLES, PERMISSIONS

Users, Groups, Roles and Permissions can be created from the USERS menu in the Process Maker.

Click on Users->New to create a new user. Each User has a username and password which has to be entered while creating the user. This username and password would be used by the user to enter into the system. These users are assigned to Roles.

To create Roles, click on Roles->New and create a role. Set permissions for the role. Information about the permissions can be found at:http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/Managing_Users

Click on Groups->New to create groups. Assign users to the groups. This group could be assigned to a particular task in the process. In the process map, Right click on Task -> Select Users and User Groups to assign user groups to the task.

More Information about creating users can be found at:http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/Managing_User

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DYNAFORMS

To create a dynaform click on the Dynaform in the process workflow -> new.

Dynaforms are nothing but dynamic forms. The Process Maker dynaforms gives a user interface which helps to create forms easily.

There is a Dynaform Editor Toolbar which has all the required fields such as Text box, Dropdown box, link, file, grid etc. Clicking on these would create the fields. Once the fields are created, they can be edited from the FIELDS HANDLER TAB.

The software demands that field names be created without any space. If a space needs to be added underscore could be used instead of space.

The dynaforms has a preview tab where the forms could be previewed. It has a HTML tab where there are two sections .The top section is What You See is What You get editor where there is a toolbar which helps to edit the look of the fields in the form and the bottom section is the HTML code section where HTML code could be modified and added to customize the form in the way we want.

Process Maker has a format in which the fields are added in HTML code. The fields and field name appear as PHP variables in HTML code. So, when changing the HTML code this format has to be maintained.

In order to view any changes made in HTML tab in Preview mode, click on Enable HTML check box in the HTML window and click on REFRESH VIEW to view the changes in the preview mode.

The dynaforms has a JavaScript tab where Java script code could be added. In order to write java script first JavaScript (JS) field has to be selected from dynaform editor toolbox and created. Only after this the JavaScript code could be written .Otherwise the tool would not allow to enter the Java Script code.

There is a conditions editor dialog box where conditions could be added to control which fields needs to shown/ hidden.

All the users input in the fields would be stored as SYSTEM VARIABLES. The system variables could be accessed as @@Fieldname in TRIGGERS and CONDITIONS. In Condition Editor conditions could be specified as @#Fieldname.

The Properties tab in the Dynaforms has a Next Step Link from which Save and continue needs to be selected if the user input needs to be stored as system variable when running the case. More information about creating dynaforms can be found at:http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/Dynaforms

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GRIDS IN DYNAFORMS

Grids are nothing but tables which can added to a form. To create Grids select Grids from drop down box when creating a dynaform. The dynaform window for Grids would open up and fields could be added .Save the Grid and this grid could be embedded in any Master form by clicking on grid menu in the toolbar and selecting the grid that we want from the dropdown box.

CASES

To start business cases click on Cases-> New -> Select the process from the dropdown box to start the business case for that process.

There must be starting task in the process to start the case. Only users assigned to starting task can start a case.

In order to set up a case title which must appear in the title bar when the case is routed to the next person, Right Click on a task in process workspace -> Select Properties->Case Labels -> Write the case title. The system variables @@Fieldname could be used to get the Case title.

After a user finishes his task he must assign the task to the next person. This assignment can be cyclical or manual. To setup the assignment of cases Right Click on a task in process workspace -> Select Properties->Assignment-> select the type of assignment.

There is also Case Notification option available which will send an email to the next person to whom the case can be assigned. This can also be set up from Task -> Properties.

Once the case is started, it can be reviewed. To review it, Open the case, click on Information tab and Select Process Map to see where the case is, the dynaforms and documents uploaded could be seen and downloaded.

To give access to the dynaforms and documents to a user, right click on Process map -> Select process Permissions -> Edit permissions for a group/user.

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JAVASCRIPT

JavaScript can be added in Dynaform editor under JavaScript Tab.

Information about how to apply JavaScript to forms can be found at:http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/Javascript_in_DynaForms and http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/JavaScripts

TRIGGERS

Triggers are PHP code which could be used to send emails, access databases etc.Triggers can be added to a form in this way:

First, Triggers need to be created by clicking on Triggers Tab in the Process workspace.

Second, they need to be assigned to a dynaform or task.Right Click on a task->Click Steps->Triggers->Add the trigger wherever needed. Triggers can be added either before a task, before a form, after a task or a form.

The Trigger functions available in Process Maker can be found at:http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/ProcessMaker_Functions

When System variables are included in Triggers they must be first converted/assigned as a PHP variable and then used in PMFSendMessage () (which is a function for sending emails) or executeQuery () (which is a function for executing SQL queries).

Trigger to send email can be found at:http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/Advanced_Options#Conditional_Notifications

Email with attachments cannot be sent as of now but the link to the file can be sent in an email from which the file can be downloaded. The following link has info about this:http://forum.processmaker.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3288&p=8853&hilit=trigger#p8853

Triggers to execute SQL queries from PM Tables can be found at:http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/Advanced_Options#Accessing_PM_Tables_from_Triggers

Executing SQL queries for external databases through triggers will be explained in Database Connections sections.

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DATABASE

Process Maker has a MySql database built into it. It provides a graphical user interface called PhpMyAdmin to access this database. The PhpMyAdmin can be accessed from this address:http://127.0.0.1/phpmyadmin/index.php.

This interface requires username and password.USERNAME: administratorPASSWORD: the password that was given during process maker installation

To connect to the MySql database click on Database connections in Process workspace and select MySql. The details for connectivity:

Server: your IP address where process maker is installedPort: The port that was given during installation. Default is 3306.Database Name: the name of database Username: rootPassword: the password that was given during installation.

The fields in the form can be connected to these databases to pull up information. While creating a field like text box there is SQL connection dropdown from which the database server to which connection was made must be selected. Then, SQL query can be written in the Query box to pull up information from database.

To get value from database, the query must be written as ( for example: SELECT firstname, firstname from employee) .In this first name is selected from employee table .The first name should be written twice as firstname, firstname in the query, Otherwise it won’t return anything. If the field is a text box then it would return only one First name from database. If the field is a drop down box then all the first name would be populated in the dropdown.

Dependant Fields: There might be cases where we need to pull up info from database depending upon values in other fields. In this case the field needs to be made dependant. More information about this is found here:http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/Create_Dependent_Fields

In triggers if external database needs to be queried it can be done as in the following example:$db = ‘XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX’; //UID from database connection $query = ‘SELECT EXP_DATE AS DATE, EXP_TYPE AS TYPE, EXP_DESC AS DESCRIPTION, EXP_AMT AS AMOUNT FROM EXPENSES”;@@EXPENSE_GRID = executeQuery ($query, $db);

The above Query is found in this link: http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/Output_Documents

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PM TABLES

PM tables are process Maker internal database tables. If tables are developed in PM tables then no SQL connection is required as it is the default database.

PM Table is found under ADMIN tab.

More information about PM TABLE is found in this link:http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/PM_Tableshttp://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/Friendly_PM_Tables

EMAIL CONFIGURATION

The information about E-mail configuration can be found at:http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/Email_-_Settings

WEB SERVICES

Process Maker has Web Services Functions which allows a remote user to access the system. Information about that can be found at:http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/ProcessMaker_WSDL_Web_Serviceshttp://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/Simple_Trigger_Web_Services

There is also a feature called Faster Response via E-mail which allows a user to approve or disapprove from email without entering Process Maker. Information can be found at:http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/ProcessMaker_WSDL_Web_Services#Examples

INTEGRATION WITH OTHER ENTERPRISE SOFTWARES

Process Maker can be integrated with other Enterprise software’s such as SUGAR CRM, Pentaho Reports.

The link to this is:http://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/ProcessMaker_-_Pentahohttp://wiki.processmaker.com/index.php/ProcessMaker_-_Sugar_Mashup

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ONLINE COMMUNITY AND SUPPORT

Process Maker has an online forum where there is active discussion going on about the tool. Questions could be posted here and the tools developers would answer it.

Some questions posted by me can be searched using the name shyaamsn.

There are some processes in the libraries that can be downloaded. They are found at:

http://library.processmaker.com/syspmLibrary/en/green/public/frontpage.html

There are also some demos available in the process maker site. The link to that is:http://www.processmaker.com/demos/

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