IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Create processes in IBM Process Designer > Modeling processes > Modeling events

Understanding and using undercover agents

An undercover agent is started by an event. The event can be a message event, a content event, or a timer event that is the result of a specific schedule.

Message events can originate from a Business Process Diagram (BPD) (see Modeling message events), from a web service created (see Publishing IBM BPM web services), or from a message that you post to the JMS listener (see Posting a message to IBM BPM Event Manager).

When an undercover agent executes, it invokes an IBM BPM service or a BPD in response to the event.

When you include a message event or content event in a BPD, you must attach an undercover agent to the event.

For example, when a message event is received from an external system, an undercover agent is needed to trigger the message event in the BPD in response to the message.

If you want to run the startBpdWithName application programming interface (API) to start a BPD instance inside an undercover agent, set the <enable-start-bpd-from-uca> property to true in the 100Custom.xml file or another override file. Restart the product, and check the TeamworksConfiguration.running.xml file to ensure that the setting has the appropriate value. The property is set to false by default, and if you don't change it, you might have errors that prevent the BPD from starting.

• Create an undercover agent for a message event
  Follow these steps to create an undercover agent that invokes a particular service as the result of an incoming or an outgoing message event.
• Create an undercover agent for a scheduled event
  Follow these steps to create an undercover agent that invokes a service as the result of an event that occurs on a regular schedule.
• Create an undercover agent for a content event
  To obtain information about document or folder events on an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) server, create and configure a Content UCA that works with your event subscription. A Content UCA is used to initiate a BPM Start or Intermediate event when specific content changes occur on an ECM server. It is conceptually similar to a Message UCA, but it has a specialized Content marker to differentiate it from a Message marker.

Modeling events

Related information:
Create inbound integrations
Create an undercover agent
Attaching the undercover agent to the message event