IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Developing business processes > Building business state machines > Create a business state machine
Defining correlations
A correlation set defines properties used to distinguish one instance of a business state machine from another within a runtime environment. For each operation (event) that the business state machine responds to, a property alias locates the input that corresponds to each correlation property that is defined.
The business state machine editor can handle the initialization of correlations in either of the following two ways:
- The operation that initializes the state machine passes a correlation key as one of its input parameters
- The business state machine passes a correlation key as an output parameter to the initializing operation.
To define a correlation and an alias, proceed as follows:
Procedure
- Select the transition that originates from the initial
state in the business state machine diagram. In the Description tab
of the properties area, you have the following two options for the Initialize
correlation on setting:
Option Description request Use this if the operation will pass a correlation key on input. response Use this if the state machine will pass the correlation key as output. If you choose response, keep the following in mind:
- property aliases will have to be defined for both the request and response messages in business state machines with only one operation.
- null value are not allowed in the request message with only one operation.
- the operation used on the initial transition, cannot be used on any other transition in the business state machine.
- In the tray, click the plus icon (
) to the right of Correlation Properties.
- In the Add Correlation Property wizard, browse to the appropriate data type. When you are done, the newly created property will appear in the tray.
- To define an alias, go to the Description tab of the Properties area, select an operation, click Add, and specify a property alias. You will be working with the XPath Expression builder, so you can browse to the necessary path, and double-click your selection.