Event types

Learn about the types of events available in Business Automation Workflow and when to use each type.

You can include the following types of events in your Business Automation Workflow processes.

Start event

Use to model the start of a process, a linked process, a subprocess, or an event subprocess. A Start event is automatically included when you create a process. You can include multiple Start events so that you can start the process more than one way, but you can have only one Start event with an implementation of None.

Start events have the following implementation options:

Table 1. Implementation options for Start events.

Option	Description
None	Enables users to start a process manually from IBM® Process Portal, run the process in the Inspector, or call the process as a linked process from another higher-level process. Exposure of your process affects the Start event option. If exposed and it has a launch process UI, then your process can be started as a task in Process Portal. If exposed but with no launch process UI, then your process can be started in Process Portal though no UI task appears. The process starts immediately. If your process is not exposed, then your process must be started programmatically, or as a linked process, or through an API call.
Message	Starts a process when an incoming message is received (see Using start message events ) or starts an event subprocess (see Modeling event subprocesses). An undercover agent (UCA) receives the incoming message, and then starts the process. You can use an undercover agent to receive messages from another process, or from a web service.
SCA Service	Starts a process when an SCA service message is received.
ECM Content	Starts a process when an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) event is received.
Document	Starts a process when a new document is created on an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system. Alternatively, launches a process instance from an existing document on an ECM system. See Document start event.

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Note: For information about implementation options for Start events in a subprocess or event subprocess, see Subprocess types.

Intermediate event

Intermediate events can be attached to activities within your process or they can be included in the process flow. Attached intermediate events are known as boundary events.

Intermediate events have the following implementation options:

Table 2. Implementation options for Intermediate events.

Option	Description
UCA Message	Receives a message from an undercover agent or sends a message while a process is running. You can include an event in the process flow or attach an event to an activity. When attached to an activity, the event only receives messages. For more information, see Using intermediate and boundary message events to receive messages and Using intermediate message events and message end events to send messages.
SCA Service Message	Receives a message from an SCA service while the process is running.
ECM Content	Receives a message from an undercover agent when an Enterprise Content Manager (ECM) event is received while the process is running. You can include a content event in the process flow or attach an event to an activity.
Timer	Creates a delay to prevent an event or activity from immediately triggering. Use a timer event to model escalation paths or delays in your process. You can specify a time interval before or after an activity is run. You can include a timer event in the process flow or attach it to an activity. For more information, see Modeling delays, escalations, and timeouts.

End event

Use to model the end of a process. An End event is automatically included when you create a process.

End events have the following implementation options:

Table 3. Implementation options for End events.

Option	Description
None	Indicates the end of activities on a particular path.
Error	Use the Error implementation option when you want to throw an error to parent processes or to error event subprocesses. For more information, see Handling errors using error events.
Terminate	Closes running tasks that are associated with a process and cancel outstanding timers. You can set these options for the terminate event: Terminate entire process instance Terminates the entire process instance. If you do not select this option, only the process that contains the event and its subprocesses is terminated. If an entire process instance is terminated, the process shows a status of Terminated in the Inspector. Delete all terminated instance runtime data Cleans up the run time state for the running instance. All database states for the runtime instance and any generated tracking data is deleted. This setting applies only to top-level process instances, and is ignored otherwise.
UCA Message	Sends a message. For example, you can send a message at the conclusion of each process instance that is received by a start message event in another process so that the completion of one process starts another process. See Using message end events.