Events

Start and End events

A start event indicates where a process starts. The start event starts the flow of the process and does not have any incoming flows but can have a trigger.  An end event ends a process flow and therefore does not have outgoing flow paths.

When you first create a process diagram in Blueworks Live, your process contains a start event and an end event.

To change the type of an event, right-click the event and select Type > event_type

Table 1. Start and end events

Event type	Icon	Description
Normal start event		A start event that does not have a defined trigger. This event is the default start event type. Blueworks Live processes can have only one normal start event.
Message start event		A start event that is triggered when a specific message is received.
Timer start event		A start event that is triggered when a time condition is satisfied.
Normal end event		An event that represents the end of the process flow.
Error end event		An end event that also produces an error.
Message end event		An end event that also sends a message.

Intermediate and boundary events

An intermediate event occurs after a process starts, affecting the flow of the process by showing where messages and delays are expected. This event shows exceptional paths that diverge from the normal flow of a process.

A boundary event is an intermediate event that is attached to the boundary of an activity. A boundary event can be triggered only while the activity is running, either leaving the activity running or interrupting the activity. An activity can have up to three boundary events.

To insert an intermediate event, hover over a flow line until the insert button appears, then click to insert an element.

To insert a boundary event, right-click the activity that you want to attach the event to and select Attach Boundary Event > event_type.

By default, boundary events are interrupting events, represented with a solid line outline. To make a boundary event a non-interrupting event, right-click the event and select Trigger > Non Interrupting. The outline of the icon changes to a dotted line.

Table 2. Intermediate and boundary events

Event type	Icon	Description
Message intermediate or boundary event		An event that sends or receives a message.
Timer intermediate or boundary event		An event that is triggered at a specified time or after a specified amount of time has passed. Timer events are often used to model delays or timeouts in a process.
Error boundary event		An event that is triggered by an exceptional condition, such as a system that is unavailable. An error boundary event always interrupts an activity, so it cannot be set to Non Interrupting.
Escalation boundary event		An event that passes the flow to another role or swimlane in the process, for example, to a manager, when certain conditions are met.

You can rearrange the boundary events on an activity. Drag the event to see the available docking points that you can move it to.

If you run out of space, try to combine your flow lines. You can attach two incoming or outgoing lines to the same docking point.

Sending and receiving messages

A message event can be a send or receive message event.

Start message events can only be receiving events and end message events can only be sending message events.

Boundary message events can only be receiving events.

Intermediate message events can either send or receive messages during the flow of a process.