I went from bonita 5.10 to bonita 7.2 - what just happened? (UI designer question)

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OK the title is a bit over-dramatized, but you can imagine my astonishment when I opened the new Bonita 7.2. Sooo much has changed.

So, I'm slowly getting used to this, but I'm already stack when trying to define a form. More precisely, I want to know why I can't map process variables to the form, but business values I can?

I.e. I defined a process variable "name", went to an activity and under "Execution -> Contract" I didn't have the possibility of selecting "Add from data...". I couldn't map the process variable "name" to the form.

However, this was possible when I added a business value... What's going on?

2 answers

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This one is the BEST answer!

I think you said it all when you pointed out I went from bonita 5.10 to bonita 7.2.

By not staying with the technology 5->6->7 you have missed the upgrades that have happened across the releases.

I would suggest reading all the Release Notes (you can download them from the downloads section) and read the update notes:

5->6 here and

6->7 here

You can't blame Bonitasoft of not staying still when it's yourself that's done it.

Most everyone that's on 7 now has used the new system for at least a year.

As to your specific question about process variables, it is Bonitasofts stated aim to remove process variables from use completely. However I do believe this to be a mistake and not possible.

Business Data Models (BDM) are supposed to replace process data, but it doesn't always work as far as I'm concerned.

So where to from here, try the getting started tutorial and then search the Q&A as many questions will already be answered,

regards
Seán

PS: If this reply answers your question, please mark a resolved.

Comments

Submitted by studentnaferi on Thu, 02/11/2016 - 08:48

Thank you!

I'm not trying to blame Bonita, it's actually good that the tool is evolving.
Regarding your specific answer: if I understand correctly, it is impossible to create a form by using process variables? what is the use of process variables then?

Submitted by Sean McP on Thu, 02/11/2016 - 09:03

I understand that... :)

No, it is possible to use them, an example of how to do this can be found here

http://community.bonitasoft.com/project/process-variable-example

however as per the Release notes please note the following:

## Description
Example of forms to display and update a text process variable

## Important recommendations
Generally it is recommended to use business variables instead of process variables.

## Known limitation
By default only users with administrator profile are allowed to access process variables.
You can change such behavior by customizing dynamic-permissions-checks.properties. Refer to [REST API authorization](http://documentation.bonitasoft.com/rest-api-authorization-0) documentation for more information.

Overview form is not able to display process variable value for an archived process instance (lack of REST API).

## Compatibility
This example has been created and built with Bonita BPM 7.1.5 Community edition.
It should be compatible with any newer version as well as Subscription edition.

regards
Seán

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EDIT: I've put the answer below yours.

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