How can I draw a Call Activity (BPMN 2.0; aka a re-usable sub process)?

Question

I'd like to create a re-usable sub-process, since BPMN 2.0 defined as "Activity Call". It looks like a sub process but the border is thicker. However, the layout is not much my concern.

In the tree structure, how is such "sub process" placed and referred to in the diagrams? I don't want to copy and paste the sub-process nodes.

(I really like the arrangement algorithms btw!)

Kind regards,

Linda

Answer 1

To create a "Call Activity", create one of the existing activity templates ("Task Activity", "Task Activity (Open)", "Subprocess Activity"), select the newly created node, go to the properties view in yEd's lower right corner, and change "Line Type" to the desired thickness.

If you want to create a template for call activities, create a user defined palette section (to do so, go to "Edit" -> "Manage Palette", then click "New Section"), then right-click the call activity in the main editor area to open its context menu and choose "Add to Palette".

Comments

Thanks for the tips on the layout of the node :-)

Still, my main concern is re-using this Call Activity in multiple locations of the schedule as a whole.

For instance, the re-occurring Call Activity is "log in and register yourself on various systems" and this turns out to be a nice medium sized graph.

Then I'd like to link to this graph instead of copy & pasting it.

Can this be done? Or is it maybe possible to point/link to an .grphml file in the Nodes properties? (it seems not to work somehow)

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Ah, thank you very much for your clarification.

So, you actually need something like a symbolic link to a subgraph/subset of the diagram. Well, this is not supported. Your idea of linking to another GraphML file is actually the best you can do. Please see Properties of Graph Elements, section URL and Description for documentation on how to do that.