What are variables?
Variables are task-independent data placeholders. A function or an event can store a value in a variable, and another function or event can extract and use this value in a later process step.
Variable types
Variables can be of the following types:
String
Boolean
Decimal
Date
Scope of variables
Variables normally have a scope. The following scopes exist:
System (global context)
All functions in all executable processes and all their active instances share the value of these variables. All activities can access this value directly.
Example 150.Example:
Host name or current time.
Process
All activities in all instances of the active executable process share the value of these variables.
Example 151.Example:
A counter that is incremented by one each time a process instance starts and decremented by one when a process instance terminates. The variable reflects the number of currently active process instances.
Instance
The most common application of variables. The value of the variables is shared by all activities in the currently active process instance. This variable can have a different value in each running process instance.
Example 152.Example:
In variables of the String type, information on which user entered what comment while editing a task is constantly updated.