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l A Normal process will run as soon as an input file is available through its input task or, if
it is scheduled not to run at that time, will start processing as soon as the schedule
permits it.
l Startup processes are processes that run only once before every other process in a
given configuration. They can be used to perform operations that need to be completed
once before the configuration can actually be run, such as to map network drives. You
may only have one single startup process in your configuration.
l Subprocesses are processes which can be called by any other process from any action
task. They can be used to perform and reuse redundant operations that may need to be
executed numerous times.
Process properties
Regular and startup processes can be set to be Active (process runs normally)or Inactive
(process will not run at all). An inactive process will display in the Configuration components as
red and strike-through. Inactive processes can be useful for designing new processes in a live
configuration, since the process does not execute there is no danger is submitting it to a
PlanetPress Workflow Service.
To learn how to set this and other properties of processes, see " Process properties" on
page583.
Subprocesses
Subprocesses are special processes that can be called by any other process. These act
exactly as subroutines in programming languages, allowing users to reuse existing processes
by sharing them to the whole configuration file. They can thus be used to perform redundant
operations that may need to be executed numerous times; for instance, archiving a copy of a
zipped file received as the input job file, then decompressing it before sending the unzipped
version of it back to the calling process .
Whenever a process calls a subprocess, the main process (the caller) will wait for the called
subprocess to finish its execution before carrying on with its own. This means the subprocess
feature is synchronous with the main process. This also means the calling process actually
appends the subprocess to its own workflow.
To enter a description or comments for a subprocess:
l Right-click on the subprocess in the Configuration Components pane.
l Select Properties.
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