How do rules behave?

Rules enable you to direct the control flow.

AND rule

An incoming process folder waits at an AND rule until another process folder arrives from each incoming path. If exactly one process folder with the same process number arrives from each of the other paths, the rule is fulfilled and the consolidated process folder is forwarded. It is not useful to define a synchronization for the AND rule.

OR rule

An incoming process folder waits at an OR rule until another process folder of the same process instance arrives from one of the other incoming paths. If a process folder with the same process number has arrived, the rule is activated and a process folder is forwarded to the next control flow objects.

XOR rule

The XOR rule forwards an incoming process folder if no other folders with identical process number can possibly arrive via any other incoming path. If another process folder does arrive, all folders with that number are discarded at the rule. Using an XOR to split a process into subprocesses and another XOR to join them again later enables you to ensure that only one process folder of a process arrives at the second XOR rule, so that the rule will always be fulfilled.

Attributes for controlling rules/gateways

Operator type

This attribute is useful for rules of Office process and Industrial process model types. Here, you can specify whether the modeled rule is an AND, OR or XOR rule. If no specification is made for objects of the Rule type in Office process or Industrial process models, the rule is evaluated as an AND rule during the simulation.

Gateway type

Indicates the type of the gateway.