A process is the top-level asset in a process project. It contains steps and logic; and it is the asset that is ultimately built and executed in the Process Engine and uploaded to the Process Audit Database for analysis. Processes can be started in many different ways, including using rules and services.
A process can invoke a rule, of course, but a rule can also invoke a process.
Designer 8.2 and later contains new functionality to support BPMN 2.0, including new ways to represent your processes in a more visual and logical language. Activities are things that are done. Events are things that happen. Those are the first concepts you need to understand. See
About Activities and
About BPMN Events.
BPMN processes can be designated as
callable. A BPMN
callable process has a defined input / output signature, known as a
Global Process Specification, and can be called by a call activity step. Call activities can also call
webMethods referenced processes. For more information, see
Call Activity Concepts.
You can open older
Designer processes created with
Designer 8.1 and earlier with later versions of
Designer. Some changes are applied to ensure compatibility with BPMN. For a reference of those changes, see
Legacy Processes and BPMN.