About Transitions
Transition lines between steps serve two purposes:
As graphical objects in a process model, they provide a visual indicator of the flow of work and data through the process. A transition line can be modified to change its route, color, line format, and the font characteristics of the associated text. For more information, see
Configuring Custom Transition Line Appearance.
As process objects, they provide behavior control over the flow of work and data. For more information about the behavior of transitions, see
About Transition Type Behavior.
In BPMN 2.0, transitions are referred to as sequence flows (inbound or outbound). Throughout this documentation, the term transition is used, and unless noted otherwise, information about transitions also applies to sequence flows. To create a transition:
In addition to transitioning to a following step in the process or subprocess, a transition can also connect to an earlier step in the process, or even back to the input of the same step. This is referred to as
transition looping (also referred to as
sequence flow looping in BPMN). For more information, see
About Looping.
Other transition line actions include:
You can reposition the transition label of a transition line. If the line is relocated for any reason, the label returns to its default position on the center of the line.
You can hover the cursor over a transition to view a summary of transition properties. A default transition (taken when all others evaluate to false) is depicted by a transition line with a backslash symbol across it.
You can set default preferences for the transition line type used in all process models (straight, curved, or custom), as well as label text priority. For more information, see
Configuring Appearance Preferences.
