Bonita BPM Workspace Tour

In this video we will take a look at the layout of BonitaBPM

Now that you have Bonita BPM installed, go ahead and launch the application. In my case I now have a shortcut on my desktop.

This is the free version Bonitasoft puts out. It doesn’t include some features such as advanced data types but for everything we’ll cover in these videos will suffice.

You will be asked to register with bonitasoft if you haven’t already.

Now before we get right into it, bonita gives you a launching point for several options.

In most cases you will be creating or working with existing diagrams… here

But there are also links to tools such as videos on Bonita’s website, documentation and further educational resources… here

We will be creating a diagram so go ahead and click the new diagram button.

Soon you will see the main workspace of BonitaBPM

In the center you will see the process you are working on. Bonitasoft also uses the term “Pool” interchangeably, but for the sake of consistency I will try and stick to “process.”

Just below that are a few buttons for selecting, zooming in or out and some options to help layout and align the elements.

Above the process you will find the aptly named “Cool Bar” which has shortcuts to some basics such as new, open save and print

In preferences under the BonitaBPM menu, you can click “appearance” to change the size of the cool bar, giving you more space to work with if you prefer. Or you can find this option in the view menu.

To the left of the process are the different elements that you can use. We will go into more detail in the next video, but for now this is where you will find the various components that you will choose from to build your process. Things such as Gateways, Flows, Tasks and events.

Below that are some view options. The Tree View shows a breakdown of files used in the process and Overview shows smaller copy the process itself which is useful for navigating larger, more complex ones.

To the right of that are some more useful elements. The “General” tab contains properties that relate to what you currently have selected in your process. For example I am given different options here depending on if i have the process selected or the task.

The “Application” tab is where you will create forms for use in your process – which we will cover more later.

“Appearance” lets you select different fonts or work with a grid.

“Simulation” is used to assign an approximate time estimate to each task and analyze the overall efficiency of the process itself.

The system runs through every possible path in the process and determines optimistic, pessimistic and average process run times.

and “Validation status” is where you will find errors in your process and help you debug them

This concludes our tour of the BonitaBPM workspace, next we will start building a basic process.