Determining artifact usage

View artifact dependencies, such as the artifacts that use a particular library item and the artifacts that the library item uses in process applications and across toolkits.

About this task

When you work with an artifact in the Process Designer, it is useful to know where the artifact is used so that you can see the impact of potential changes that you want to make. For example, before you change a business object in a process application you might want to see the processes and services in that process application that use the business object. Similarly, you might want to review all the artifacts in the named snapshots of toolkits that will be affected by your changes before you delete an artifact, change the artifact version, or remove a dependency.

Procedure

To see where an artifact is used, complete the following steps:

  1. In the Process Designer, open your process application or toolkit.
  2. Open the library item.
  3. In the Process Designer footer, click References The image shows the References icon in the Process Designer footer..
    You can open artifacts from the list to view their details or to edit them. However, you can view and edit some artifacts, for example a business process definition, only in the desktop Process Designer. For more information, see Where to edit Process Designer artifacts.
    • Referenced By: This list shows the artifacts in the current application or toolkit and their dependencies that use the library item or the artifacts across all toolkits, depending on the scope that you choose. Use the Scope icon The image shows the Scope icon. to toggle between the two scopes.

      Local scope shows where artifacts are used only in the current process application or toolkit and its dependencies. This is the default view.

      Global scope shows where artifacts are used across all the toolkits in the Workflow Center repository and is available only for library items in named snapshots of toolkits.
      • Expand a project to see the list of artifacts. Clicking an artifact displays all the snapshots that refer to the library item. You can open any version of any artifact that can be edited in the Process Designer, which makes it easier for you to consistently apply related changes across multiple items.
      • If you select an artifact that is defined in a process application or toolkit other than the current process application or toolkit and its dependencies, the Process Designer opens the selected artifact and its containing process application or toolkit in a new tab. The new tab shows the artifacts only in the context of the newly opened process application or toolkit, independent of any other open process application or toolkit.
    • References: This list shows all the artifacts in the current application or toolkit and their dependencies that the library item uses.

Results

To refresh the list with the latest changes, save the changes and click Refresh The image shows the Refresh icon.. The data refreshes when the changes are detected, which might take a few seconds. Therefore, if you don't see the updates right away try clicking Refresh again.