Process Inspector

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This topic is shared by BAW, CP4BA, CP4BASaaS. Last updated on 2025-03-13 12:15
The Process Inspector is an administrative tool that you can use to investigate and resolve runtime problems with process instances.

You can access the Process Inspector through a link in the Process Admin Console.

The Process Inspector consists of three panels: search panel, results panel, and the details panel.
Process Inspector shows three panels in a column format for search, results, and details.

 1  Search panel

 2  Results panel

 3  Details panel

Search panel

In the search panel, you define the criteria that are used to search for process instances. The search panel has several sections and these sections have an AND relationship. The search criteria within a section have an OR relationship. The exception is that fields in the Last Modified Date section have an AND relationship instead. The following table lists the search criteria and provides information for each one:
Criterion Description
Search Returns the process instances that contain the provided text within the instance name or process application acronym. The search is not case-sensitive.
Status Returns the process instances that have the selected status. If you select all or none of the status check boxes, the search returns all process instances. The number next to a status indicates how many process instances have that status and also fulfill the search criteria in the rest of the search panel.
Severity type Returns the active, suspended, and failed process instances that have the specified severity. A process instance is overdue if it is not completed or terminated by its due date. The process must have due dates enabled to calculate when instances are overdue. At risk process instances have an average time to completion that is longer than the time left to the due date. The process must have due dates and at risk calculations enabled to determine which process instances are at risk for being overdue. For information, see Enabling process instance management.
Process applications Returns the process instances for the specified process applications. If you select all or none of the process applications, the search returns all process instances.
Person Returns the process instances that contain tasks that the user owns or can own by belonging to a group whose members are able to claim the task.
Last modified date Returns the process instances according to when they were last modified. If you specify a From date and optionally, time, the search returns the instances that were modified on or after that date and time. If you specify a To date and optionally, time, the search returns the instances that were modified on or before that date and time. If you specify a From date and a To date, the search returns the instances that were modified on or between the two dates.
The search panel has a button. If you have not searched for a process instance, the button is labeled Search. If you have done a search, the button is labeled Refresh.

Results panel

The results panel displays one of two things. If you have not yet searched for process instances, the results panel displays a welcome message. If you have done a search, the results panel displays a list of process instances and cases that fulfill the search criteria. The list displays the first 20 instances automatically. If there are more than 20 instances, you can scroll down the list and the next 20 instances load automatically.

For users to be able to view process instances, make sure they meet one of these criteria:
  • Members of a group that is specified by the bpmAdminGroup setting, which is tw_admins by default. These administrators can see all instances.
  • Members of a team that is specified by the Process Application Administrators setting. These users can see instances related to that process application.

Details panel

The details panel displays information about what you have selected. If you select multiple process instances in the results panel, the details panel displays how many instances you have selected and how many have a particular status. If there are actions that you can do on all of the instances, the details panel displays those actions. If you select a single instance in the results panel, the details panel displays the information for that instance. This information can consist of the following sections:
Section Description
Information Information about the instance, such as the process name, process application name, its status, and when the process instance started.
Actions The actions that you can perform on the instance. For process instances, you can choose an action such as suspending the process instance or terminating it. If you selected more than one process instance in the results panel, the details panel shows the actions that are common to all of the selected instances. Selecting one of these common actions performs the action in bulk on all of the selected instances.

Activities, tasks, timers, and message events have different actions available.

Remember: The list of actions that you can do might be limited by the action policies set for your user ID or group. For information, see Configuration properties for action policies. For example, if the option to delete orphaned tokens is not available but orphaned tokens do exist, check whether the security policy is configured to support moving or deleting tokens. For information, see Changing the security policy to handle orphaned tokens.
Important: Use the Skip action with caution. Consider the implications for the integrity of the process before you choose to skip an activity.
Activities The activities that are in the process or case. You can apply filters to the list of activities:
  • Ready shows manual activities that are in READY or WAITING state.
  • In progress shows all activities that are in WORKING state or automatic activities that are in WAITING state.
  • Complete shows activities that are in COMPLETED, FAILED, and DISABLED states.
  • All shows all activities regardless of their state.

You can select an activity to view information about it. When you select the activity, the details panel updates to display the activity information.
Tasks The tasks that are associated with the process instance. You can select a task to view information about it. When you select the task, the details panel replaces the process instance information with the task information.

The details panel omits this section if there are no tasks.
Location For tasks, the step that currently has a token and all of its parent processes that are waiting on that token. The location looks like a breadcrumb trail with the parent process listed first and trail going down the parent processes to reach the current instance.

The details panel omits this section if there is no location information. For example, when the task is running in the topmost instance, there is no parent process waiting for the task to complete.
Data

The data associated with the selected process instance, activity, or task. The data is editable so that you can change its values unless the process instance is completed or terminated or the task is closed. Data for instances or tasks in these states is not editable. For example, if you have an activity that has a problem and is not updating certain variables, you can edit those variables so that they have the appropriate values when the flow leaves that activity.

For process instance data, only the parent process instance data is shown. The subprocess and linked process data are not shown.

Attention: For more information about who can view and update task data, see the Retrieve task data (GET) and Set task data (PUT) sections in REST API authorization for task actions. For more information about how to prevent the administrator viewing and modifying task data, see Controlling administrator access to task instance data.
Timers The timers that are currently active. You can trigger a timer to immediately send the flow along the path that exits from the timer. For example, a review activity has an attached timer (a boundary event) that leads to an escalation path. If you override the timer, the flow immediately takes the escalation path. Overriding a timer that creates a delay cancels the delay.

The details panel omits this section if there is no active timers.
Message events The message events that are currently waiting to receive a message.

The details panel omits this section if there are no message events that are waiting to receive messages.
Orphaned tokens The tokens that are orphaned by an instance migration. Deleting orphaned tokens does not recover the orphaned tokens, but allows the process to resume so that the remaining tokens can proceed.

The details panel omits this section if there is no orphan token information.
Relationships The relationships that the selected instance has with other instances. Each relationship is of one of the following types:
  • Related, which means that the selected instance has an independent association with the other instance.
  • Dependent, which means that the selected instance is a dependent of the other instance such as a child in a parent-child relationship.
  • Dependency, which means that the selected instance depends on the other instance such as the parent in a parent-child relationship. With this type of relationship, certain actions that you perform on the selected instance are also performed on the other instance.

The details panel omits this section if there are no related instances.

When you select an activity, task, message event, or relationship in the details of a process instance, the details panel displays information about it. The information is similar to what the panel shows for process instances but is specific to that activity, task, timer, message event, or relationship.

After you finish reviewing and acting on an activity, task, message event, or relationship, you can then select back in the information section. This button returns you to viewing the instance details.