Adding a dependent relationship between process instances by using JavaScript

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This topic only applies to BAW, and is located in the BAW repository. Last updated on 2025-03-13 12:15
Use JavaScript API to add a dependent relationship between two process instances where the current instance depends on another instance or where another instance depends on the current instance.

The current instance depends on another instance

You can add a dependency relationship where the current instance becomes dependent on the instance that is passed into the method. This relationship prevents completion of the current process instance until the instance that it depends on completes.

To add such a relationship, complete the following steps:
  1. Decide whether you want to check the user's authorization.
  2. Get the instance ID of the process instance to which you want to add the relationship.
  3. Add a relationship by using the addDependencyOnProcess() method, which has the following signature:
    TWProcessInstance.addDependencyOnProcess(processInstanceID, description, checkAuthorization);
    processInstanceID
    The process instance ID of the process instance to which you want to add the relationship. The current process becomes dependent on this process and cannot complete until this process instance completes.
    Description
    A string that describes the relationship. To update the description, use the relationship.updateDescription() method.
    checkAuthorization
    A Boolean value that is used by the method to determine whether it should check the user's authorization. The default is false.

    The addDependencyOnProcess() method returns a Relationship object, which contains the details of the relationship.

In the following example, a process instance is started and a child relationship is added to it. The user's authorization is not checked.
 1  var process = tw.system.startProcessByName("Test BPD", null, false);
 2  var relation = process.addDependencyOnProcess(processInstanceID, "relationship to a child process", false);

 1  Starts the process Test process without checking the user's authorization.

 2  Adds a dependent relationship where Test process depends on the instance with ID processInstanceID, with the description relationship to a child process without checking the user's authorization.

Another instance depends on the current instance

You can add a dependent relationship where the instance that is passed into the method depends on the current process instance. This relationship prevents the dependent process instance from completing until the current process instance completes.

To add such a relationship, complete the following steps.
  1. Decide whether you want to check the user's authorization.
  2. Get the instance ID of the process instance to which you want to add the relationship.
  3. Add a relationship by using the addDependentProcess() method, which has the following signature:
    TWProcessInstance.addDependentProcess(processInstanceID, description, checkAuthorization);
    processInstanceID
    The process instance ID of the process instance to which you want to add the relationship. The process instance becomes dependent on the current process and cannot complete until the current process instance completes.
    Description
    A string that describes the relationship.
    checkAuthorization
    A Boolean value that is used by the method to determine whether it should check the user's authorization. The default is false.
    The addDependentProcess() method returns a Relationship object which contains the details of the relationship.
In the following example, a process instance is started and a dependency is added to it. The user's authorization is not checked.
 1  var process = tw.system.startProcessByName("Test BPD", null, false);
 2  var relation = process.addDependentProcess(processInstanceID, "relationship to a child process", false);

 1  Starts the process Test process without checking the user's authorization.

 2  Adds a dependent relationship where the instance with ID processInstanceID depends on the process instance Test BPD, with the description relationship to a child process without checking the user's authorization.