Synchronizing Stages with IBM webMethods Designer

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You can create, modify, and delete stages in two locations:

  • On the Edit Process page in My webMethods, as described in the accompanying topics.
  • In IBM webMethods Designer, as part of the process model development functionality. For more information, see the IBM webMethods BPM Process Development Help.

In both cases, any changes to the stage definitions in a process model can be saved to the Process Audit database. The saved changes overwrite whatever previous stage information was present in the database. As a best practice, you should ensure that your process model stage settings are always synchronized between the two locations. For the Edit Process page, the following conditions apply:

  • When you open the Edit Process page to view the process model settings in the Process Stages window, the stage settings saved in the Process Audit database are retrieved and displayed.
  • When you save the process model stage settings on the Edit Process page, the settings are written to the Process Audit database, overwriting whatever stage settings are stored there.
  • Designer writes stage settings to the database when the process model is built and uploaded, overwriting whatever stage settings are stored there.

Therefore, be aware that it is possible for someone working in Designer to modify the database stage settings after you have opened the Edit Process page. In this case, when you click Save on the Edit Process page, the stage settings in the Edit Process page will overwrite the settings written to the database by the person working in Designer.

Similarly, if you save stage settings to the database from the Edit Process page, it is possible for a Designer user to overwrite those settings at any time.

A Synchronize button is available in Designer for both stages, enabling the Designer user to apply the current database stage settings to the process model in Designer. You are advised to establish procedures to ensure that stage settings are managed without conflict between Designer users and Edit Process page users.

To help ensure that you are working with the latest settings, you are advised to either refresh the Edit Process page or re-open the Edit Process page immediately before modifying and saving stage settings.