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Alfresco Process Automation

Triggers

Triggers are used to define a set of event criteria. When the event criteria specified in the trigger is met, the event is published and an action containing a payload is kicked off.

Note: Triggers are not referenced in a process definition.

Properties

The basic properties of a trigger are:

Property Description
Trigger name Required. The name of the trigger. Must be in lowercase and between 1 and 26 characters in length. Alphanumeric characters and hyphens are allowed, however the name must begin with a letter and end alphanumerically, for example email-trigger
Trigger description Optional. A description of what the trigger should be used for, for example Starts a process when an order request email is received.

Create a trigger

To create a trigger:

  1. Sign into the Modeling Application and open a project.

  2. Click the NEW dropdown.

  3. Select how to create the trigger:

    • Create > Trigger creates a new, empty trigger.

    • Upload > Trigger allows for uploading an existing trigger .json file into the Modeling Application.

    Alternatively use the + or Upload buttons next to Triggers in the left-hand menu.

  4. Enter a name and optional description.

Events

Trigger events include specific BPMN states occurring in a process such as a timer being fired, a form being saved or events related to connectors such as an email being received or a webhook REST request.

The events that can be created for a trigger are:

Note: The events handled in triggers follow the Cloud Events specification. All the information described there and the specific information of the event is contained inside the data field.

BPMN engine events

BPMN engine events are events generated as part of the life cycle of processes. They include events such as when BPMN activity is started, saved, submitted or completed. These events can be monitored by a trigger and an event published when specific criteria are met, for example when a timer with a certain ID is fired.

BPMN engine events are mostly configured using the elementId which is the ID of the BPMN element within a process definition.

Forms

The saving and submission of a form can be monitored as a trigger event. The specific form and the process definition it is attached to are used to create the trigger event.

User interface

A custom end-user action of type Event can be set on the Digital Workspace user interface. When a user clicks the action in the Ditial Workspace an event is fired that can be linked to a trigger action.

The input parameters for a user interface action are:

Parameter Description
uIName Required. The name of the user interface that contains the action, for example content.
Name Required. The name of the action of type Event to monitor, for example share-with-accounts.

Content connector

Content connector events that can be monitored as trigger events include creating, updating and moving files, folders and content types. Content types are read from any content models attached to the project.

Email received

The email service contains an EMAIL_RECEIVED event. This event allows for inbound emails to be monitored and an event published when specific criteria are met.

The input parameters for receiving an email are:

Parameter Description
condition Optional. An expression created using the Condition Builder that when true triggers an action. The event content described by its model can be used in the expression.
pattern Required. A regular expression that selects which emails trigger an action. Java catching group syntax can be used to create groups from the pattern as variables, for example Order Number (?<orderNumber>.+). The variables can then be used in echo and echoError, for example ${orderNumber}.
echo Optional. An email sent to the original sender of the email that is matched, for example Your reference number is ${orderNumber}.
echoError Optional. An email sent to the original sender if an error occurs when publishing the event, for example There was a problem publishing that event.

The output parameters that can be used as values within the trigger action for receiving an email are:

Parameter Type Description
matchGroups JSON Optional. Any matching groups found using the regular expression in pattern.
emailSubject String Optional. The subject line of the matched email.
emailTo String Optional. The recipient of the matched email.
emailFrom String Optional. The sender of the matched email.
emailBody String Optional. The message body of the matched email.

Note: Groups found in matchGroups can be used within a trigger action variable using the syntax ${matchGroups.group}, for example ${matchGroups.orderNumber}.

Important: The configuration parameters for the email service contain some parameters that are specific to configuring a trigger.

SMS received

The Twilio connector contains an SMS_RECEIVED event. This event allows for inbound SMS messages to be monitored and an event published when specific criteria are met.

The input parameters for receiving an SMS are:

Parameter Description
condition Optional. An expression created using the Condition Builder that when true triggers an action. The event content described by its model can be used in the expression.
pattern Required. A regular expression that selects which messages trigger an action. Java catching group syntax can be used to create groups from the pattern as variables, for example Order Number (?<orderNumber>.+). The variables can then be used in echo and echoError, for example ${orderNumber}.
echo Optional. A message sent to the original sender of the text that is matched, for example Your reference number is ${orderNumber}.
echoError Optional. A message sent to the original sender if an error occurs when publishing the event, for example There was a problem publishing that event.

The output parameters that can be used as values within the trigger action for receiving an SMS are:

Parameter Type Description
matchGroups JSON Optional. Any matching groups found using the regular expression in pattern.
originalMessage String Optional. The contents of the SMS message.
to String Optional. The recipient of the matched message.
from String Optional. The sender of the matched message.

Note: Groups found in matchGroups can be used within a trigger action variable using the syntax ${matchGroups.group}, for example ${matchGroups.orderNumber}.

Slack message received

The Slack connector contains a MESSAGE_RECEIVED event. This event allows for Slack messages to be monitored and an event published when specific criteria are met.

Note: Make sure the Slack connector event subscription has been configured to receive notifications from the Slack API.

The input parameters for a received Slack message are:

Parameter Description
condition Optional. An expression created using the Condition Builder that when true triggers an action. The event content described by its model can be used in the expression.
pattern Required. A regular expression that selects which messages trigger an action. Java catching group syntax can be used to create groups from the pattern as variables, for example Order Number (?<orderNumber>.+). The variables can then be used in echo and echoError, for example ${orderNumber}.
echo Optional. A message sent to the user of the message that is matched, for example Your reference number is ${orderNumber}.
echoError Optional. A message sent to the user of the message that is matched if an error occurs when publishing the event, for example There was a problem publishing that event.
channelTypes Optional. The channel types to be monitored in Slack, for example direct-message,public-channel or mention.

The output parameters that can be used as values within the trigger action for a received Slack message are:

Parameter Type Description
matchGroups JSON Optional. Any matching groups found using the regular expression in pattern.
originalMessage String Optional. The contents of the Slack message.
slackChannelId String Optional. The channel the matched message was sent in.
slackUserId String Optional. The Slack user that sent the matched message.

Note: Groups found in matchGroups can be used within a trigger action variable using the syntax ${matchGroups.group}, for example ${matchGroups.orderNumber}.

Webhooks

The REST connector can be used to publish an endpoint that external systems such as GitHub can consume as part of a trigger. The trigger then monitors this webhook and will publish any events that match the specific criteria as part of a project.

The input parameters for the INCOMING_WEBHOOK event is:

Parameter Description
condition Optional. An expression created using the Condition Builder that when true triggers an action. The event content described by its model can be used in the expression.
path Required. The webhook path to monitor. The format begins https://<environment>.com/<project-name>/<connector-name>/events/ followed by a custom value, for example https://alfresco.com/finance-project/rest-connector-1/events/github.
method Optional. A list of HTTP methods that can trigger an action.
condition Optional. The condition that must evaluate to true to trigger an action.
status Optional. The status code to return to the external service.
headers Optional. The key value pairs that must match in order to publish the event. Use the + symbol to add more pairs.
params Optional. The request parameter key value pairs that must match in order to publish the event. Use the + symbol to add more pairs.
body Optional. The JSON body to send to the external service.

The output parameters that can be used as values within the trigger action for a webhook are:

Parameter Type Description
method String Optional. The HTTP method of the request.
path String Optional. The relative path of the request URL.
params JSON Optional. The query string or form parameters of the request.
headers JSON Optional. The headers of the request.
body JSON Optional. The body of the HTTP request.

Important: The configuration parameter for the REST connector is used for sending a response to the external system from the webhook.

Actions

Trigger actions include starting a process instance, sending a BPMN signal or any connector action. An action contains a payload that is sent from the trigger to the action being started.

The values for action payloads can be set in different ways depending on the action being sent and the source event type that generated the action. For example, if the Slack MESSAGE_RECEIVED event is used, then the value of an action can use the value of the slackChannelId the message was received from or an expression based on the event model.

The ways in which an action can be set are as:

  • Variables are variables from the source event, for example using a BPMN engine activity as an event will allow the variables such as the processDefinitionKey as a value.

  • Expressions: can be entered using a JSON editor to create more complex mappings from JSON objects, such as ${temperature.celsius} will use the value for the object celsius.

  • Values are static values that can be entered when the trigger action is modeled.

The actions that can be set on a trigger are:

Start a process

The action to start a process will begin a process instance when the event criteria are met. The payload for the start process action is:

Property Description
processDefinitionKey Required. The process definition the action will use to create a process instance with. The process definition must be in the same project as the trigger.
name Required. The name that will be given to the process instance, for example slackUserId.
payloadType Required. The type of payload. This is set to StartProcessPayload and cannot be changed.
businessKey Optional. A business key ID for the process instance.
variables Optional. Values from the trigger event can be mapped to process variables in the process definition. If the trigger event was a connector, this includes output parameters in the connector event.

Send a signal

The action to send a signal will send a named signal of global scope when an event criteria are met. The signal can be caught by the catching signal events signal start events, signal intermediate catch events and signal boundary events. The payload for the send signal action is:

Property Description
name Required. The name of the signal to emit, for example Signal_0n91cib.
payloadType Required. The type of payload. This is set to SignalPayload and cannot be changed.
variables Optional. Values from the trigger event can be mapped to process variables in the process definition. If the trigger event was a connector, this includes output parameters in the connector event.

Receive a message

The action to receive a message will send a named message when an event criteria are met. The message can be caught by the message catching events message intermediate catch events and message boundary events. The payload for the receive message action is:

Property Description
name Required. The name of the message to send, for example Message_077epax.
correlationKey Required. A correlation key must be provided when sending a message from a trigger, for example 014-245.
payloadType Required. The type of payload. This is set to ReceiveMessagePayload and cannot be changed.
variables Optional. Values from the trigger event can be sent as part of the message payload.

Send a start message

The action to send a start message will send a named message when an event criteria are met. The message can be caught by a message start event to start a process instance. The payload for the start message action is:

Property Description
name Required. The name of the message to send, for example Message_077epax.
payloadType Required. The type of payload. This is set to StartMessagePayload and cannot be changed.
businessKey Optional. A business key ID for the process instance.
variables Optional. Values from the trigger event can be sent as part of the message payload.

Execute a script

The action to execute a script will execute a named script when an event criteria are met. The script must exist in the same project as the trigger.

Property Description
scriptName Required. The name of the script to execute. This is set by selecting a script to execute, for example update-orders-script.
scriptId Required. The ID of the script to execute. This is set by selecting a script to execute, for example 19ced673-e701-4e6c-ace6-f8aaee5455eb.
variables Optional. Values from the trigger event can be mapped to script variables to be used as part of the execution.

Content connector actions

The content connector is used to execute actions against the Content Services repository. The actions available involve creating, selecting, updating and managing content.

All of the actions that the content connector can execute as part of a service task can also be used as trigger actions. The properties are the same as they are when the action is attached to a service task.

Connector actions

Connectors are used to handle interactions with external systems. This includes actions such as sending emails and utilizing services such as AWS Textract, Rekognition and Lambda functions.

All of the actions that connectors can execute as part of a service task can also be used as trigger actions. The properties are the same as they are when the action is attached to a service task.

Note: Connector actions as part of a trigger are also tied to the connector instance. If different configuration is required to a connector used within a process then create a new connector instance for the trigger.

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