BPMN 2.0 Timer Event - missing attribute

General Questions/Discussions
1

The Timer Event allows specifying only 2 types of element (timeDate and timeCycle) out of 3, and the missing one is timeDuration (see the excerpt from specification below). The “timeDuration” element is essential for correct implementation of timeouts (e.g. “in 2 hours”) and was introduced to avoid ambiguity of timeCylce, which allows specifying “every 2 hours” only. In our applications timeouts are most common use case for timer event and using timeCycle as a replacement does improve neither readability nor reliability of executable process. Do you have any plans to introduce full support for timer event as per BMPN 2.0 specification?

Thank you,
Alex

Here is the specification:

<xsd:complexType name="tTimerEventDefinition">
		<xsd:complexContent>
			<xsd:extension base="tEventDefinition">
				<xsd:choice>
					<xsd:element name="timeDate" type="tExpression" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
					<xsd:element name="timeDuration" type="tExpression" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
					<xsd:element name="timeCycle" type="tExpression" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
				</xsd:choice>
			</xsd:extension>
		</xsd:complexContent>
	</xsd:complexType>
2

Hello Alex,

Thank you for your message and I’ve forwarded your question to our engineers to follow-up. I’ll get back to you once there are any feedback. Feel free to contact me if you require any further information.

Best regards,
Rain

3

Dear Alex,

I would like to let you know the missing timeDuration for timer event problem has been fixed and please run the VP Suite Update to update the software to latest patch (sp1_20110413f or later). Details about update to latest patch can be found at

Feel free to contact me if you require any further information.

Best regards,
Rain