How do I show the looping symbol?

How do I show the looping symbol on an activity or on a sub-process? My application is that I receive an e-mail with some number of orders attached, and I need to repeat the process of dealing with an order once for each order. What’s the neatest way of showing this in a BPMN 2.0 compliant way?

Thanks - Rowan

Hi Rowan,

To show loop icon, please right click on the task/sub-process, select Open Specification… from the popup menu, set either Standard/Multi-Instance Loop to be the Loop Type.

Best regards,
Jick Yeung

Thanks for explaining this. I clearly need to study where all these options are programmed in your menu structure!

Is there a way in BPMN2 to specify what is to be iterated over in a loop? Or do I just have to explain this in the description of my activity?

If I want to make my process executable, how do I specify what is to be iterated over?

Thanks - Rowan

Hi Rowan,

The activity where the loop has been defined is what to be iterated. If you want to document the content if activity in detail, you can write down at the documentation box. Besides, you can document the working procedure of activities using the procedure editor. For details, please read:
http://www.visual-paradigm.com/product/bpva/tutorials/definebpprocedures.jsp

Best regards,
Jick Yeung

I understand that the activity that shows the looping symbol will be repeated. But how many times? And with what data on each iteration? The application that I’ve got is that an activity needs to be repeated for each row in a spreadsheet, or for each record in the result of a database query, or for each line on a purchase order. I feel as if I need a “foreach” type instruction. How do I do this in BPMN2?

Clearly I can describe how many times or under what conditions the looping needs to continue in words, in the activity description or in an annotation, but that won’t work if I need to move on to being able to execute these processes. How is it done then?

Thanks - Rowan