The Zone keeps statistics for a group of activities within process flow. Optionally, it can restrict access to those activities, based on the tokens within those activities.
Only Enter Zone and Exit Zone activities can be connected to a Zone. See Adding and Connecting Activities for more information.
The following image shows the property for the Zone shared asset:
Each of these properties will be explained in the following sections.
Used to change the name of the activity. See Name for more information about this property.
The Font button
opens a window to edit the activity's
background color and font properties. See
Font for more information
about this property.
The Statistics button
opens the activity's statistics
window. See Statistics
for more information about this property.
Zones can be available globally or locally. The Zone keeps statistics and enforces its Max Content and Constraints per instance.
The Use Max Content checkbox determines whether or not the Zone will use a maximum content. The Max Content box is enabled when this box is checked, and disabled when it is not.
If Use Max Content is checked, the value specified in this box determines the maximum number of tokens that can be in the Zone at any given time.
The More Properties button opens the Zone Properties Window. This window allows you to create and edit Subsets, Calculations, and Constraints. It also allows you to manage some of the Zone's advanced features. It has five tabs, which are explained in the following sections.
The following image shows the Subsets tab:
Each property is described in the following sections.
The Add Subset button
adds a new Subset
to the Zone. It is the topmost button on the tab.
The Subset Name box allows you to edit the name of the subset.
The Token Selection Criteria box allows you to edit the Token Selection Criteria for the Subset.
The Add Calculation button
allows you to add a new calculation to the
current Subset. It is found inside the Subset Calculations area.
Turns on the Evaluate Calculations On Exit option for the Zone.
You can edit the name of each Calculation by editing the text in this column.
You can edit the expression to sum by edition the text in this column.
The following image shows the Subset Constraints tab:
Each property is described in the following sections.
Click the Add Constraint
button to add a Constraint to a specific Subset.
You can choose which Subset-related value to constrain using the Calculation drop-down list box.
Enter a limit for the value specified in the Calculation drop-down list box.
The following image shows the Partitions tab:
Each property is described in the following sections.
You can use this field to specify how the Zone should partition its tokens.
The Add Calculation button
allows you to add a new calculation to all
Partitions. It is found inside the Partition Calculations area.
You can edit the name of each Calculation by editing the text in this column.
You can edit the expression to sum by edition the text in this column.
The following image shows the Partition Constraints tab:
Each property is described in the following sections.
The Add Partition Constraint
button adds a new Partition Constraint to the
Zone. It is the topmost button on the tab.
You can choose which Partition-related value to constrain (for all Partitions) using the Calculation drop-down list box.
You can use the Add Exception
button to add an exception to the Partition
Constraint.
You can use this field to specify how many exceptions there are to this Partition Constraint. This is especially useful if you are copying the data from an Excel spreadsheet. Changing this field will add or remove exceptions as necessary.
This field specifies which particular partition will be affected by the exception. Note that this field accepts text or number data.
This field the limit for the partition involved in the exception.
The following image shows the Advanced tab:
Each property is described in the following sections.
The Queue Strategy box allows you to edit the expression for the Queue Strategy, which should be an ORDER BY expression.
Check the Enforce Queue Order box to have the Zone enforce the request queue order.
Check the Wait for Simultaneous Arrivals Before Entry box to have the Zone allow multiple tokens to arrive in the same instant, before evaluating the Queue Strategy.