About References

You create references to make an association in your process app to a table, field, or other design element in an application contained in another process app. You cannot create a reference to such a design element unless you first create a reference to the application that contains the design element. This topic contains examples of typical ways in which you can use references.

Example: Using a Post Transition

A tester submits a ticket to engineering, requesting an enhancement to a feature. This ticket is assigned to an engineer, who starts making code changes. The engineer realizes that the enhancement requires documentation changes, so he posts it to the documentation department. A new ticket is created for documentation, and a writer is assigned to it.

In this example, one process app handles requests to the engineering department. The other process app handles requests to the documentation department. In the application workflow for the engineering process app, you use a Post transition to create a reference between the referencing process app (engineering) to the referenced process app (documentation).

Example: Using a Subtask Transition

A company has a new hire, and the IT department needs to prepare for the employee's first day of work. The preparation includes assigning a cubicle for the employee. The hiring manager submits an issue to the employee onboarding application, and the issue is assigned to the IT manager. The IT manager assigns the issue to a system administrator, who posts it to the facilities department to handle the cubicle assignment. After the cubicle is assigned, the issue is transitioned to the Cubicle Assigned state and reassigned to the system administrator.

In this example, one process app handles the overall employee onboarding process. Another process app handles the facility department processes. In the application workflow for the employee onboarding process app, you use a Subtask transition from a Create Network Account state to a Cubicle Assigned state. The Subtask transition creates a reference between the referencing process app (employee onboarding) to the referenced process app (facilities).

Example: Using a Relational Field

A customer calls Technical Support to report that a feature does not work as expected. The technical support representative submits an issue to a defect management application.

The engineering manager realizes that the solution is complex, and schedules it to be implemented during the next release. In the meantime, the technical support engineer submits an issue to a knowledge base application. This issue describes the problem and provides a temporary solution.

In this example, the issue defect management application and knowledge base applications are in separate process apps. A Single-Relational field called "Associated Issue" is on the submit form in the knowledge base application. This field references the Issues table in the defect management application. When the technical support engineer submits the knowledge base issue, he selects the customer-reported issue from a list of issues.

Example: Using the Global Process App

A customer support representative is working with Acme Corporation, who reported a problem with a product. The customer support representative submits an issue to the incident management application on behalf of Acme Corporation. On the transition form, the customer support representative selects Acme Corporation from the Requestor drop-down list.

In this example, the one process app handles the incident management process. The Global Process App contains a Company auxiliary table, which includes a Company field. You create a reference to the Global Process App by mapping the Requestor field in the incident management process app to the Company auxiliary table in the Global Process App.
Important: You can create references to fields in Global Process App tables, but you cannot create references from tables in the Global Process App.

Related Topics

Add Application Reference Dialog Box

Managing Internal Identity and Design Numbers

Defining a Reference

Viewing References

Refreshing References

Removing References

Examining References

Modifying a Referenced Application

About Resolving References

Referenced Applications Dialog Box