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4.1.2. Used Elements of Activity Diagrams

The following Unified Modeling Language (UML) activity diagram symbols may be translated in elements of CoreMedia Workflow definitions like this:

Elements of activity diagrams

Figure 4.2. Elements of activity diagrams


  • Begin of workflow

  • This symbol marks the begin of the workflow. For this node, only outgoing transitions are allowed.

  • End of workflow

  • This symbol marks the end of the workflow. For this node, only incoming transitions are allowed.

  • Activity / Task

  • This symbol denotes an activity, which is called a task in the CoreMedia Workflow.

  • Sub activity state / Subworkflow

  • A separate workflow can be called from a task of another workflow. Thus, the separate workflow can be called a subworkflow task.

  • Decision node / Branch / Choice

  • This symbol stands for a node where the control flow branches, depending on a decision. In a workflow definition, a decision-based branch is usually called an If task.

  • Synchronization bar

  • This symbol is used for splitting or synchronizing the control flow. In the splitting case the control flow forks in more than one followup task. In the synchronization case, multiple tasks executed in parallel are joined together.

  • Control Flow

  • Transitions specify the control flow from a node to its successor. Nodes can be any of begin or end of workflow, task, choice and synchronization bar.

  • Conditional Control Flow

  • Transitions can be inscribed with a condition in square brackets. Such edges are usually used as outgoing edges of a decision node (called a Choice task).

  • Actor with Role

  • An actor is used in UML to denote a participant in a use case. CoreMedia introduces actors to specify rights of users of certain groups (roles) for user tasks.

  • Dependency used to assign Roles to Tasks

  • A dashed arrow denotes a UML dependency. CoreMedia uses special dependencies to connect roles (see above) with user tasks in order to assign rights.