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Process applications

A process application is a type of folder that contains a set of related files you can work on and deploy as a single bundle. This reduces the risk of a broken deployment at runtime, and makes it easier to deploy related files.

Process application

For example, a process application for a consumer loan application might consist of a main process BPMN diagram and a number of additional supporting files, such as DMN diagrams and forms.

Process application file list

tip

We recommend you use a process application for all your non-trivial automation projects. These projects tend to have one main BPMN process that represents your end-to-end use case, and additional files that the main process depends on, such as called supporting processes, DMN decisions, or forms.

Process application development lifecycle​

You can use Web Modeler to quickly develop and progress low-risk process application releases through the stages of a typical development lifecycle.

Create a process application​

Get started by creating a new process application.

  • When you create a process application, you must select a cluster to use for deployment during development.
  • A process application must always have a main process. You can rename and reassign the main process at any time.
  • You can add files to the process application as required.

Deploy and run a process application​

You can deploy your process application to a cluster, and run your process application to test, debug, and observe how it performs in a live environment.

Process application versioning​

Although you cannot version a process application itself, you can use bulk milestone creation and version tags to save a single 'versioned' snapshot of all the process application files in one action, instead of having to create separate milestones for every file.

Known limitations​

You should be aware of the following limitations when working with process applications.

General limitations​

  • You cannot create folders inside a process application folder.
  • Once created, you cannot modify, delete, or roll back a process application version.
  • Self-Managed does not support defining cluster stages, identifying clusters by tags, or cluster promotion.

Deployment limitations​

  • Process applications can only be deployed to a Zeebe cluster in version 8.4.0 or higher.
  • You cannot deploy individual files that are part of a process application; the application is always deployed as a whole.
  • When you deploy a process application, only the main process is validated for missing Connector secrets.
  • The overall size of the deployment bundle is limited due to a maximum record size of 4 MB in Zeebe.
    • The limit is effectively between 2 and 3 MB, as Zeebe writes more data to the log stream than just the raw deployment.
    • If you exceed the limit, you are shown an error message:
      Command 'CREATE' rejected with code 'EXCEEDED_BATCH_RECORD_SIZE'.