Variables, Start Parameters and Subscription Settings can be read but not changed:

• context.Entities["MyEntity"] - Access the Entity Variable with the name MyEntity
  • context.Entities["MyEntity"].MyAttributeName - Access the Attribute MyAttributeName of the Entity Variable MyEntity
• contextParameters["MyContext"].MyContext - Access the Context Variable with the name MyContext
  • contextParameters["MyContext"].MyContext.MyAttributeName - Access the Attribute MyAttributeName of the Context Variable MyEntity
• context.GlobalSettings.SettingList["SubscriptionSettingName"] - Access the Subscription Settings with the name SubscriptionSettingName
• contextParameters["StartParameterName"].StartParameterName - Access the Start Parameter with the name StartParameterName
• context.Activity - Access the properties of the current Activity:
  • context.Activity.Id - ID of the Activity
  • context.Activity.Name - Name of the Activity
  • context.Activity.TimeoutSeconds - Once this time is elapsed, the Activity will be closed and the Process continued. The timeout is deactivated by setting it to zero seconds.
  • context.Activity.ContinueOnError - If set to true, the Instance will continue even if this Activity failed. If set to false, this Instance will fail if the Activity fails.
• context.ProcessInstance - Access the property of the current Instance:
  • context.ProcessInstance.Id - ID of the Instance
  • context.ProcessInstance.Name - Name of the Instance
  • context.ProcessInstance.TaskDisplayInformation - Holds the task description for the current Activity. The task description is configured in the Additional text for task list property of the Activity.
  • context.ProcessInstance.ParentProcessInstanceId - ID of the Instance that started this Instance, or null if this Instance has no parent Instance and was started by a User.
  • context.ProcessInstance.FromParentActivityId - ID of the Activity that started this Instance, or null if this Instance has no parent Activity.
  • context.ProcessInstance.LastOutcome - Name of the last Outcome this Instance passed though
  • context.ProcessInstance.Status - Current state encoded as an Integer value:
    • 1 - Started
    • 2 - In Progress
    • 3 - Closed
    • 4 - Canceled
    • 5 - Faulted
  • context.ProcessInstance.IsDebugMode - Indicates if this Instance is a debug Instance (true) or not (false)

• Boolean - true and false
• Numerical:
  • 12 - Integer numbers
  • 9.87, .87, 9.87e4, 9e4, 9e+4, 9e-4, .9e-4 - Decimal numbers
• String - String literals are enclosed in apostrophes, e.g., 'Hello String'
• Time and Dates - The time and dates have to be entered as a String in the format 'yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss' following the Microsoft date and time format strings. If you want to enter values for a different time zone, you have to use the ConvertToTimeZone(dateTime, newTimeZoneName ) to convert it.
• JSON has to be entered as a String like '{"Name": "MyName", "Value": 4}' when the Process Context Expression starts with an equal sign. Hence, the full text in this example is ='{"Name": "MyName", "Value": 4}'. If you omit the equal sign at the start, also the apostrophes have to be omitted and the full text in this example becomes {"Name": "MyName", "Value": 4}.

Operators allow you to do basic calculations and evaluate logical expressions:

• Logical Operators:
  • == - Compares for equality
  • !=, <> - Compares for inequality
  • !, not - Logical NOT
  • &&, and - Logical AND
  • ||, or - Logical OR
  • < - Smaller
  • <= - Smaller or equal
  • > - Greater
  • >= - Grater or equal
• Mathematical Operators:
  • + - Addition
  • - - Subtraction
  • * - Multiplication
  • / - Division
  • % - Modulo, i.e., remainder of a division
• Bitwise Operators:
  • ~ - bitwise NOT
  • & - Bitwise AND
  • | - Bitwise OR
  • ^ - Bitwise XOR
  • << - Left shift
  • >> - Right shift

The round brackets ( and ) can be used to groups and thus prioritize of expressions. The operators have the following priority, ordered by highest to lowest:

• Primary, i.e., grouping by brackets ( and )
• Unary - !, not, ~, and the minus - as sign in front of a number
• Multiplicative - *, /, %
• Additive - -, +
• Relational - -, =, ==, !=, <>, <, <=, >, >=
• Bitwise - &, |, ^, <<, >>
• logical - and, &&, or, ||

If two operators of the same priority are used, then the priority is of the left one is higher than the right one.

The values of Entity and Context Variables and their attributes are accessed by a pound sign # and their name enclosed in square brackets []:

• #[MyEntityVariable.Attribute] - Access the value in an Attribute of an Entity Variable
• #[MyContextVariable] - Access the value in a Context Variable with no attributes
• #[MyContextVariable.Attribute] - Access the value in an Attribute of a Context Variable

The values of Start Parameters can be read by entering a single pound sign # followed by their name in square brackets [].

• #[MyStartParam] - Example to access the value of the MyStartParam Start Parameter.

The values of Subscription Settings can be read by entering two pound signs ## followed by their name in square brackets []. All Subscription Settings need to be managed via the Subscription Settings menu.

• ##[MySubscSetting] - Access the value of the MySubscSetting Subscription Setting.

The values of Global Variables can be read by entering two pound signs ## followed by their name in square brackets []. The Global Variables are read only and cannot be written. The following Global Variables can be accessed:

• ##[Context] - Properties of the current Context:
  • ##[Context.Process] - The Process itself
    • ##[Context.Process.Id] - ID of the Process
    • ##[Context.Process.Name] - Name of the Process
    • ##[Context.Process.Description] - Descriptive text
    • ##[Context.Process.Guid] - Globally unique identifier
    • ##[Context.Process.Category] - Name of the category this Process is assigned to
    • ##[Context.Process.Version] - Version number
    • ##[Context.Process.CanStartManually] - Indicates if this Process can be started by a User (true) or not (false)
    • ##[Context.Process.IsSingelton] - Indicates if only one Instance can be in state Running (true) or if multiple Instances can be in state Running (false)
    • ##[Context.Process.DeleteInstanceAfterClosing] - Indicates if the Instance is deleted once its finished its execution (true) or not (false). This corresponds to the Disable process history property of the Process.
    • ##[Context.Process.RunAsync] - Indicates if the Process starts in an asynchronous, non-blocking way (true) or in an synchronous and blocking way (false)
    • ##[Context.Process.IsProcessStep] - Deprecated - do not use
    • ##[Context.Process.Icon] - Font Awesome name of the icon assigned to this Process
  • ##[Context.ProcessInstance] - Current Instance
    • ##[Context.ProcessInstance.Id] - ID of the Instance
    • ##[Context.ProcessInstance.Name] - Name of the Instance
    • ##[Context.ProcessInstance.TaskDisplayInformation] - Hold the task description for the current Activity. The task description is configured in the Additional text for task list property of the Activity.
    • ##[Context.ProcessInstance.ParentProcessInstanceId] - ID of the Instance that started this Instance, or null if this Instance has no parent Instance and was started by a User.
    • ##[Context.ProcessInstance.FromParentActivityId] - ID of the Activity that started this Instance, or null if this Instance has no parent Activity.
    • ##[Context.ProcessInstance.LastOutcome] - Name of the last Outcome this Instance passed though
    • ##[Context.ProcessInstance.Status] - Current state encoded as an Integer value:
      • 1 - Started
      • 2 - In Progress
      • 3 - Closed
      • 4 - Canceled
      • 5 - Faulted
    • ##[Context.ProcessInstance.IsDebugMode] - Indicates if this Instance is a debug Instance (true) or not (false)
  • ##[Context.Activity] - Current Activity
    • ##[Context.Activity.Id] - ID of the Activity
    • ##[Context.Activity.Name] - Name of the Activity
    • ##[Context.Activity.TimeoutSeconds] - Once this time is elapsed, the Activity will be closed and the Process continued. The timeout is deactivated by setting it to zero seconds.
    • ##[Context.Activity.ContinueOnError] - If set to true, the Instance will continue even if this Activity failed. If set to false, this Instance will fail if the Activity fails.
  • ##[Context.FromActivity] - Previous Activity in the Process. If the current Activity has more than one Outcomes, the Activity connected to the first Outcome is delivered.
    • ##[Context.FromActivity.Id] - ID of the Activity
    • ##[Context.FromActivity.Name] - Name of the Activity
    • ##[Context.FromActivity.TimeoutSeconds] - Once this time is elapsed, the Activity will be closed and the Process continued. The timeout is deactivated by setting it to zero seconds.
    • ##[Context.FromActivity.ContinueOnError] - If set to true, the Instance will continue even if this Activity failed. If set to false, this Instance will fail if the Activity fails.
  • ##[Context.ToActivity] - Next Activity in the Process. If there are multiple Activities, than this expression delivers the first Activity.
    • ##[Context.ToActivity.Id] - ID of the Activity
    • ##[Context.ToActivity.Name] - Name of the Activity
    • ##[Context.ToActivity.TimeoutSeconds] - Once this time is elapsed, the Activity will be closed and the Process continued. The timeout is deactivated by setting it to zero seconds.
    • ##[Context.ToActivity.ContinueOnError] - If set to true, the Instance will continue even if this Activity failed. If set to false, this Instance will fail if the Activity fails.
  • ##[Context.NextTaskUrl] - The URL of the next task as HTML tag, i.e., the URL encapsulated in an <a href="..."> tag. ##[Context.NextTaskUrl.Url] delivers the URL directly without the HTML tag.
  • ##[Context.PreviousTaskUrl] - The URL of the previous task as HTML tag, i.e., the URL encapsulated in an <a href="..."> tag. ##[Context.PreviousTaskUrl.Url] delivers the URL directly without the HTML tag.
• ##[CurrentUser] - The currently active User can be a User interacting with the Activities or the Novunex Platform Engine user as described here.
  • ##[CurrentUser.Id] - Unique ID of the User
  • ##[CurrentUser.UserName] - Email address representing the user name
  • ##[CurrentUser.FirstName] - First name of the User
  • ##[CurrentUser.LastName] - Last name of the User
  • ##[CurrentUser.JobTitle] - Job title of the User
  • ##[CurrentUser.Department] - Name of the department the User belongs to
  • ##[CurrentUser.Location] - The location information of the User
  • ##[CurrentUser.Division] - Deprecated - do not use
  • ##[CurrentUser.ProfileImage] - URL of the User’s profile image
  • ##[CurrentUser.IsoLanguageCode] - Language information of the User
  • ##[CurrentUser.TimeZone] - Time zone the Users works in. The time zone is specified as a TZ database name
  • ##[CurrentUser.UserGroups] - Array of all User Groups this User belongs to
    • ##[CurrentUser.UserGroups.Id] - Array of IDs identifying the User Groups this User belongs to
    • ##[CurrentUser.UserGroups.Name] - Array of names identifying the User Groups this User belongs to
• ##[CurrentSubscription.Id] - ID of the current Subscription
• ##[Now] - Current date and time
• ##[Today] - Current date

When working with Strings, you might need to escape characters or use special control characters:

• \\ - Escape character
• \n - Line feed
• \r - Carriage return
• \t - Tab

Functions for arithmetical operations with Integers and Decimals:

• Abs(number) - Absolute value of number
• Acos(number) - Returns the angle in radiant whose cosine is number
• Asin(number) - Returns the angle in radiant whose sine is number
• Atan(number) - Returns the angle in radiant whose tangent is numer
• Ceiling(number) - Smallest integer greater than or equal to number
• Cos(number) - Cosine of number, number is expected in radiant.
• Exp(number) - Raise e to the power of number
• Floor(number) - Largest integer less than or equal to number
• IEEERemainder(numberA, numberB) - Remainder of numberA over numberB
• Log(number, base) - Logarithm in base base of number
• Log10(number) - Base 10 logarithm of number
• Max(numberA, numberB) - Get the larger of numberA and numberB
• Min(numberA, numberB) - Get the smaller of numberA and numberB
• Pow(number, power) - Raise number to power
• Round(number, decimal) - Round number to decimal places
• Sign(number) - Return -1, if number is negative and 1, if number is positive
• Sin(number) - Sine of number, number is expected in radiant.
• Sqrt(number) - Square root of number
• Tan(number) - Tangent of number, number is expected in radiant.
• Trunc(number) - Remove any fractional digits from decimal

Functions for working with date and time values:

• AddSeconds(datetime, number) - Add seconds to datetime. You can use a negative value in seconds to make a subtraction.
• AddMinutes(datetime, number) - Add minutes to datetime. You can use a negative value in minutes to make a subtraction.
• AddHours(datetime, number) - Add hours to datetime. You can use a negative value in hours to make a subtraction.
• AddDays(datetime, number) - Add days to datetime. You can use a negative value in days to make a subtraction.
• AddBusinessDays(datetime, number) - Add the number of business days to datetime. You can use a negative value in number to make a subtraction.
• AddMonths(datetime, number) - Add the number of months to datetime. You can use a negative value in number to make a subtraction.
• ConvertToTimeZone(dateTime, newTimeZoneName ) - Converts dateTime from its current timezone into the timezone given as newTimeZoneName. The newTimeZoneName has to be specified as a TZ database name like America/New_York, Europe/Vienna or Asia/Tokyo.
• GetBusinessDays(datetimeA, datetimeB) - Get the number of business days between the dates datetimeA and datetimeB
• GetBusinessDaysOfMonth(year, month) - Get the number business days for month in year
• Year(datetime) - Get the year of datetime
• Month(datetime) - Get the month of datetime
• Day(datetime) - Get the day of datetime

Functions to convert between various data types:

• Bool(string), ToBool(string) - Cast string to boolean
• Date(string), ToDate(string) - Cast string to date
• DateTime(string) - Cast string to date and time
• Decimal(string), ToDecimal(string) - Cast string to decimal number
• Int(string), ToInt(string) - Cast string to integer number
• String(value), ToString(string) - Cast value to string

Functions to manipulate and work with strings:

• Format(template, string) - Insert string into template on all positions where {0} is found in template.
• IsNullOrEmpty(string) - Check if string is null or empty
• Lower(string), ToLower(string), ToLowerCase(string) - Convert string to lower case
• Replace(string, find, replace) - Replace all occurrences of find in string by replace.
• Upper(string), ToUpper(string), ToUpperCase(string) - Convert string to upper case

How to work with and manipulate Arrays:

• Arrays in Entities Variable are automatically initialized
• Assigning a value to an Array in a Set Activity will append the assigned value to the Array
• Clear() - Empties an existing Array that is stored in a Variable or an Attribute of a Variable. Clear can only be used in Set Activities' Add or set variables section. Here, Key must be set to a Context Variable or an Attribute of an Variable containing an Array. The Value has to be =Clear().
• ElementAt(array, number) - Get element at position number in array. If a number is given, that is bigger than the size of the Array, null is returned. The array positions start at zero.
• Index(array, value), IndexOf(array, value) - Get position of a element equals value in array. If there are multiple matches, the first match is returned. If not matches are found, null is returned.
• ReplaceList(findValue, replaceValue) - Replaces all entries matching findValue with replaceValue in an Array that is stored in a Context Variable or an Attribute of a Variable. ReplaceList can only be used in Set Activities' Add or set variables section. Here, Key must be set to a Context Variable or an Attribute of an Variable containing an Array. The Value has to be =ReplaceList(findValue, replaceValue), where findValue and replaceValue can be entered directly or can by Variables.

The extractions of parts of a JSON string is explained with this JSON example:

{
  "Name":"MyName",
  "Info":{
    "Another.Name": "OtherName",
    "List":[
      1,
      2
    ],
    "Object":{
      "aValue": 1,
      "aString": "first"
    },
    "ObjectArray":[
      {
        "aValue": 2,
        "aString": "second"
      },
      {
        "aValue": 3,
        "aString": "third"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Two functions are provided to extracts parts from a JSON string. Both of them use the JSONPath syntax.

• SelectToken(jsonString, pathString) - Extracts the JSON element identified by pathString out of the jsonString. If jsonString equals the above example, the following pathString examples provide valid extraction results:

  • . or [] - Access the child of a JSON element
  • Name extracts MyName
  • Info['Another.Name'] extracts OtherName, i.e., to be used if there are periods in the JSON element’s name.
  • Info.List extract the JSON list [ 1, 2 ]
  • Info.List[0] extract 1, i.e, the first element from the list
  • Info.Object extracts the JSON object { "aValue": 1, "aString": "first" }
  • Info.Object.aString extracts first

• SelectTokens( jsonString, jsonPath) - Extracts the JSON element or elements identified by jsonPath out of the jsonString. SelectTokens( jsonString, jsonPath) always returns an Array, but is otherwise identical to SelectToken(jsonString, pathString). jsonPath has to follow the JSONPath notation. The following notation is frequently used:

  • $ - Root of the JSON string, i.e., the highest point in the JSON hierarchy
  • . or [] - Access the child of a JSON element
  • .. - Recursive run through all elements below
  • * - Wildcard, i.e., all elements regardless of their names
  • @ - Current element
  • ?( ... ) - Filter
  • [start:end:step] - Iterates through an Array from start to end with the given step

  If jsonString equals the above example, the following jsonPath examples proved valid extraction results:

  • $..ObjectArray[?(@.aValue==2)] extract the JSON object { "aValue": 2, "aString": "second" }
  • $..ObjectArray[?(@.aString!='second')] extract the JSON object { "aValue": 3, "aString": "third" }

Additional utility functions:

• CalculateOwner(group, func) - Selects a used from the specified user group. As group you can specify the group ID or the name of the group. func is a string, that determiners how the user is selected:
  • random - Randomly selects any user from the groups
  • fewest - Selects the user with the lowest number of open tasks
• FindReference(entityType, attribute, value) - Get an Entity of type entityType where attribute equals value. If there are multiple matches, the first match is returned. If not matches are found, null is returned.
• Guid() - Generate a global unique identifier
• if( expression, trueValue, falseValue) - If expression evaluates to true, then trueValue is returned; if expression evaluates to false, then falseValue is returned.
• in( value, option1, option2, option3 ) - Returns true, if value is equal to one of the options. You can specify as many options as you like.
• StrongPassword(length) - Generate random password with the length given by length