When modeling a Call Activity, I can configure if all parent variables must be propagated or not

[romansmirnov]

Problem you would like to solve

Currently, Zeebe always propagates all variables from the parent process instance to the child process instance when executing a call activity. This leads to many redundant data across the called process instances, resulting in a larger runtime state in Zeebe. Additionally, all the variables need to be imported by the webapps (like Operate, and so on).

With camunda/camunda#13959, Zeebe introduces a new property called propagateAllParentVariables so that users can decide if they want to propagate all variables or only specific one:

1. (Default) propagateAllParentVariables = true, all variables from the parent process instance are propagated to the child process instance
2. propagateAllParentVariables = false, only the variables defined via input mappings are propagated to the child process instance.

The property can be configured per Call Activity.

Basically, with this feature request, a user should be able to configure the property propagateAllParentVariables

Proposed solution

Similar to the existing Output Propagation, a group Input Propagation exists which contains a toggle to turn enable/disable the propagation of all variables. By default, when modeling a new Call Activity, the toggle is enabled (i.e. on).

Tasks

• Add CalledElement#propagateAllParentVariables property zeebe-bpmn-moddle#50
• Support to configure CalledElement#propagateAllParentVariables bpmn-io/bpmn-js-properties-panel#953
• Validate version compatibility for propagateAllParentVariables, cf. https://github.com/camunda/bpmnlint-plugin-camunda-compat
  • Add validation rule for CalledElement#propagateAllParentVariables bpmnlint-plugin-camunda-compat#123
  • Adjust propagateAllParentVariables error message linting#81

Alternatives considered

No.

Additional context

The resulting BPMN XML is supposed to be the following

<bpmn:callActivity id="CallActivity_1">
  <bpmn:extensionElements>
    <zeebe:calledElement propagateAllParentVariables="true|false" />
  </bpmn:extensionElements>
</bpmn:callActivity>

---

related to camunda/camunda#13959 (Zeebe)
related to https://github.com/camunda/product-hub/issues/141 (Product Hub Epic)

[nikku]

@romansmirnov If we implement this then we want to add a validation rule, too? Cf. https://github.com/camunda/bpmnlint-plugin-camunda-compat. This way users know when this property becomes available.

[romansmirnov]

@nikku, yes, makes sense. I would love to open a PR therefore, but I would need a short intro to the linting plugin. Would you be available, therefore? 😄

[nikku]

Looks like we're on track to ship this with the next release.

[nikku]

Shipped upstream via @camunda/linting@3.6.0, bpmn-js-properties-panel@5.1.0.

[philippfromme]

Integrated into Camunda Modeler:

[barmac]

This is cool but we forgot to document it at https://docs.camunda.io/docs/next/components/modeler/bpmn/call-activities/