Export a diagram to Bonita Studio

Export a diagram from Bonita Process Designer as a BPMN 2.0 file, alone or with the processes filed under it, and import the .bpmn file into Bonita Studio.

Diagrams you design in Bonita Process Designer can be carried over to Bonita Studio to continue building an executable process. Bonita Process Designer exports a standard BPMN 2.0 file (a .bpmn file) that Bonita Studio can import directly. Any user, including a Reader, can export.

Before you start

  • The diagram uses only elements Bonita Studio can import. The palette only offers those; see Supported BPMN elements.

  • Each Pool has a meaningful, unique name. The Pool name is what the process is called in Bonita Studio, and a new Pool is named Pool until you rename it.

  • To use BPMN+, the open diagram contains at least one Pool. Without one, nothing is downloaded and no message is shown.

Steps

  1. Open the diagram you want to export in the editor.

  2. On the right of the toolbar, after Export as:, click one of the following buttons. Your browser downloads a .bpmn file named after the diagram.

    • BPMN to export the open diagram alone;

    • BPMN+ to export the open diagram and every process filed under it (the processes below it in the Tree view of the home page, at every level), as one file.

  3. In Bonita Studio, import the downloaded .bpmn file as a BPMN 2.0 file. For the Studio side, see Import and export a process.

  4. Review the imported processes in Bonita Studio and continue configuring them for execution. Each Pool arrives under its own name.

The exported file is plain BPMN 2.0, so you can also keep it in version control or share it with another BPMN tool.
A BPMN+ file is meant for Bonita Studio. Imported back into Bonita Process Designer, it gives one diagram with the Pools of all its processes, not one diagram per process.

Called processes

A Call Activity can call another diagram (see Call other processes). Bonita Studio resolves a called process by its name:

  • With BPMN, each called process is written into the file as an empty, named process, which the Call Activity points at. Its content is not in the file: export the called processes too, so that Studio has their content.

  • With BPMN+, the processes filed under the exported one are in the file with their content, and Studio matches them by their Pool name. A called process that is not filed under the exported one is added only by its name, and only when the open diagram itself contains a Call Activity that calls a process.

Because the match is by name, two processes with the same name are taken for one. Bonita Process Designer warns you about some of these cases, but not all: see Processes with the same name.

When BPMN+ refuses to export

Bonita Studio rejects the whole import of a file when a single element in it cannot be loaded, without saying which one. To avoid producing such a file, BPMN+ checks the export first, and downloads nothing when, for example:

  • the export would hold more than 20 processes filed under the exported one, or go more than 5 levels below it;

  • a process filed under the exported one contains an element Bonita Studio cannot receive — the message names the first one and the process that contains it;

  • a process filed under the exported one cannot be prepared for export.

Each message ends by offering the way out: export this diagram alone, with BPMN. For a large tree, you can also export smaller branches with BPMN+ from a process lower in the tree. For every message, see Export messages.

Compatibility notes

Bonita Process Designer deliberately offers a curated subset of BPMN elements that map cleanly to Bonita Studio. When you import a file containing an element outside that subset, Bonita Process Designer converts it to a compatible equivalent, removes it, or skips it, and lists the changes in the Import Logs tab. Diagrams built in Bonita Process Designer from the palette are therefore ready to export.

Marketplace connectors attached in Bonita Process Designer are written into the file, but Bonita Studio currently ignores them on import: you reconfigure connectors and actor filters in Studio.

For the full list of supported and converted elements, see Supported BPMN elements.

Other export formats

Besides BPMN and BPMN+, you can export a diagram as a PNG image or as JSON (the raw diagram, to re-import into Bonita Process Designer), or print it. For every export and import option, including importing a .bpmn file back into Bonita Process Designer, see Export and import diagrams.