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Choreography Diagrams
You can visualize the way two or more Participants coordinate their interactions using a Choreography diagram. The focus in this type of diagram is not on orchestrations of the work performed within these Participants, but rather on the exchange of information (Messages) between these Participants. The standard leverages the familiarity of Business Process Diagrams that resemble simple flowcharts but where each activity reference two or more participants. Thus Choreographies, like Business Process Diagrams, also have ordered sequences of “activities” connected by Sequence Flows but these activities represent one or more interactions between Participants. These interactions are sometimes called message exchange patterns (MEPs) which are the atomic units (“Activity”) of a Choreography. Message exchanges between Participants can be more complex than simple request-response interactions into multi-cast, contingent requests, competing receives, streaming, and other service interaction patterns. As a partner you can visualize and plan your Business Processes for inter-operation with other business entities without introducing conflicts or having to wait for definitions of how another participant's would respond to a message.
A Choreography diagram with three Activities (Choreographies) involving the interaction between two participants
To create BPMN elements and relationships on Choreography diagrams in either BPMN 2.0 or BPEL formats, you can use the BPMN 2.0 Choreography pages of the Diagram Toolbox.
Access
Use any of the methods outlined here to display the Diagram Toolbox, then click on 
to display the 'Find Toolbox Item' dialog and specify 'BPMN 2.0 Choreography'.
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Ribbon |
Design > Diagram > Toolbox : |
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Keyboard Shortcuts |
: |
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Other |
Click the > Specify 'BPMN 2.0 Choreography' in the 'Find Toolbox Item' dialog.
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icon on the Diagram caption bar to display the BPMN 2.0 Chorography Elements
Item |
Use to |
|---|---|
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Choreography Model |
Extend a composite Activity that defines a Choreography process. |
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Choreography |
Extend an Activity element to represent a process unit of information exchange between elements. |
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Start Event |
Define the initiating event in a process. Elements of this type cannot be edge-mounted on other elements. |
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Intermediate Event |
Define an intermediate event in a process. Elements of this type can only be edge-mounted on Activity elements. |
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End Event |
Define the terminating event in a process. Elements of this type cannot be edge-mounted on other elements. |
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Gateway |
Define a decision point in a business process. If a condition is true then processing continues one way; if false, then another. |
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Message |
Represent the contents of a communication between two elements. |
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Pool |
Extend a Partition element to logically organize an Activity. |
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Text Annotation |
Create a comment. |
BPMN 2.0 Chorography Connectors
Item |
Use to |
|---|---|
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Sequence Flow |
Define the order of activity in a Choreography. |
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Association |
Link the information and Artifacts with BPMN graphic elements. |
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Message Flow |
Extend a Control Flow relationship to define the flow of communications in the process. |
Notes
- The appearance and specification of some elements and connectors are defined by Tagged Values