Variables are part of a workflow instance and represent the data of the instance. A variable has a name and a JSON value. The visibility of a variable is defined by its variable scope.

The value of a variable is stored as a JSON value. It must have one of the following types:

• String
• Number
• Boolean
• Array
• Document/Object
• Null

Variables can be accessed within the workflow instance, for example, on input/output mappings or conditions. In the expression, the variable is accessed by its name. If the variable is a document then the nested properties can be accessed via dot notation.

Examples:

totalPrice: 25.0

totalPrice

25.0

order: {"id": "order-123",
  "items": ["item-1", "item-2"]}

order

{"id": "order-123",
  "items": ["item-1", "item-2"]}

order: {"id": "order-123"}

order.id

"order-123"

order: {"items": ["item-1", "item-2"]}

order.items

["item-1", "item-2"]

Variable scopes define the visibility of variables. The root scope is the workflow instance itself. Variables in this scope are visible everywhere in the workflow.

When the workflow instance enters a sub process or an activity then a new scope is created. Activities in this scope can see all variables of this and of higher scopes (i.e. parent scopes). But activities outside of this scope can not see the variables which are defined in this scopes.

If a variable has the same name as a variable from a higher scope then it covers this variable. Activities in this scope see only the value of this variable and not the one from the higher scope.

The scope of a variable is defined when the variable is created. By default, variables are created in the root scope.

Example:

This workflow instance has the following variables:

• a and b are defined on the root scope and can be seen by Task A, Task B, and Task C.
• c is defined in the sub process scope and can be seen by Task A and Task B.
• b is defined again on the activity scope of Task A and can be seen only by Task A. It covers the variable b from the root scope.

When variables are merged into a workflow instance (e.g. on job completion, on message correlation) then each variable is propagated from the scope of the activity to its higher scopes.

The propagation ends when a scope contains a variable with the same name. In this case, the variable value is updated.

If no scope contains this variable then it is created as a new variable in the root scope.

Example:

The job of Task B is completed with the variables b, c, and d. The variables b and c are already defined in higher scopes and are updated with the new values. Variable d doesn't exist before and is created in the root scope.

In some cases, variables should be set in a given scope, even if they don't exist in this scope before.

In order to deactivate the variable propagation, the variables are set as local variables. That means that the variables are created or updated in the given scope, whether they exist in this scope before or not.

Input/output variable mappings can be used to create new variables or customize how variables are merged into the workflow instance.

Variable mappings are defined in the workflow as extension elements under ioMapping. Every variable mapping has a source and a target expression. The source expression defines where the value is copied from. The target expression defines where the value is copied to. The expressions reference a variable by its name or a nested property of a variable.

If a variable or a nested property of a target expression doesn't exist then it is created. But if a variable or a nested property of a source expression doesn't exist then an incident is created.

Example:

XML representation:

<serviceTask id="collectMoney" name="Collect Money">
    <extensionElements>
      <zeebe:ioMapping>
        <zeebe:input source="customer.name" target="sender"/>
        <zeebe:input source="customer.iban" target="iban"/>
        <zeebe:input source="totalPrice" target="price"/>
        <zeebe:input source="reference" target="orderId"/>
        <zeebe:output source="status" target="paymentStatus"/>
       </zeebe:ioMapping>
    </extensionElements>
</serviceTask>

Input mappings can used to create new variables. They can be defined on service tasks and sub processes.

When an input mapping is applied then it creates a new variable in the scope where the mapping is defined.

Examples:

orderId: "order-123"

source: orderId
target: reference

reference: "order-123"

customer: {"name": "John"}

source: customer.name
target: sender

sender: "John"

customer: "John"
iban: "DE456"

source: customer
target: sender.name
source: iban
target: sender.iban

sender: {"name": "John",
"iban": "DE456"}

Output mappings can be used to customize how job/message variables are merged into the workflow instance. They can be defined on service tasks, receive tasks, message catch events and sub processes.

If one or more output mappings are defined then the job/message variables are set as local variables in the scope where the mapping is defined. Then, the output mappings are applied to the variables and create new variables in this scope. The new variables are merged into the parent scope. If there is no mapping for a job/message variable then the variable is not merged.

If no output mappings are defined then all job/message variables are merged into the workflow instance.

In case of a sub process, the behavior is different. There are no job/message variables to be merged. But output mappings can be used to propagate local variables of the sub process to higher scopes. By default, all local variables are removed when the scope is left.

Examples:

status: "Ok"

source: status
target: paymentStatus

paymentStatus: "OK"

result: {"status": "Ok",
  "transactionId": "t-789"}

source: result.status
target: paymentStatus
source: result.transactionId
target: transactionId

paymentStatus: "Ok"
transactionId: "t-789"

status: "Ok"
transactionId: "t-789"

source: transactionId
target: order.transactionId

order: {"transactionId": "t-789"}