End Node Vs terminate Node

Certified Lead Developer

What is the main difference between end node and terminate node from process/architect perspective like archive, data management/ engine?

PS: we all know the implementation that if terminate node execute then it will close any in progress node in a process unlike end node.

  Discussion posts and replies are publicly visible

Parents
  • 0
    Certified Lead Developer

    There is no difference in regards to data management.

  • The only difference is that processes that use terminate will usually end up finishing sooner (or at least are less likely to hang around unfinished), so it could have an indirect effect on your memory usage.

    In general I'd recommend using terminate nodes on most process models (unless you explicitly have a reason not to) just to make it less likely that you end up with a bunch of abandoned process models. Terminates are also easier for troubleshooting, because if you end up creating multiple active flows as part of starting / restarting nodes, then you don't need to ensure that all of your active flows finish.

  • 0
    Certified Lead Developer
    in reply to Peter Lewis

    Thanks for the detailed info, what do you mean by unfinished process or abandoned process?

  • Here's an example of an abandonded process: suppose you have a process model that just contains a user input task and node that writes to the database. If you start that process but then never complete the task, then the process will never complete (and the data will remain in memory indefinitely).

    Now for this example in particular it won't matter if you use a terminate or not, but suppose instead you had a similar process where you had two active tasks and if either of them finished it went to an end event. In this case it would make a difference whether it was a terminate or not, because when the first one finishes the process then ends.

    So that's why I mentioned that it's more of an indirect relationship, but it's still good practice to use terminate end events to prevent these cases where there are multiple active flows.

Reply
  • Here's an example of an abandonded process: suppose you have a process model that just contains a user input task and node that writes to the database. If you start that process but then never complete the task, then the process will never complete (and the data will remain in memory indefinitely).

    Now for this example in particular it won't matter if you use a terminate or not, but suppose instead you had a similar process where you had two active tasks and if either of them finished it went to an end event. In this case it would make a difference whether it was a terminate or not, because when the first one finishes the process then ends.

    So that's why I mentioned that it's more of an indirect relationship, but it's still good practice to use terminate end events to prevent these cases where there are multiple active flows.

Children