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KB-1574 Process model swim lanes disappear and connectors become diagonal

Symptoms

Swim lanes disappear in a process model, and horizontal connectors display as diagonal connectors upon opening the process model. This change is depicted in the screenshots below:

In addition, the application server log prints one of the following error messages:

  1. "Access is denied" error:

    ERROR com.appiancorp.process.design.service.ProcessDesignServiceXmlImpl - An error occurred retrieving the model from the filesystem.
    java.io.FileNotFoundException: <APPIAN_HOME>\_admin\models\<XXX>\<PM_UUID>\draft.xml (Access is denied)


  2. "The system cannot find the path specified" error:

    ERROR com.appiancorp.process.design.service.ProcessDesignServiceXmlImpl - An error occurred retrieving the model from the filesystem.
    java.io.FileNotFoundException: <APPIAN_HOME>\_admin\models/<XXX>\<PM_UUID>\draft.xml (The system cannot find the path specified)

Note: if you are using Appian 7.11 or earlier and experience the issue depicted in the above screenshots, and the application server log prints a different error message, please reference KB-1001.

Cause

  1. The process model's most recent XML file, draft.xml, is not accessible in the filesystem (it is locked, the shared folder is unavailable, or the application server does not have the correct permissions to access it).
  2. The process model's most recent XML file, draft.xml, has been deleted from the filesystem.

Action

  1. Ensure that the draft.xml file is unlocked and that the appropriate folders in the <APPIAN_HOME>\_admin\models shared directory are accessible. In addition, ensure that the user that is running Appian has appropriate permissions on the draft.xml file. To prevent this issue in the future, do not virus-scan or back-up the models folders during business hours.
  2. Restore the XML file from a back-up. To prevent this issue in the future, do not delete XML for models directly from the filesystem.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 16.1 and later.

Last Reviewed: May 2018