Animate multiple logs

Apromore allows us to animate multiple logs to capture different variants of the same business process. For instance, one log may filter cases where the case duration is less than 2 weeks while the other log filters cases where the case duration is greater than 2 weeks.

Note

To animate multiple logs, Apromore requires the corresponding BPMN model of the log. The BPMN model would represent a normative specification of how things are performed in the process. The animation is displayed on top of the BPMN model.

To animate multiple logs, select the BPMN model and the log files. Right-click and click Animate logs.

This opens Log Animator showing the BPMN model along with the timeline.

Note

The log animator in Apromore cannot handle process models where two tasks have the same label.

Note

We can also animate one log and a model using Log Animator. Select the log and the corresponding model, right-click and click Animate log. When animating one log however, it may be convenient to animate the log using Process Discoverer. To learn more about animating a log in Process Discoverer, see Animate a log.

Standard controls

The animation will start by clicking on the Play button. Each token represents the progress of a particular process instance (a case), with the token’s color encoding the log the case comes from.

Standard controls are available to play, pause, fast or slow forward/rewind the animation and to skip through the end/beginning. The replay speed can be changed with the vertical bar. These actions are also available during the animation. If the view on the model is zoomed in/out, or the model layout is changed, the tool will try to adapt the animation to the new position of the elements on the canvas.

Tip

To zoom-in/zoom-out, press Ctrl and use the mouse scroll wheel.

We can change the color of tokens of a specific log by clicking on the pie chart next to the needed log name.

Note

We can either choose from the default colors or add the customized ones. To add a customized color - enter a color code or drag the mouse over the palette.

To check log-related statistics, hover over the pie chart next to the needed log name.

Token traversal

A token traversing an activity indicates that the case captured by that token is performing that activity. However, if the token goes around an activity’s border, this indicates that the particular activity is skipped in that process case.

A large number of tokens slowly traversing a given path may indicate a performance bottleneck, e.g. cases pile up in a particular point of the process due to resources unavailability.

For visualization purpose, we can hide and show individual/multiple log tokens by unchecking/checking the checkbox below the pie chart.