Cisco Cisco Process Orchestrator 3.0 User Guide

The variables feature provides a storage area for information that is used on a regular basis to avoid 
having to specify the same information in several places. Data stored in a variable can be altered to affect 
process execution behavior. 

You can use variables in Process Orchestrator for a variety of purposes. For example, as:

The following topics describe how to create and apply variables:

Target types and target properties are often a better alternative to using variables. See:

Name Variables

The most common use of variables is a name that has a changeable value. 
For example, a global variable can be used to store information used in 
processes such as: 

Locations of files and directories

Email addresses

Order numbers

User names

Process or Activity Property 
Variables

In a process or activity definition, you can refer to the process properties 
or the properties of a prior activity in the process. In this scenario, the 
properties of the process or activity can also refer to associated objects.

One of the most common uses of variables is to define activity 
configuration. Any field in an activity with a Reference tool can refer to 
a variable value rather than an explicit value.

Status Tracking Variables

Another common use of variables is to track state. For instance, you can 
use variables as a loop counters to store the number of times a loop has 
executed and know the current loop iteration running.

Summary Variables

You can also use a variable to build up a 'summary' message. For each 
event that happens, you can append 'what just happened' to the variable. 
At the end of a process, the result will be the contents of this variable as 
an entire summary of the process.