Expressions built-in variables

BPMN & Modeling Discussion & Questions
1

Hi all,
I saw in the documentation there is a list of built-in variables that can be used in expressions like now(), dateTime(), currentUser(). Is there a complete list of such variables we can use?

I am interested in getting the process instance id and user that started the process.

Best regards,
Paul Palacean

2

see: https://docs.camunda.org/manual/7.8/user-guide/process-engine/expression-language/#availability-of-variables-and-functions-inside-expression-language

3

Hi Stephen,
many thanks, this is the page I was checking and mentioned in the topic, however I’ve also seen somewhere that there is a ${starter} variable which contains the user that started the process. Also for multi-instance there is a ${loopCounter} and other 3 variables. Are these all or are there others that I am missing?

Thanks,
Paul Palacean

4

You have to look in the specific areas of documentation for these specific variables as they are context specific.

Your reference to starter is not accurate i believe: https://docs.camunda.org/manual/7.4/reference/bpmn20/tasks/user-task/#using-process-variables

<startEvent id="startEvent" camunda:initiator="starter" />
...
<userTask id="task" name="Clarify Invoice" camunda:assignee="${ starter }"/>
...

“starter” is defined based on the variable that was defined in the “initiator” field of the start event. Initiator is defined based on currentUser() at the time of the process start, i believe.

5

Ok, got it, thank you very much.

6