Document Composer

This guide walks through the complete workflow for creating a government decision document (beschikking) template in the Document Composer, binding it to process variables, and linking it to a BPMN process in the BPMN Modeler.

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Opening the Composer

Click Document Composer in the left sidebar (📄 icon). If no document has been created yet, the canvas shows an empty state with a Create New Document button. Click it, or use the + button in the left panel header, to create your first document.

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Creating a document

1. Click + in the document list header. A new document named New document is created with all mandatory zones empty.
2. Double-click the document name to rename it (e.g. Kapvergunning — Beschikking).
3. The canvas opens automatically with the six mandatory zones visible. The Annex zone is hidden by default.

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Adding blocks to zones

The left panel has two tabs: Documents (the list) and Content (the block library). Switch to Content to access the draggable block types.

Content library showing the five available block types

1. Drag a Rich text block onto the Body zone. A TipTap editor appears inline.
2. Type your decision text. Use the toolbar for bold, italic, headings, and lists.
3. To reference a process variable, type {{variableName}} directly in the text. The token is resolved at render time when MijnOmgeving fills in the document.
4. Drag a Variable block onto the Reference zone for a standalone display of a single variable (e.g. the file reference number).
5. Drag an Image block to add a TriplyDB-hosted asset such as a municipality logo into the Letterhead zone.

Reordering and moving blocks

• Within a zone — drag a block up or down to reorder it within the same zone.
• Between zones — drag a block across zone boundaries to move it. The target zone highlights when the block is over it.
• Delete a block — click the trash icon on the block toolbar.

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Enabling the Annex zone

At the bottom of the canvas, click Add annex. A seventh zone appears. Remove it with Remove annex. Blocks in the annex are not lost when the zone is toggled off and back on during the same session — but if you save while the annex is off, its blocks are not persisted.

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Binding variables

Open the right panel by clicking the Bindings tab (visible when a document is active).

Discover Variables in action: chips for each process variable with type labels

1. Enter the process key in the field at the top (e.g. AwbShellProcess).
2. Click Discover Variables. The panel queries the Operaton history API and shows a chip for every variable found in completed process instances.
3. Click a chip to pre-fill the binding form. Adjust the placeholder field if the token name in your text differs from the variable key.
4. Set Source to process for a live process variable, or dmn_output for a DMN result variable.
5. Click Add binding. The binding appears in the list.

You can also add bindings manually without using Discover Variables — fill in the placeholder and variable key fields directly.

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Saving and exporting

• Save (canvas toolbar) — persists the document to localStorage. The button is disabled when there are no unsaved changes.
• Save as… — creates a copy of the current document with a new name. Useful for creating variant templates.
• Export .document — downloads the template as a JSON file. The exported file can be imported into another LDE instance by copying it to public/examples/ (developer workflow only).

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Working with the example document

The Kapvergunning Beschikking example is read-only (EXAMPLE badge). It demonstrates a complete, production-style beschikking template linked to the AwbShellProcess process key. To customise it:

1. Open the example document.
2. Click Save as… and give the copy a name.
3. Edit the copy freely.

The example document cannot be renamed or deleted.

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Linking to a BPMN process

Once your document is saved, switch to the BPMN Modeler:

1. Open or create a process.
2. Click a UserTask element to open its properties.
3. Scroll down to Link decision template. Your saved document appears in the dropdown.
4. Select it. A purple badge (📄) appears below the UserTask on the canvas, and camunda:documentRef is written to the BPMN XML.

The badge is distinct from the green form badge (📝) and the amber DMN badge so you can confirm all three links at a glance.

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Next steps

• Document Composer features — full feature reference
• BPMN Modeler — Document template linking
• Developer docs — Document Composer — type model and storage internals