Using Artifacts and Associations

Rogue Wave® JViews BPMN support comes with three predefined Artifacts: Annotation, Data Object, and Group.
Unlike Activities, Gateways, and Events, which are represented by regular JViews nodes, Artifacts are ignored by the graph layout operations.
You cannot use a Sequence Flow or a Message Flow (implemented as JViews links) to connect an Artifact to another object. Instead, you must use an Association.
The Association object is implemented as a specialized node, not as a link. It can be used to connect an Artifact to a node or link. An Association is also ignored during layout operations.
Note
The Association object is completely different from the Compensation Association Link (displayed as a link), which is designed to connect a Compensation Interrupt Intermediate Event to its Associated Compensation Activity.