# The skipExpression support future

**URL:** <https://forum.flowable.org/t/the-skipexpression-support-future/8263>\
**Category:** Flowable Engine\
**Created:** [August 16, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://forum.flowable.org/t/the-skipexpression-support-future/8263 "2021-08-16T14:38:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![chavdarbaykov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@chavdarbaykov](https://forum.flowable.org/u/chavdarbaykov)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://forum.flowable.org/t/the-skipexpression-support-future/8263/1 "2021-08-16T14:38:21Z")

</div>

Hi, Flowable Experts,

Me and my team are looking into implementing some processes using Flowable BPM Engine and are wondering if there is a statement regarding the skipExpression feature in Flowable.  
It is interesting, since it allows to skip a step in the process without modelling a conditional gateway.  
However to us it looks something carried out from Activity and not mentioned in the documentation at all. Is this a feature we can use freely or we should stay away from it and model the behavior with a conditional gateway.

[flowable-engine/MethodExpressionServiceTaskTest.java at 97fe915e1d247c11983a4fc130efd2fb9ca1c447 · flowable/flowable-engine · GitHub](https://github.com/flowable/flowable-engine/blob/97fe915e1d247c11983a4fc130efd2fb9ca1c447/modules/flowable5-test/src/test/java/org/activiti/examples/bpmn/servicetask/MethodExpressionServiceTaskTest.java)

Best Regards, Chavdar

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jwashington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@jwashington](https://forum.flowable.org/u/jwashington)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 9:17pm UTC](https://forum.flowable.org/t/the-skipexpression-support-future/8263/2 "2021-08-18T21:17:47Z")

</div>

I can’t speak to the skip expression functionality specifically, but IMO I would say from a design perspective that if skipping a process step has business meaning than it’s better to use a conditional gateway to express this functionality. The reason for this it gives more visibility to the decision steps a workflow process instance took, such when viewing a instance with the admin tool, then if the logic is buried within a skip expression or other mechanisms. The rule of thumb is for the workflow express to model the underlying business process including key decision steps.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![filiphr](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/forum.flowable.org/filiphr/32/315_2.png) [@filiphr](https://forum.flowable.org/u/filiphr)\
**Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 2:43pm UTC](https://forum.flowable.org/t/the-skipexpression-support-future/8263/3 "2021-08-23T14:43:35Z")

</div>

Hey @chavdarbaykov,

What @jwashington is saying are best practices for how to use Flowable.

The skip expression feature is a special feature that is mostly tailored towards migrating old processes to Flowable or for executing some integration tests where you want to skip certain tasks.

Cheers,  
Filip