Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
What you will need to create the jBPM6 business
processes
One set of tools that we will need is the one related to creating new processes that we can
execute later on. To do so, we need a new set of high-level tools (editors, validation tools,
and different types of connectors) as well as low-level functionality (such as filesystem
management and publication services for the runtime to grab finished components). The
tools most related to process generation are as follows:
•
Workbench utilities
: In order to define special configurations that our business
processes will need to be executed in the way we want, we need special utilities
that will allow us to define the execution configuration that the runtime will have
to use, such as external connectors for invoking other systems, special listeners to
expose information about our processes to monitoring tools, and strategies to
define the isolation level of processes. All these components will be discussed
throughout this topic as we get to each specific component.
•
A process designer
: This is the tool you will use to create executable processes. It
could go from a simple notepad application to directly write XML-based BPMN
files, and even to a full visual diagram tool to visually edit all the contents of your
process. Luckily for us, the jBPM6 process designer is closer to the latter option.
•
Knowledge asset editors
: In order to create all of the process runtime elements
that define our domain, most of the time, business processes alone won't be enough
to define all the runtime. We will need data modelers to generate the data compon-
ents that will be used by the processes, rule editors for complex decisions, or work
item definitions to extend the possible types of tasks that a process could use.
Workbench utilities
The KIE Workbench provides a series of utilities that allow us to create a detached commu-
nication between the process definition and the process execution. In order to do so, it
provides a very specific structure that will look quite familiar to developers. Let's first ex-
plore how the process definitions (and other types of knowledge assets) are grouped in the
KIE Workbench.
The Workbench groups process in Maven-based projects. Each Maven project is an indi-
vidual, self-sufficient unit containing information about the know-how to compile, deploy,
run, and test itself and can declare dependencies to other modules in their
pom.xml
file.
Each project is part of a repository, and each repository belongs to an organizational unit.
