Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Other knowledge asset editors
In order to be able to create executable processes, we will end up needing more than just
the process definitions. Process definitions will be dependent, at least in runtime, of a spe-
cific data model, handlers for specific tasks, and even rules to make complex decisions at
particular points. In order to be able to run such complex processes we will need a way to
define all these components along with the business processes. The KIE Workbench
provides us with many different editors that cover all these necessities.
All types of knowledge definitions that we will need to create will be accessible later on
from the
Project Explorer
view on the right-hand side of the project authoring perspect-
ive, and can be created from the display view after clicking on the
New Item
option. Each
type of knowledge asset has a different structure, and due to size restrictions in the topic,
we won't be able to explain every single one. However, we will cover the ones most re-
lated to process definitions and runtimes.
The first things that a growing process definition will need are
work item definitions
.
Work item definitions are specific mappings added to abstract tasks in BPMN2 in order to
determine some form of special behavior that a given task should have. They have pre-
defined inputs and outputs that suggest a way of communicating with the task, a given
name to map it to a specific implementation, and (for the purpose of diagramming) they
have a display name and an (optional) icon. In the KIE Workbench, work item definitions
are written in a special scripting language called
MVEL
(
http://mvel.codehaus.org
), and
the given editor provides a few helper buttons to create the needed script faster, as shown
in the following screenshot:
