Workflow, BPM and Java

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Workflow, BPM and Java

• Tom Baeyens
• Lead DeveloperJBoss

TS-7364
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Speaker

• Tom Baeyens
• Founder and project lead of JBoss jBPM
• Member of JCP expert groups
• JSR207 Process Definition for Java
• JSR208 Java Business Integration

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Agenda

• Missing link in Java
• Workflow
• Business Process Management (BPM)
• Orchestration
• Traditional Approach
• Graph Oriented Programming
• Conclusion

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After all the trouble to make Java fast...

• were going to
• add wait states

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Workflow requirements
BPM requirements
workflow solutions
BPM solutions
orchestration solutions
Orchestration requirements
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Suspending Path of Execution
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Javas Limitation
... sendMessageToSystemB() Response response
waitForResponseFromB() ...

• Not persistable
• No graphical representation

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Graphical Representation

• Analyst draws graphs that include wait states
• Technical solution enables common language
• Analysts do not create software
• Iterative refinement
• Developer adds technical details
• Analyst looks at projected view

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Agenda

• Missing link in Java
• Workflow
• Business Process Management (BPM)
• Orchestration
• Traditional Approach
• Graph Oriented Programming
• Conclusion

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Traditional Approach

• Define a set of constructs
• That are the node-types in a graph
• With a graphical representation
• And a runtime behaviour
• Set of constructs is process language

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Traditional Problems

• Monolithic systems
• Process language is never powerfull enough
• No modelling freedom
• Turns into visual programming

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Agenda

• Missing link in Java
• Workflow
• Business Process Management (BPM)
• Orchestration
• Traditional Approach
• Graph Oriented Programming
• Conclusion

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Graph Oriented Programming

• Define a directed graph

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Graph Oriented Programming

• Define an executional model
• A Token is a path of execution in a single system

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Graph Oriented Programming

• Define an executional model

Troot
Tshipping
Tbilling
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Graph Oriented Programming

• Define an executional model
• A Signal is the trigger that resumes process
  execution

System A
Token
send message to System B
send a Signal to the Token
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Creating the ProcessInstance

• ProcessInstance pi
• new ProcessInstance(pd)
• Token token pi.getRootToken()
• token.signal()
• // put process instance and token
• // in the persistent store

e.g. web app
// fetch the token from // the persistent
store Token token ... token.signal()
e.g. MDB
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Graph Execution Algorithm

• Chain of Responsibility

leavingTransitions
Node
Transition

execute(Token) leave(Token, Transition)
take(Token)
to
1
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Graph Execution Algorithm

• Algorithm is aligned with transactions
• Clients thread is used for calculation
• No reinvention
• Existing Java APIs are leveraged
• e.g. JMS for asynchronous communication

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Hiding Details with Actions
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Hiding Details with Actions
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Hiding Details with Actions
Token
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Graph Oriented Programming
GOP provides the means to structure your
software around a graph
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Agenda

• Missing link in Java
• Workflow
• Business Process Management (BPM)
• Orchestration
• Traditional Approach
• Graph Oriented Programming
• Conclusion

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Graph Oriented Programming

• Simple API chain of responsibility
• replaces monolithic systems
• Inheriting from Node
• gives ultimate process language power
• Adding invisible Actions
• give modelling freedom
• Process development cycle
• replaces visual programming

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Building Blocks
Task User Interfaces
Transport
BI User Interfases
Task Mgmt
Async Invocation
Business Intelligence
Graph Oriented Programming
Java
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Summary

• Java has limited support for wait states
• Graph Oriented Programming extends Java with the
  ability to suspend and resume executions
• Graph Oriented Programming is a building block
• Workflow, BPM and orchestration functionalities
  can be built on top of it

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Conclusion

• JBoss jBPM implements this technology
• modular
• with functional extensions
• Available as a POJO API in a plain .jar
• Scales to enterprise
• So you can stop writing home grown frameworks

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Next Steps

• Visit
• http//jbpm.org
• http//jboss.com
• JBoss jBPM userguide
• Chapter Graph Oriented Programming
• Get involved
• http//jbpm.org/forums
• http//jbpm.org/wiki
• JBoss jBPM Training
• http//jbpm.org/training

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Demo
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QA