- The document discusses the history and capabilities of jBPM, an open source business process management system. - It provides biographies of the founders and an agenda for the discussion. - The main points are that jBPM allows modeling of business processes, provides execution and monitoring of those processes, and has advantages for both business users and technical users.

1. jBPM 4 in Action
by
Tom Baeyens & Joram Barrez

2. Speaker’s qualifications
Founded jBPM in 2003
Project Lead of jBPM
Passionate about BPM and Java
Articles/international conferences
JBoss jBPM core developer (06/09)
Before: jBPM/BPM consultant
2

3. Agenda
Part 1
Part 2 Very interesting
Part 3
Part 4 REALLY interesting !
3

4. jBPM is great for BPM
*and*
for developers
4

5. makes your work flow

8. Business process
An (organized) way
of 'doing things'
... with a certain goal
8

9. History lesson
1723-1790, Adam Smith: The pin factory
– Labor division
1863-1947, Henry Ford: mass production
– Assembly lines
– Specialization
9

10. History lesson
William E. Deming (1900-1993)
'Hero' of Japanese industry
Manufacturing processes ++
– Quality Circle
– SPC
– Six-Sigma
– ...
10

11. Processes are everywhere
11

12. Processes are everywhere

14. Conclusion
Any company
They all have
Any product
business processes
Any service
14

15. Conclusion
Any company
They all have
Any product
business processes
Any service
Which means
– 'Doing business'
== executing some business process
15

18. The M in BPM
Business processes are ubiquitous
But ... this doesn't mean that
– People know they are part of one
– Everybody is doing the same
– They are controlled or guided
18

19. The M in BPM
Managing business processes means
– Everybody knows the what/when
– There is guidance or control
– Measurement (KPI)
Not a matter of 'buying BPM'
– Organisational changes
– Discipline
19

20. BPM Systems
~BPM engine or workflow engine
Executes the business processes
– Diagram
–
–
–
–
– <tech-details />
20

21. Introducing jBPM
Transactional state-machine
Generic graph execution engine
21

22. Introducing jBPM
Transactional state-machine
Generic graph execution engine
But most of all...
– A kick-ass BPM engine
22

23. Main business advantages
Diagram: no disconnection between
– What business expects
– What IT delivers
Agile
Visibility
– Monitoring, CEP, KPI
23

24. Main technical advantages
Solves scattered business logic problem
– Clean separation between data/logic
Audit/task mgmt/... capabilities for free
Doesn't dictate your architecture
– Embed with any java framework
– Any transaction configuration
– Any environment
24

25. jBPM history
4 Jan 2003 :
5, 4, 3, 2, 1
... rrrrrrooooaaaaarrrrr ...
and we have a lift off !
jBpm is present in sourceforge.net
25

26. jBPM history
4 Jan 2003 :
5, 4, 3, 2, 1
... rrrrrrooooaaaaarrrrr ...
and we have a lift off !
jBpm is present in sourceforge.net
26

27. jBPM history
18 Oct 2004 :
released JBoss jBPM 2.0
27

28. jBPM history
28

29. jBPM history
24 May 2005 :
The team is proud to declare
the beta1 releases
of JBoss jBPM 3.0 !
Check out the sourceforge
download pages and have fun...
8 may 2006:
We are happy to announce
the release of JBoss jBPM 3.1.1.
29

30. jBPM history
'Back in the days I had spent a full two hours
with MS Paint to create the first logo for jBPM.'
'Now that my project even had a logo,
I was in full confidence. Nothing could stop me now'
They grow so fast...
3.1.2 3.1.3 3.1.4
3.2.0 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.2.3
3.2.4 3.2.5 3.2.6
30

31. jBPM history
'Back in the days I had spent a full two hours
with MS Paint to create the first logo for jBPM.'
'Now that my project even had a logo,
I was in full confidence. Nothing could stop me now'
'So I went to the conference and
immediately I got a lot of valuable feedback'
.
'Hey Tom, you're project is great
but your logo sucks bigtime!'
They grow so fast...
3.1.2 3.1.3 3.1.4
3.2.0 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.2.3
3.2.4 3.2.5 3.2.6
31

32. jBPM history
'This time I sticked to coding and
left the paint job to the professionals. '
They grow so fast...
3.1.2 3.1.3 3.1.4
3.2.0 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.2.3
3.2.4 3.2.5 3.2.6
32

33. jBPM history
July 2009:
jBPM4 is out!
33

34. jBPM history
November 2009
jBPM 4.2 released
34

35. Today

36. Today

37. JBPM v4: what's new?
Core engine completely revised
– 2nd generation PVM
– Designed for cluster & performance
– Not losing what made jBPM3 great
Incorporated lessons learned
– 6 years of usage in the wild
– Corner cases and even edgier
– Simplified 'getting started'
37

38. JBPM v4: what's new?
Clean & simplified
– New API (incl. cool query mechanism)
– Compact db schema
– Native Spring integration
Performance boost
Improved tooling
– Sexy GWT console
– Signavio web modeling
QA lab
38

39. jBPM3 jBPM4

40. JBPM v4: performance
Designed with performance in mind
– Scalability/clusterability
– Improved inner workings
Test method
– 5 processes
– Start --> end
– 10K executions, 1-10 fixed threadpool
40

41. JBPM v4: performance
jBPM 4.2 basic benchmark - MySQL 5
(10 000 executio ns)
14
12
Seq. exec.
10 2 fixedTP
3 fixedTP
4 fixedTP
avg duration (ms)
8 5 fixedTP
6 fixedTP
7 fixedTP
6 8 fixedTP
9 fixedTP
10 fixedTP
4
2
0
proces s01 proces s 02 proces s 03 proces s 04 proces s 05 random
Config: Ubuntu 9.04, AMD Phenom II X4 3.0Ghz, 8Gb Ram, 7200rpm HD
DB and benchmark on same machine
41

42. JBPM v4: performance
jBPM 4.2 basic benchmark - Postgresql 8.3
(10 000 executio ns)
12
10
Seq. exec.
2 fixedT P
8 3 fixedT P
4 fixedT P
avg duration (ms)
5 fixedT P
6 fixedT P
6
7 fixedT P
8 fixedT P
9 fixedT P
4 10 fixedTP
2
0
process 01 proces s 02 proces s 03 proces s 04 proces s 05 random
Config: Ubuntu 9.04, AMD Phenom II X4 3.0Ghz, 8Gb Ram, 7200rpm HD
DB and benchmark on same machine
42

43. JBPM v4: performance
jBPM 4.2 basic benchmark - Postgresql 8.3
(10 000 executio ns)
12
10
Seq. exec.
2 fixedT P
8 3 fixedT P
4 fixedT P
avg duration (ms)
5 fixedT P
6 fixedT P
6
7 fixedT P
8 fixedT P
9 fixedT P
4 10 fixedTP
2
0
process 01 proces s 02 proces s 03 proces s 04 proces s 05 random
Config: Ubuntu 9.04, AMD Phenom II X4 3.0Ghz, 8Gb Ram, 7200rpm HD
DB and benchmark on same machine
43

44. JBPM v4: performance
Avg process exec. time
– 0.75ms – 2ms
– 1.8 mil./hour
– Yeah, that's fast
jBPM overhead == (extremely) minimal
– So what are you waiting for?
44

45. Part 2: jB PM C oncepts

46. A Process

47. An Execution
Execution

48. History
HISTORY_PROCESS_INSTANCE
ID PROCESS START END …
1 Order-1 09:38 10:04
HISTORY_ACTIVITY_INSTANCE
ID HPI ACTIVITY START END …
1 1 Calculate Quote 09:38 09:39
2 1 Check Credit 09:39 09:42
3 1 Accept Quote 09:42 10:03
4 1 Charge Customer 10:03 10:04

49. History

50. Processes As Part Of
Software Development
Software Project
Abstract Business Process Executable Business Process
Non-tech
Business
Analyst <details /> Developer
Java, XML, Buildscripts,
Tests, …
EAP jBPM Your
SOA-P
App
JBoss
Tomcat
JDK 5
Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL

51. Signavio Simu BPM BAM BI
Web lation Console Jopr
Modeling
Task
Model UI
Repository
jBPM
jPDL BPMN2 …
SVN PVM
Repository
Maven Repository RepoService
Repository Executions ExeService
History HistService
Tasks TaskService
Identities
•Users
•Groups
•Memberships

53. jPDL Av
ail
ab
le
no
w!
• BPM focussed
• Graph based
• Readable, editable XML
• Direct Java integration
• Extended task management
• Community

54. B PMN 2.0 Co
mi
ng
So
on
!
• BPM focussed
• Graph based
• Upcoming standard
• Focus on modeling notation

55. B PEL 2.0 B
Co uild
mm ing
un
ity
• Web Service focussed (WSDL)
• Script new service
as a function of other services
• Block structured

56. jBPM Overview
JDBC
Repository jBPM.jar Your
Executions
RepositoryService Application
History
ExecutionService
Tasks
Identity HistoryService
TaskService
IdentityService
JVM

57. jBPM API jbpm.cfg.xml
Configuration cfg = new Configuration();
ProcessEngine processEngine =
cfg.buildProcessEngine();
processEngine.getRepositoryService();
processEngine.getExecutionService();
processEngine.getHistoryService();
processEngine.getTaskService();
processEngine.getIdentityService();

58. jbpm.cfg.xml
<jbpm-configuration>
<import resource="jbpm.default.cfg.xml" />
<import resource="jbpm.tx.hibernate.cfg.xml" />
<import resource="jbpm.jpdl.cfg.xml" />
<import resource="jbpm.identity.cfg.xml" />
<import resource="jbpm.businesscalendar.cfg.xml" />
<import resource="jbpm.console.cfg.xml" />
<import resource="jbpm.jobexecutor.cfg.xml" />
</jbpm-configuration>

59. Installer Ant Scripts
• Install, start & stop
– Hsqldb
– JBoss
– Tomcat
• Create, upgrade & drop
jBPM schema
• Install jBPM into
– JBoss (service archive)
– Tomcat (libs+config)

60. Part 3: Demo Examples

61. Getting started demo
Working with processes
– Can be overwhelming (at first)
Downloaded zip -> business process
– Let's hope the demo gods aren't looking
Basically ... a free training!
– Please don't tell our bosses
61

62. Demo process
Ordering conference goodies
62

63. First steps
Set up dev environment
Using jBPM in embedded mode
Work in iterations
– Create basic process
(start–task-end)
– TDD our process
63

64. jBPM 4 Task
Process execution waits
Process state is persisted
New task created in DB
Functionality
– 'Work list': assignee, candidate-
groups/users, swimlane, handler, ...
– notification/reminder mail
– Timers
64

65. DEMO
•First steps
65

66. jBPM 4 DIY: custom activity
Business processes are business specific
We have a set of common activities
– And even more planned (jms, ejb, rules,
calling your grandmother, ...)
Custom activities will always be needed
Pojo:
<custom name="payout" class="com.devoxx.jbpm4.PayoutActivity">
<transition to="end1" />
</custom>
66

67. DEMO
•DIY: custom activities
67

68. Decision
Automatic choice of process flow
– Process data
– Business rule
Actual decision
– Expression
– Custom DecisionHandler
68

69. Decision - handler
<decision name="evaluate document">
<handler class="org.jbpm.xx.ContentEvaluation" />
<transition name="good" to="submit document" />
<transition name="bad" to="try again" />
<transition name="ugly" to="give up" />
</decision>
public class ContentEvaluation implements DecisionHandler {
public String decide(OpenExecution execution) {
...
}
}
69

70. Decision - expression
Expression language
– Juel (2.2: +methods)
– Groovy
– ...
<decision name="evaluate document" expr="#{content}" >
<transition name="good" to="submit document" />
<transition name="bad" to="try again" />
<transition name="ugly" to="give up" />
</decision>
70

71. Decision - expression
Expression language
– Juel (2.2: +methods)
– Groovy
– ...
Process variable
<decision name="checkPayment" >
<transition name="expensive" to="pay less" >
<condition expr=”#{order.amount &gt; 999}” />
</transition>
<transition name="cheap" to="pay more" />
<condition expr=”#{order.amount &lt; 1000}” />
</transition>
</decision>
71

72. DEMO
• Decisions
72

73. Put it in 'staging'
Next steps
– Switch to a real database
– jBPM web console
– Deploy process as part of build (dev)
– Incorporate task forms for user IO
simulation
73

74. Task form
Part of deployment
– deployment.addResourceFromClasspath(…./my_form.ftl);
– <task form="com/devoxx/jbpm4/my_form.ftl"
Freemarker templates
– ${processVar}
– <input type=”text” name=”myVar” />
– Css
74

75. DEMO
• Switching to the real stuff
75

76. Part 4: Advanced C oncepts

77. Agenda
• jBPM Architecture
• Process Deployment
• Execution and persistence
• Transactional control flow
• More core features

78. g raph execution
+
pers is tence
=
trans actional control flow

79. jBPM Architecture: POJO Core
• POJO Classes representing
– Process definitions
– Runtime executions
– History, tasks, identities,...
• Behaviour in the domain model
• Domain model persistable with hibernate

80. ClientProcessDefinition processDefinition =
ProcessDefinitionBuilder.startProcess() inc
ub
.startActivity("creditRate?", new ati
on
AutomaticCreditRating())
.initial()
.transition("priority delivery", "good")
.transition("payment upfront", "bad")
.endActivity()
.startActivity("priority delivery", new WaitState())
.endActivity()
.startActivity("payment upfront", new WaitState())
.endActivity()
.endProcess();
ClientProcessInstance processInstance =
processDefinition.createProcessInstance();
processInstance.setVariable("creditRate", 7);
processInstance.start();

81. jBPM Architecture: Services
• Infrastructure around domain model
– Embeddability
– Persistence / transactions
• Services
• Interceptors
• Environment
• Commands

82. Services
• Main API
• Services expose methods
• Each method 1 command
• Commands passed down interceptor stack
– Aka chain of command
– Configurable interceptor stack

83. Services
public class ExecutionServiceImpl {
...
public ProcessInstance
startProcessInstanceById(String procDefId) {
return commandService.execute(
new StartProcessInstanceCmd(procDefId,null,null)
);
}
...

84. Configurable Interceptor Stacks
• Standalone
• JTA
• Spring
inc
• Remote ub
ati
on
• Async

85. Environment
• Decouples POJO model from environment
• Interceptorstack responsible
for setting up the environment
• Domain model looks up configurable
stuff from the environment
• E.g. hibernate session

86. Commands
• Invoke methods on POJO's
• Persistence operations
– Load
– Save

88. Persistence
submit web sale
sales review
fork
send bill ship items
wait for
payment all shipped ? no
yes
join
end

89. Persistence
submit web sale
Transaction
sales review
fork
Execution
send bill ship items
wait for
payment no
1. Load all shipped ?
yes
join
end

90. Persistence
submit web sale
Transaction
sales review
2. Update fork
Execution
send bill ship items
wait for
payment all shipped ? no
yes
join
end

91. Persistence
submit web sale
Transaction
sales review
fork
Execution
send bill ship items
wait for
payment no
3. Save changes all shipped ?
yes
join
end

92. How Does jBPM Do It?
• Deployment
• Automatic activities
• Wait states
• Process concurrency
• Async Continuations
• Timers

93. A Business Archive
• Plain jar formatted file
• .bar extension
• Contents
– Process files
– Process image
– Classes
– Forms
– Rules
–…

94. Deployment

95. Deployment With API
RepositoryService repositoryService =
processEngine.getRepositoryService();
String deploymentId =
repositoryService.createDeployment()
.addResourcesFromZipInputStream(
“order.bar”)
.deploy();

96. Deployment With Ant
<jar destfile="order.bar">
...
</jar>
<taskdef name="jbpm-deploy"
classname="org.jbpm.pvm.internal.ant.JbpmDeployTask"
classpathref="jbpm.libs.and.cfg" />
<jbpm-deploy file="order.bar" />

97. Deployment
Pr
• Deployment oc
ve ess
rsi
– HashMap on clas
ing s
!
– Representing zip file
– Named resources
• Key
– Entry name
– String DEPLOYMENT “1”
order.jpdl.xml 11111011…
• Value order.jpg 01011100…
– Blob com/pinokkio/Order.class 00100100…
order.rules.drl 01110100…
– byte[]

98. Deployers
RepositoryCache
• Scan deployments DEPLOYMENT 1
• Publish objects Order
RuleBase
• RepositoryCache Deployment
ClassLoader
DEPLOYMENT “1”
order.jpdl.xml 11111011…
Deployer
order.jpg 01011100… JpdlDeployer
com/pinokkio/Order.class 00100100…
OrderStartForm.ftl 01110100…

99. Process Instance
• All state related to 1 execution of a
process definition
• Potentially multiple pointers
keeping track of concurrent paths of
execution
• Variables
• Timers

100. Execution
• 1 path of execution
– 1 set of variables
– 1 set of timers

101. Structure
• 1 process instance is a tree of executions
– Concurrency
– Variable
scoping
– Competing
events in
1 scope

102. Full Automatic Example

103. <process name="Automatic">
<start>
<transition to="print dots" />
</start>
<custom name="print dots"
class="com.devoxx.jbpm.automatic.PrintDots">
<transition to="end" />
</custom>
<end name="end"/>
</process>

104. Starting ProcessInstance
Tomcat
Some
Web
Framework
public void userClickedButtonEjbSessionCmt() {
...
ProcessInstance processInstance =
executionService
.startProcessInstanceByKey("example")
...
}

105. Inside startProcessInstanceByKey
• New execution
• Executes “print dots”
• Execution ends (deleted)
• History remains
– Net result
– Part of user TX

106. Demo: Automatic Activity

107. Observation
• Automatic activities
run in thread of the web app
• Exceptions in process
roll back webapp transaction
• Error message to the user

108. Waiting
• Thread nor transaction should be
blocked for long periods
– Not scalable
• Waiting for
– A user completing a task
– An message from an external system
– Some other web request
– Anything for which
you don’t want to block the thread/transaction

109. Persisting State
• Current state
– Position in process graph
– Variables
– Timers
• Waiting means
– Persisting state
– Committing transaction

110. A Basic Wait State

111. <process name="WaitState">
<start>
<transition to="print dots" />
</start>
<custom name="print dots"
class="com.devoxx.jbpm.automatic.PrintDots">
<transition to="wait" />
</custom>
<state name="wait">
<transition to="end" />
</state>
<end name="end" />
</process>

112. A Wait State
• Execution will wait
• Until a signal is given
• Typically
– EventListener on start of
state activity
– External trigger continues process
• MDB, DB trigger, file scanner,...

113. Wait State Persistence
1. executionService
.s tartProces s Ins tanceB yK ey(...)
1. Creates new execution
2. Starts executing from start activity
3. Execution arrives in s tate
4. Execution state will be saved
5. Transaction will be committed
6. jBPM service method will return

114. Wait State Persistence
2. Time goes by
– Execution state remains in the DB

115. Wait State Persistence
3. executionService
.s ig nalExecutionB yId(...)
1. Loads the execution
2. Takes an outgoing transition
3. Continues execution till next wait state
4. Stores execution updates
5. Commit transaction
6. signalExecutionById returns

116. A Basic Wait State
transaction
// e.g. in the button click code
ProcessInstance processInstance = executionService
.startProcessInstanceByKey("WaitState");
assertFalse(processInstance.isEnded());
String pid = processInstance.getId();
transaction
// much later. e.g in another request or MDB
executionService.signalExecutionById(pid);

117. Testing
• Process == software
• Test == 1 scenario
• Provide external triggers
• Assert execution state
• Support for
– Integration testing
• Test process as is
– Unit testing
• Process updates allow stubs

118. Demo: Wait S tate Activity

119. Process Execution Timeline

120. Transactional
Control Flow
Auto State Auto Auto Auto State Auto
1. executionService.startProcessInstanceByKey(…)
Java Object:
execution
SQL: INSERT INTO JBPM4_EXECUTION …

121. Transactional
Control Flow
Auto State Auto Auto Auto State Auto
2. executionService.signalExecutionById(…)
Java Object:
execution
SQL: UPDATE JBPM4_EXECUTION …

122. Transactional
Control Flow
Auto State Auto Auto Auto State Auto
3. executionService.signalExecutionById(…)
Java Object:
execution
SQL: DELETE JBPM4_EXECUTION …

123. Concurrency
• Parallel execution of activities
• E.g. Order
– Shipping
– Billing
• E.g. Loan
– Sending loan money
– Archiving contracts

124. Execution Concurrency

125. EventListeners
• Attach POJO java code
to process execution event
• Hidden from the graph
– For technical aspects

126. <process name="WaitState">
<start>
<transition to="wait" />
</start>
<state name="wait">
<on event="start">
<event-listener event="com.devoxx.jbpm.DoHidden">
</on>
<transition to="end" />
</state>
<end name="end" />
</process>

127. public class DoHidden implements EventListener {
public void
notify(EventListenerExecution execution) {
...
}
}

128. Asynchronous Continuations
• Automatic activities in sequence
• One takes a long time
– E.g. pdf generation
• Don’t block the client thread
Job
• async=“true” Executor
pdf-g
Transaction 1 Transaction 2

129. Timers
• Actions
– Take Transition
– Event listeners
• Also handled by JobExecutor
• Business Calendar
– 15 minutes
– 4 bus ines s hours

130. Variables
• HashMap associated to execution
• Configurable type system
• Scoping

131. Other Important Features
• SEAM integration
• Spring integration
• Instance migration
• Automatic upgrades

132. Summary
• Fits ins ide your architecture
• S upports multiple proces s lang uag es
• Facilitates collaboration
• jB PM has real value for real developers
– Model process
– Play with transactions
– Write POJO code

133. Getting started
 I just know you're excited to give it a try
 You can do it tonight
 Just before you go to sleep
 Or even in your bed
 Last demo movie

134. Q&A
makes your work flow
http://jbpm.org
http://proces s developments .blog s pot.com
http://jorambarrez.be/blog