How Are Services, Data And Processes Tied Up in an SOA?

Posted on 2008-06-25 09:07:00.0 by Tom Baeyens [ View original post ]

After reading InfoQ's report on Fred Cummins' essay about the data in an SOA, I thought the discussion could get a lot more concrete if we added an overview picture in the mix. Here's my take on how applications, services, data and processes are related. Please ignore my absent taste for colour and drawing skills :-) Applications and functionality is typically developed in application silos.

---

jBPM jPDL 3.2.3 Released

Posted on 2008-06-18 12:30:00.0 by Koen Aers [ View original post ]

It has taken us a while but we finally released the 3.2.3 release of jBPM jPDL. As you might expect with a service release, most of the changes and updates concern bug fixes and usability enhancements.

You can find the list of all the changes in the release notes, but these are a few highlights:

1. Better enterprise support: A number of reported issues regarding this have been fixed. Also there is a new chapter in the documentation describing how to use the Java EE Server Facilities that jBPM jPDL offers.
   
2. Web Service front end: The codebase now includes a starting point for those who wish to expose services of the jBPM jPDL engine as a web service. It offers limited functionality such as starting a process and continuing its execution, but interested parties can take it from there and further build on top of it. You'll find the build instructions in the jpdl/ws subfolder of the distribution and the deployment instructions in the documentation.
3. Inclusion of GPD 3.1.3.SP2: The biggest improvement of the SP2 over the earlier released 3.1.3 release is that the code completion in the source page is working again.
   

You can download the new release from our download pages. Please use the forum to ask any questions and our JIRA to post any issues.

Regards,
Koen

---

jBPM @ SOA World 2008 East

Posted on 2008-06-18 11:18:00.0 by Koen Aers [ View original post ]

I will present a talk on the use of jBPM as a lightweight SOA solution at the upcoming SOA World conference in New York City. If you are a delegate at the conference you are of course most welcome to attend my presentation. But if you happen to just live in the neighborhood and want to have a beer with me in the evening and/or talk about our beloved workflow engine, feel free to drop me an email.

Regards,
Koen

---

Task Assignment And Pools Harder Then You Think

Posted on 2008-06-12 02:46:00.0 by Tom Baeyens [ View original post ]

Workflows and business processes are often perceived as simple in the sense that non technical people can draw diagrams that can be executed. John Reynolds explain a typical example of task assignment in Getting tasks to the right participants - Part 1: “When a Loan Application comes in, make the application available to all of our Credit Officers who have sufficient Lending Authority to process

---

Brewing The jBPM Community

Posted on 2008-06-09 04:14:00.0 by Tom Baeyens [ View original post ]

Our managers were a bit concerned at first. "Are you sure it's a good idea to have an IT event in a beer factory?". Of course it is... Last Friday, we had the jBPM Community Day. A rememberable day it turned out to be. We assembled the full core of the jBPM contributors from JBoss and other companies at the Guinness storehouse in Dublin. More then 40 people showed up, of which half of them

---

High-Quality Free BPM Book

Posted on 2008-05-20 05:32:00.0 by Tom Baeyens [ View original post ]

Thanks to Sandy Kemsley, I found Michael Zur Muehlen has published his very nice e-book online. No registration required so definitely have a look at it. Even though the book seems to be a couple of years old, it includes a thoughtful and still very relevant description of BPM as a discipline and the relation to BPM software technology.

---

Dublin, Here We Come !

Posted on 2008-05-16 06:32:00.0 by Tom Baeyens [ View original post ]

The jBPM Community Day on June 6th is starting to become a real international event with people coming from Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy and Ireland of course. The program is updated and gives a good idea of what's going to happen. Also a list of hotels and activities is added (thanks, Paul!) Don't miss it ! Be sure to registration quickly. It is as easy as sending an

---

BPM != BPEL

Posted on 2008-05-07 06:40:00.0 by Tom Baeyens [ View original post ]

It seems to be a very stubbern misunderstanding that I have tried to straighten out many times before. But for those that didn't get it yet, even John Evdemon, co-chair of the BPEL technical committee said already in 2007 that BPM != BPEL and now in the recent BPMN discussion he adds: If you can do something it doesn't mean that you should... HTH

---

jBPM jPDL GPD 3.1.3 Released

Posted on 2008-05-06 20:36:00.0 by Koen Aers [ View original post ]

I just did this release. It contains only a few fixes and one new feature. JBoss ESB users will nevertheless be happy to see that the ESB service node now uses the correct syntax. Also the support for the asynchronous ESB Notifier will probably please them.

Regards,
Koen

---

Buzzwords In Pictures

Posted on 2008-05-05 09:53:00.0 by Tom Baeyens [ View original post ]

Sometimes you can find good explanations of tech buzzwords in real life. So far, I found out what Ajax, SOA and backup really means. If your HTML-over-HTTP-house is on fire, the Ajax hose comes to the rescue. If your integration stinks like a sewage system, just put a SOA cover on it. And a backup is even more vital then I ever imagined. I'll translate for the non-dutch speaking: "Even

---