uCosminexus Service Platform, Basic Development Guide

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5.2.1 Adding New Business Processes

The two methods to add a new business process with the Business Process Addition Wizard are as follows:

The methods are explained below:

Organization of this subsection
(1) Adding a new undefined business process
(2) Adding a new business process by importing a BPEL file
(3) Setting up status persistence

(1) Adding a new undefined business process

The method to add a new business process in which nothing is defined is as follows:

  1. In the service definition list in the tree view, choose and right-click Add Business Process.
    The dialog box for adding a business process opens.
  2. Enter a business process name and choose whether to make its status persistent (whether to save the execution status of the business process in a database).
    Make sure that the business process name (service name of the business process) does not exceed 64 bytes.
  3. Click Finish.
    The required files are created and saved in a repository.
    When the business process is saved normally, the Business Process Definition screen opens.

(2) Adding a new business process by importing a BPEL file

The following points explain how to create a BPEL file in advance with the high level design tool, import a BPEL file, and then add a new business process:

(a) Creating a BPEL file

Create a BPEL file conforming to BPEL1.1 with the high level design tool. For details about how to create a BPEL file, see the documents for the high level design tool to be used.

For the relationship between the contents of elements and attributes defined in the BPEL file, and the contents of business process definition, see Appendix E. Support Range of BPEL Used by Linking with an High Level Design Tool.

(b) Adding a new business process

To import a BPEL file and add a new business process:

  1. In the service definition list in the tree view, choose and right-click Add Business Process.
    The dialog box for adding a business process opens.
  2. Enter a business process name and choose whether to make its status persistent (whether to save the execution status of the business process in a database).
    Make sure that the business process name (service name of the business process) does not exceed 64 bytes.
  3. Choose the Import checkbox of the BPEL file.
  4. Specify the BPEL file to be imported in File name.
    You can click ... to choose the BPEL file to be imported.
  5. Choose the activity deployment method.
  6. Click Finish.
    The definition of the BPEL file is converted into a business process definition. After the end of the conversion, if the required file is created, the file is stored in the repository.
    When the business process is saved normally, the Business Process Definition screen opens. In the canvas of the displayed Business Process Definition screen, the activity is deployed with the method chosen in step 5.
    Note
    Note the following points when importing the BPEL file:

    Unconverted BPEL definition
    The BPEL definition that is not supported in the development environment of the Cosminexus Service Platform is either ignored or converted into an empty activity.
    For the relationship between the contents of elements and attributes defined in the BPEL file, and the contents of business process definition, see Appendix E. Support Range of BPEL Used by Linking with an High Level Design Tool.

    When a message type variable is defined in the BPEL file
    If the message name is defined with the high level design tool and a message type variable is defined in the BPEL file, the variable type is converted into string type (string) in the business process that is created by importing the BPEL file.
    In this case, import the file, and then change the variable type to message type (messageType). For details on defining the variables, see 5.5.1(6) Variable definition methods.

    When the invoke service activity is defined
    When importing a BPEL file to create a business process, the invoke element in the BPEL file is converted into an invoke service activity. The local name of the portType attribute in the invoke element is converted into an invoke service name and the operation attribute is converted into an operation name.
    However, if the service or operation is not relevant to the repository, the service name and operation name are not converted.
    If the service name and operation name are not converted, after importing the BPEL file, you need to create the service adapter and business process to be invoked, and then allocate the service name and operation name.

    When more than one activity with a long name is defined in the BPEL file
    When a horizontal-direction arrangement is specified and more than one activity with a long name is defined, activities might overlap at the tip of the canvas after import. In such cases, you re-arrange activities.

(3) Setting up status persistence

Business processes have two types such as a business process for which execution status and execution history has persistence to the database and a business process for which execution status and execution history does not have persistence to the database. Persistence implies recording the execution status and execution history of a business process to the database.

As a business process that has persistence has record of execution status and execution history of a process and hence you can understand the progress of process execution and re-execute the process in case of failure Whereas in case of business process that does not have persistence , you cannot acquire record of execution status and execution history of a process and hence set this business process when there is a necessity of realizing a high performance.

There are limitations such as some operations that you can perform in business process having persistence, cannot be performed in the business process that does not have persistence. You can define a business process that does not have persistence, when the following conditions are fulfilled:

  1. Invoke service activity for invoking a service is not included for an asynchronous service adapter.
  2. Standby activity is not included.
  3. Multiple Receive activities are not included.
  4. Re-execution of a process instance is not used (in case of failure, re-execute Invoke service request (invoking a business process) from the service requester.

Note
You cannot use list specification method of while activity, in case of a business process that has persistence.