How to create a simple real life jBPM Process

Question

How can i use jBPM to create a simple "Leave application" process ??

I have installed jBPM5.4 in my machine .. and i have gone through jbpm-console and drools-guvnor process designer..

I need three different users named employee,supervisor and HR manager..

I have to create my own web application for this, or the one installed (jBPM5.4) is enough for this ?? (ie, jBPM is a ready-made application or we are using it as a library for creating application)??

How three different users can log in to the system and check their own tasks ??

How can i deploy this application in jboss AS ??

Answer 1

jBPM provides tools to create processes, manage processes (start them, look at their state), manage tasks, etc. If those tools are sufficient for what your user needs, then you can expose these tools to your users.

It is not uncommon though for users to define their own UI, which will then interact with the jBPM engine, for example when the user clicks a button, it will for example kick of a process instance through the REST API.

Answer 2

I think you might be confused as to what a process engine is. Try to read up on it but in general it only takes care of the process it self. It does not have "workspace" (different products call it different ways), i.e. an application that shows the user what tasks it has or shows the task it self. You have to write that your self. Actually the jBPM Developer Guide has a whole section just for this. There are also examples of such applications on the web. I suggest going to documentation and following the sample demo. If you download the full JBPM version from their site you will get jBPM with JBoss AS and a demo of such "workspace" application. So for each question:

1. jBPM is an application that you either connect to an existing application or build around it, but just on it self its not that useful.
2. As I said, you need to build this yourself using jBPM API. There are examples of how to do this.
3. Check the documentation. Seriously.

Answer 3

You can modify the evaluation sample given with the installer file. You can modify it to your needs.

I need three different users named employee,supervisor and HR manager..
How three different users can log in to the system and check their own tasks ??

This function is provided by jbpm-console by default. You can either use that or can create your own.

I have to create my own web application for this, or the one installed 

If you really want to create your own web application, you can create a web project and integrate it with jBoss AS or tomcat. A sample on how to integrate your web app with bpmn in to tomcat can be found here.

How can i deploy this application in jboss AS ??

You need not deploy it in to jBoss AS. You can use any server, the above example uses tomcat.