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Scenario: Develop a straight through process

In this scenario, a BPEL process exists and has been deployed. A developer uses IBM Process Designer to define a process requiring manual steps and a screen flow. In the Procurement sample, the human task is part of an exception handling process.

An automated process, created using IBM Integration Designer, already exists. We use IBM Process Designer to create a task for human intervention to handle exceptions.

The work described here is set up to be done using two different authoring environments. The developers both contribute their work to a common repository.

The Process Center repository contains all the BPM assets. The high level assets are process applications, toolkits, tracks, and snapshots. Both designers contribute to the same process applications and toolkits. Process Designer contributes business processes and data types. Integration Designer contributes modules, libraries, and BPEL business logic.

The Process Center Console provides a central user interface for managing multiple process development efforts across the entire process lifecycle. You can create process applications and toolkits and grant other users access to those process applications and toolkits. In the Process Designer, you can create process models, services, and other assets within process applications.

This set of tasks corresponds in a general way to the procurement sample for BPM Advanced.

• Process applications are top-level containers of artifacts.

• A toolkit provides a way to share a collection of assets across applications.

• Tracks are optional subdivisions in a process application based on team tasks or process application versions. When enabled, tracks allow parallel development to occur. Administrators determine if tracks are necessary for each process application.

• A snapshot captures the state of the items within a process application at a specific point in time. Any author with write access to a process application can create a snapshot. Administrators can deploy a snapshot to a runtime server.

• A module is a software artifact that is used for developing, organizing resources, implementing services, and deploying to the runtime environment.

Create a process application for a BPEL process in IBM Integration Designer

To make the BPEL process available for adaptation in Process Designer the process needs to be...

1. Associated with a process application
2. Published in the Process Center

Procedure

1. Plan the project.

   Review the relationship between the authoring environments and the Process Center.

2. In the Integration Designer, open the Process Center perspective and connect to the server.

3. In the Process Center perspective, create a new process application.

   Name the process application and open it in your workspace.

4. Associate the BPEL process (module and dependent libraries) with the process application.
   

5. Refactor and move business objects to a library that is associated with the process application.

   Do not refactor the interfaces; interfaces are not used in the Process Center.

6. Using the Business Process Choreographer Explorer, test the BPEL process in isolation.
   1. Update the process application in the Process Center repository.
      
   2. Launch Business Process Choreographer Explorer.
      
   3. Start the process instance.
      
   4. Monitor the progress of the process instance.
      

Create a business process definition in IBM Process Designer

To model a process in Process Designer, first create a business process definition (BPD).

A business process definition is a reusable model of a process, defining what is common to all runtime instances of that process model.

Procedure

1. Start Process Designer and log in to Process Center.

2. Select the process application to work with, and open it in Process Designer.

3. Create a new business process definition.

4. Declare variables.

   In IBM BPM, variables capture the business data that is passed from step to step in a process.

5. Add lanes for user groups and systems.

6. Implementing activities in a business process definition.

   Activities represent the steps in your process. The procurement sample uses activities to specify human tasks.

7. Add coaches.

   Human tasks usually involve coaches. Coaches are the web-based interfaces where process participants do the work that is required to complete each task.

8. Test the business process definition using the Inspector.
   

Update the BPEL process to use the business process definition

The business process definition (BPD) created in Process Designer becomes available as an SCA service. You can drop it into the assembly diagram in Integration Designer as an import. Or you can drop it into the Integration Designer BPEL process as an invoke activity.

Procedure

1. Open the Integration Designer Business Integration perspective.

2. Retrieve the Process Designer service by refreshing the process application from the Process Center. The business process definition and interfaces created in Process Designer are now available in the module and library.

3. Create an SCA import for the business process definition.
   

4. In the assembly editor, wire the import to the BPEL process.

Test and deploy the process application

Procedure

1. In the Process Center perspective in Integration Designer, create a new snapshot of the process. Snapshots record the state of artifacts within a process application or track at a specific point in time.

2. Activate the process application snapshot to deploy it to the Process Server.

See also: Authoring scenarios