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BPEL process types
BPEL processes can be either long-running or microflows.
Long-running processes
A long-running BPEL process is interruptible, and each step of the process can run in its own physical transaction. Long-running BPEL processes can wait for external stimuli. Examples of external stimuli are events that are sent by another business process in a business-to-business interaction, responses to asynchronous invocations, or the completion of a human task.
A long-running process has the following characteristics:
- Runs in multiple transactions.
- Interacts with services synchronously and asynchronously.
- Its state is stored in the runtime database, which makes the process forward-recoverable.
Microflows
A microflow runs in one physical thread from start to finish without interruption. Microflows are sometimes referred to as non-interruptible BPEL processes. Microflows can have different transactional capabilities. A microflow participates in the unit of work that can be either a global transaction or an activity session.
A microflow has the following characteristics:
- Runs in one transaction or activity session.
- Normally runs for a short time.
- Its state is transient, and it is therefore not stored in the runtime database.
- It typically invokes services synchronously.
- It can have only non-interruptible child processes.
- It cannot contain human tasks, wait activities, non-initiating receive activities, or pick activities.
Related concepts:
Factors affecting BPEL process interactions
Transactional behavior of BPEL processes