A4BP and BpmFlow

Serge,

I just created another thread to talk about both projects (we can discuss
all here as Norbert request):
A4BP
https://github.com/A4BP
BpmFlow
https://github.com/brunobuzzi/BpmFlow

Regards,
Bruno



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Can you elaborate a bit. There is plenty of stuff to find in the links below. I could not even find the NewWave

Thanks,

Norbert

Haha, I confused myself. Forget the last mail

Norbert

Hi,

I’m also very interested in BP/Workflow apps.

First to show my students what is a BPM system… but also to manage my personal routines (and more).

I find NewWave very nice. I have to dig into BPMFlow and A4BP as I don’t know them (nice document section btw). So thanks for bringing that up.

I also thing we need to do it « a la smalltalk » and consider workflow split over multiples images. Does A4BP or BPM flow manage that ?

I add the two other links to others BP/Workflow pharo implementations (NewWave and Workflow*):

** the one of Sebastijan
https://github.com/skaplar/NewWave (include TaskIt processes which is cool)
=> I like it a lot. That is their first implementation and they have plans so it will be actively improved (sebatijarn may say more).
** the one of NetStyle
https://github.com/Netstyle/Workflow (but quite dependent on Seaside/Magritte UI - not TaskIt).
https://github.com/cdrick65/Workflow (some modifications we didi so that it loads).


Cheers,

Cédrik

* I’m not the developer of them at all. Just following, testing.

I cannot run the A4BP (Pharo 4 app) on osx.

Hi,

yes, I’m interested, too, in how we can get a workflow engine and a simple reification of a workflow model that can be used in a lot of scenarios.

That is something I’m working on. In the IoT space this will become very important. We will have devices attached to a network that need to work together in a workflow scenario to solve a problem. We have the prerequisites for this, bringing devices into a network and manage them centrally. In the mid-term I want to use a workflow engine that can be adjusted to these needs.

Norbert

> I also thing we need to do it « a la smalltalk » and consider workflow split over multiples images. Does A4BP or BPM flow manage that ?

What exactly do you want to split over multiple images ? It can be only
applied to parallel tasks.

1) The execution of the workflow ? Task1 executed by VM1, Task2 executed
by VM2 and so on ...

2) Task Assignment for different users ?  Suppose there are 4 parallel
task to be done in a workflow these task are split to different VMs.

3) Add here any other options to split over multiple VMs.

BpmFlow does not support 1) for ScriptTasks, i think for this you will
need a master VM to orchestrate the execution.

Definitely 2) is supported, on the same BPM Process different user tasks
can be executed by different VMs (remember Bpm Flow run on GemStone, it
should be ported to Pharo first). I talking about a Frontoffice
application here (different from case 1) where at the same time
different users can take an available task (of the same BPM Process) to
finish and eventually these tasks can be served by a different VMs.

Actually 1) can be implemented in BpmFlow without a master VM. Let
suppose that a one point N Script Tasks (long and complex scripts) are
generated in the same BPM Process. Those Script Tasks can be put on a
RcCollection (or a table if you use a RDB) and multiple VMs can access
that collection and execute tasks. I just added this an issue:
https://github.com/brunobuzzi/BpmFlow/issues/845

Bpm Flow does something like this for Timer Events (events collection
can be accessed by multiple VMs):

https://bpmflow.gitbook.io/project/functional-and-technical-information/timers/task-timers

Regards,

Bruno

Norbert,

> yes, I’m interested, too, in how we can get a workflow engine and a simple reification of a workflow model that can be used in a lot of scenarios.
Can list some scenarios to tell you if BpmFlow can do it ?

BpmFlow can be integrated to regular Business Applications to add
workflow capabilities to regular Applications. I'm working on one of
this type of application right now (the documentation is being developed
now so you will find some holes on it- after i finish the application i
will finish the documentation).

Check:
https://bpmflow.gitbook.io/project/engineering-models/architecture-for-atop-applications

> That is something I’m working on. In the IoT space this will become very important. We will have devices attached to a network that need to work together in a workflow scenario to solve a problem. We have the prerequisites for this, bringing devices into a network and manage them centrally. In the mid-term I want to use a workflow engine that can be adjusted to these needs.

In this case i think that devices will send information using services
and the Workflow (on the server) will centralize that operation. I do
not see any problem here but the definition of the Workflow itself. For
example opening a Bank account from the mobile. This workflow will have
to connect to different third parties applications through services.

regards

bruno

Serge,

I just read the PDF  but i will need time to learn about other Workflow
projects. But definitely in the long term we can collaborate but now i do
not see any concrete step (because my lack of knowledge of the other
projects).

Maybe the more concrete step to do now is to ask how each project solved
different BPM problems. So each project can benefit from the others
experience. Not sure if a mail list is the best tool or we should create a
Git wiki or something like that. It seems there at least 4 Smalltalk project
working with workflows - good news !

regards
bruno



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