jBPM (Java Business Process Model) is an open-source

workflow engine A workflow engine is a software application that manages business processes. It is a key component in workflow technology and typically makes use of a database server. A workflow engine manages and monitors the state of activities in a workflow, su ...

written in

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

that can execute

business process A business process, business method, or business function is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks performed by people or equipment in which a specific sequence produces a service or product (that serves a particular business g ...

es described in

BPMN Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a graphical representation for specifying business processes in a business process model. Originally developed by the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI), BPMN has been maintained by the ...

2.0 (or its own process definition language jPDL in earlier versions). jBPM is a toolkit for building business applications to help automate business processes and decisions. It's sponsored by Red Hat, part of the JBoss community and closely related to the Drools and OptaPlanner projects in the KIE group. It is released under the

ASL American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is expressed by employ ...

(or

LGPL The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is a free-software license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The license allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software component released under the LGPL into their own ...

in earlier versions) by the JBoss company.

Overview

In essence, jBPM takes graphical process descriptions as input. A process is composed of tasks that are connected with sequence flows. Processes represent an execution flow. The graphical diagram (

flow chart A flowchart is a type of diagram that represents a workflow or process. A flowchart can also be defined as a diagrammatic representation of an algorithm, a step-by-step approach to solving a task. The flowchart shows the steps as boxes of va ...

) of a process is used as the basis for the communication between non-technical users and developers. Each execution of a process definition is called a "process instance". jBPM manages the process instances. Some activities are automatic like sending an e-mail or invoking a service. Some activities act as wait states, like for example human tasks or waiting for an external service to return results. jBPM will manage and persist the state of the process instances at all times. jBPM is based on the

Process Virtual Machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve special ...

(PVM) which is the JBoss community's foundation to support multiple process languages natively. The JBoss community currently focuses on using the BPMN 2.0 specification for defining business processes. jBPM also provides various tools, both for developers (

Eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event which occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ...

) and end users (web-based) to create, deploy, execute and manage business processes throughout their life cycle.

Capabilities

jBPM originates from BPM (Business Process Management) but it has evolved to enable users to pick their own path in business automation. It provides various capabilities that simplify and externalize business logic into reusable assets such as cases, processes, decision tables and more. * Business processes ( BPMN 2.0) * Case management ( BPMN 2.0 and

CMMN Case Management Model and Notation (CMMN) is a graphical representation for graphically expressing a Case, as well as an interchange format for exchanging Case models among different tools. In this context: "A Case is a proceeding that involves a ...

) * Decision management (DMN) * Business rules (DRL) * Business optimisation (Solver) jBPM can be used as a standalone service or embedded in custom service. It does not mandate any of the frameworks to be used, it can be successfully used in * Traditional JEE applications - war/ear deployments * SpringBoot or Thorntail (formerly known as WildFly Swarm) - uberjar deployments * Standalone java programs Additionally the jBPM offers

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

business process execution and management capabilities, including: * An embeddable, lightweight process engine in

, supporting native BPMN 2.0 execution * BPMN 2.0

process modeling The term process model is used in various contexts. For example, in business process modeling the enterprise process model is often referred to as the ''business process model''. Overview Process models are processes of the same nature that a ...

, both in Eclipse (developers) and

web-based A web application (or web app) is application software that is created with web technologies and runs via a web browser. Web applications emerged during the late 1990s and allowed for the server to dynamically build a response to the request, ...

(business users) * Process authoring, collaboration, monitoring and management through the jBPM console * An web-based authoring environment capable of managing the many assets that compose a business project, including BPMN models, Rules, Forms, Data Objects and more. * Human interaction using an independent WS-HT human task service * Strong and powerful integration with business rules and

event processing Event processing is a method of tracking and analyzing (processing) streams of information (data) about things that happen (events), and deriving a conclusion from them. Complex event processing (CEP) consists of a set of concepts and techniques de ...

* Pluggable persistence and transactions based on JPA / JTA. * History logging (for querying / monitoring / analysis).

History

jBPM version 5.0 was the result of a merge of the jBPM project with Drools Flow, a sub-project of the

Drools Drools is a business rule management system (BRMS) with a forward and backward chaining inference-based rules engine, more correctly known as a production rule system, using an enhanced implementation of the Rete algorithm. Drools support ...

system. Therefore, as of version 5, it also includes powerful business rules and event integration, and support for more advanced, flexible business processes.

References

External links

* Workflow applications Red Hat software Java enterprise platform Java (programming language) libraries Cross-platform software {{compu-prog-stub

Overview

Capabilities

History

See also

References

External links