BPEL script

Last updated

BPELscript [1] is a language to specify BPEL processes. [2] It provides a compact syntax inspired by scripting languages such as JavaScript and Ruby and a full coverage of all features provided by BPEL.

Contents

History

The Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) is an XML-based language to specify business processes with the intention to "act as the central controller of the business process". [3] It provides a standardized way for programming in the large in a service-oriented world (SOA). BPEL is a programming language [4] [ circular reference ] and does have a graphical representation. Mappings from graphical languages such as the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) to BPEL are available, but programmers familiar to syntax like Java, C, ... are disregarded. Therefore, especially for prototyping or teaching, it would be nice to have a programming language which omits the XML-overhead of BPEL but offers the same features as BPEL. One option is to force the programmers to learn a completely new syntax. The other option is to introduce a new syntax to BPEL.

Therefore, the "BPEL Simplified Syntax" called SimPEL [5] [6] was recommended by the Apache ODE Group, [7] referring to the a mix of both options. However, SimPEL is not equivalent to BPEL and its aims of specifying business processes. In order to come up with an easy scripting syntax, BPELscript is introduced, referring to the second option. BPELscript forks directly from SimPEL aiming on big closeness to BPEL. In contrast to SimPEL, BPELscript supports all of BPELs constructs including the correlation. [8]

Design goals

BPELscript provides: [9]

  1. a compact syntax inspired by scripting languages such as JavaScript and Ruby
  2. the full coverage of all features provided by BPEL
  3. a translation from WS-BPEL 2.0
  4. a translation to WS-BPEL 2.0

See also

Related Research Articles

Camunda provides a workflow and decision automation platform offering process orchestration capabilities to organizations of any size. Camunda Platform comes from years of research and development including open source initiatives.

The Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL), commonly known as BPEL, is an OASIS standard executable language for specifying actions within business processes with web services. Processes in BPEL export and import information by using web service interfaces exclusively.

In computer programming, dataflow programming is a programming paradigm that models a program as a directed graph of the data flowing between operations, thus implementing dataflow principles and architecture. Dataflow programming languages share some features of functional languages, and were generally developed in order to bring some functional concepts to a language more suitable for numeric processing. Some authors use the term datastream instead of dataflow to avoid confusion with dataflow computing or dataflow architecture, based on an indeterministic machine paradigm. Dataflow programming was pioneered by Jack Dennis and his graduate students at MIT in the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Business process modeling</span> Activity of representing processes of an enterprise

Business process modeling (BPM) in business process management and systems engineering is the activity of representing processes of an enterprise, so that the current business processes may be analyzed, improved, and automated. BPM is typically performed by business analysts, who provide expertise in the modeling discipline; by subject matter experts, who have specialized knowledge of the processes being modeled; or more commonly by a team comprising both. Alternatively, the process model can be derived directly from events' logs using process mining tools.

A business rules engine is a software system that executes one or more business rules in a runtime production environment. The rules might come from legal regulation, company policy, or other sources. A business rule system enables these company policies and other operational decisions to be defined, tested, executed and maintained separately from application code.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Business Process Model and Notation</span> Graphical representation for specifying business processes

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a graphical representation for specifying business processes in a business process model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XPDL</span>

The XML Process Definition Language (XPDL) is a format standardized by the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) to interchange business process definitions between different workflow products, i.e. between different modeling tools and management suites. XPDL defines an XML schema for specifying the declarative part of workflow / business process.

Business Process Modeling Language (BPML) is an XML-based language for business process modeling. It was maintained by the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI) until June 2005 when BPMI and Object Management Group announced the merger of their respective business process management activities to form the Business Modeling and Integration Domain Task Force. It is deprecated since 2008. BPML was useful to OMG in order to enrich UML with process notation.

OpenESB is a Java-based open-source enterprise service bus. It can be used as a platform for both enterprise application integration and service-oriented architecture. OpenESB allows developers to integrate legacy systems, external and internal partners and new development in business processes. It supports a multitude of integration technologies including standard JBI, XML with support for XML Schemas, WSDL, and BPEL with the aim of simplicity, efficiency, long-term durability, and low TCO.

The Business Process Definition Metamodel (BPDM) is a standard definition of concepts used to express business process models, adopted by the OMG. Metamodels define concepts, relationships, and semantics for exchange of user models between different modeling tools. The exchange format is defined by XSD and XMI, a specification for transformation of OMG metamodels to XML. Pursuant to the OMG's policies, the metamodel is the result of an open process involving submissions by member organizations, following a Request for Proposal (RFP) issued in 2003. BPDM was adopted in initial form in July 2007, and finalized in July 2008.

Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) was a consortium formed to define standards for the interoperability of workflow management systems. The coalition was disbanded in 2019 and no longer exists.

A workflow application is a software application that automates, to at least some degree, a process or processes. The processes are usually business-related but can be any process that requires a series of steps to be automated via software. Some steps of the process may require human intervention, such as approval or the development of custom text, but functions that can be automated should be handled by the application. Advanced applications allow users to introduce new components into the operation.

A workflow management system provides an infrastructure for the set-up, performance, and monitoring of a defined sequence of tasks arranged as a workflow application.

jBPM is an open-source workflow engine written in Java that can execute business processes described in BPMN 2.0. 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 by the JBoss company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apache ODE</span>

Apache ODE is a software coded in Java as a workflow engine to manage business processes which have been expressed in the Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) via a website. It was made by the Apache Software Foundation and released in a stable format on March 23, 2018. The software principally communicates with one or more Web services, sending and receiving messages, manipulating data and handling exceptions (errors) as defined by any given process. The engine is capable of running both long and short living processes to coordinate all the services that make up a service or application (orchestration).

Service Component Architecture (SCA) is a software technology designed to provide a model for applications that follow service-oriented architecture principles. The technology, created by major software vendors, including IBM, Oracle Corporation and TIBCO Software, encompasses a wide range of technologies and as such is specified in independent specifications to maintain programming language and application environment neutrality. Many times it uses an enterprise service bus (ESB).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spagic</span>

Spagic is a Universal Middleware, characterized by an innovative approach to the governance and realization of SOA solutions, which are highly modular and configurable around an OSGi kernel.

Service choreography in business computing is a form of service composition in which the interaction protocol between several partner services is defined from a global perspective. The idea underlying the notion of service choreography can be summarised as follows:

"Dancers dance following a global scenario without a single point of control"

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jolie (programming language)</span>

Jolie is an open-source programming language for developing distributed applications based on microservices. In the programming paradigm proposed with Jolie, each program is a service that can communicate with other programs by sending and receiving messages over a network. Jolie supports an abstraction layer that allows services to communicate using different mediums, ranging from TCP/IP sockets to local in-memory communications between processes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enterprise Architect (software)</span> Visual modeling and design tool

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is a visual modeling and design tool based on the OMG UML. The platform supports: the design and construction of software systems; modeling business processes; and modeling industry based domains. It is used by businesses and organizations to not only model the architecture of their systems, but to process the implementation of these models across the full application development life-cycle.

References

  1. Bischof, Marc; Kopp, Oliver; van Lessen, Tammo; Leymann, Frank: BPELscript: A Simplified Script Syntax for WS-BPEL 2.0. In: 2009 35th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA 2009)
  2. OASIS Standard WS-BPEL 2.0,
  3. "BPEL, business process management, SOA and you". The Register .
  4. Business Process Execution Language
  5. "SimPEL". Archived from the original on 2009-07-18.
  6. "SimBPEL". Archived from the original on 2008-05-29.
  7. "Apache ODE (Orchestration Director Engine)".
  8. Bischof, Marc, Translating WS-BPEL 2.0 to BPELscript and Vice Versa.-(PDF) University of Stuttgart, Faculty of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Information Technology, Student Thesis No. 2175 (2008), 109 pages, english.
  9. "www.BPELscript.org". Archived from the original on 2009-04-08. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
BPELscript Website
Standards