How to Build a BPM Project What Happens When You Build a BPM Project

24-6 Modeling and Implementation Guide for Oracle Business Process Management At run time, Guided Business Processes manifest as BPMN process instances orchestrating ADF task flows within Milestones. The run-time engine for BPMN guided business processes is the BPMN Service Engine. The BPMN engine delegates all human task operations to Human Workflow services. You can view the process instances organized into an Activity Guide using a custom application developed with Oracle ADF UI, Oracle WebCenter UI or Guided Business Process access APIs. The process instances that you view in an Guided Business Process client also appear in the Worklist application, but they are not organized into milestones. As shown in Figure 24–4 , the Guided Business Process run-time architecture is composed of the client, business logic and data tiers. Figure 24–4 Guided Business Process Run-Time Architecture Working with Guided Business Processes 24-7 Run time support includes the Guided Business Process Query, Guided Business Process Metadata and Guided Business Process Instance Management services. The run time components interface with Oracle Business Process Management and the Human Workflow Service. You can use any of the following as a basis for a Guided Business Process client application: ■ Oracle Worklist application ■ Oracle ADF ■ Oracle WebCenter Framework ■ Guided Business Process Run-Time Services.

24.1.3.1 Client Tier

The Guided Business Process run time front end, or client application, enables end users to follow the task flow defined at design time in the Activity Guide. Using the client application, end users can: ■ Expand a milestone and drill down to the tasks it includes ■ Complete the tasks defined in the Milestones ■ View the status and percent completion of the business process as the Guided Business Process runs. You can manage and access a Guided Business Process using the following: ■ Customized Client Application : You can create customized client applications to display the Guided Business Process to end users using Oracle ADF UI, Oracle WebCenter UI or Guided Business Process APIs. ■ Worklist Application : An out-of-the-box interface for displaying the tasks in a Guided Business Process, to users completing the guided tasks. ■ Oracle Enterprise Manager Application Server Control console : A platform for administering and monitoring Guided Business Process instances. The console is also useful for testing Guided Business Processes following development. Features of the Run-Time User Interface Following are some features of the run-time user interface: ■ Auto Focus : Once a Guided Business Process is deployed, you can generate a new Guided Business Process instance with milestone nodes and task nodes. When you access the Guided Business Process instance from the user interface, auto focus selects the first uncompleted task in the process. On completion of a task, auto focus selects the next uncompleted task in the process. Auto focus also supports optional tasks, when you skip an optional task it selects the next uncompleted task in the process. ■ Future Milestones and Tasks : When accessing a Guided Business Process, the Milestones display in the Activity Guide tree. The Activity Guide also displays the milestones and tasks to be completed in the future. This provides users with a holistic view of the tasks and milestones to be completed. If the Guided Business Process is to be executed sequentially, future tasks and milestones are grayed out. Future tasks and milestones may be viewed, but not executed. ■ Branching : Branching involves placing a switch in the business process flow which enables splitting the process into two or more branches. 24-8 Modeling and Implementation Guide for Oracle Business Process Management Conditions are set to determine which branch executes. If the flow branching is determined by a condition, then the milestone branching node displays as an ellipsis ... in the Activity Guide tree. The milestones to be completed for the selected branch display only when the switch executes at real time. ■ Parallel Milestones : Parallel milestones are milestones that can be completed at any time, in any order without following a specific sequence, if previous milestones have completed. ■ Disabling Completed Tasks : When the end user completes a task, the link to the task is grayed out to avoid distracting the user with links that are no longer active. ■ Progress Indicator : The progress indicator provides feedback to the end user about their progress completing the entire Guided Business Process. The progress is shown using a bar graphic with the completion percentage of the Guided Business Process. ■ Completed Tasks : Shows the completed number of tasks out of a total number of tasks. ■ Filtering : Enables to filter the tasks within a milestone based on their functional state. The possible functional states to use when filtering tasks are: All, In Progress, Completed, Required, Optional. ■ Explicit Refresh : Activity Guides automatically refresh task flows when you complete a task using Activity Guides. If you complete the task from another application such as Oracle BPM WorkSpace or a custom UI client, you must explicitly refresh the Activity Guide. Explicit refresh is not available by default. To enable explicit refresh you must enable the ShowRefreshButton property. For more information on how to configure the ShowRefreshButton property, see Section 24.7, Configuring Activity Guide Properties .

24.1.3.2 Business Logic Tier

The business logic tier includes the following components: ■ Guided Business Process Metadata Service ■ Guided Business Process Query Service ■ Guided Business Process Instance Management ■ Guided Business Process Instance Schema ■ Human Workflow Service Guided Business Process Metadata Service The SOA composite associated with an Guided Business Process drives it at run time. As such, no run-time environment data is stored in the Guided Business Process metadata. The Guided Business Process Metadata Service locates and retrieves the Guided Business Process definition at run time from the Metadata Service MDS. Guided Business Process Query Service The Guided Business Process query service retrieves the Guided Business Process instance information based on specified search criteria. The query service uses the existing workflow service to query Guided Business Process data. The Guided Business Process query service is registered to the workflow service locator as an additional workflow service.