| Modeling and Implementation Guide for Oracle Business Process Management |
This chapter describes how to use the business catalog to store and organize the components needed to implement the processes in your BPM Project.
This chapter includes the following sections:
The business catalog is a repository that stores the components you use to implement the some of the activities in BPMN processes.
Table 12-1 shows which flow objects use each of the components in the business catalog for their implementation.
Table 12-1
| Component | Flow Objects |
|---|---|
|
Error |
|
|
Business Exception |
|
|
Event |
|
|
Human Task |
User Task |
|
Business Rule |
Business Rule Task |
|
Service Adapter |
|
|
Mediator |
|
|
BPEL Process |
|
|
Business Object |
|
The business catalog stores the following types of components:
Errors
Events
Human Tasks
Business Rules
SOA Adapters
Auto-generated Types
BPEL Processes and Mediators
Business Objects
Business Exceptions
Depending on the type of component the business catalog retrieves the information about the component in one of the following ways:
Reads the information from an XML file it stored when you created the component.
Generates the component structure dynamically based on an XML or a component included in the SOA composite. These are referred to as synthetized components.
The business catalog stores the information of the following components in an XML file:
Business objects
Exceptions
Modules
Customized services and references
The business catalog does not store any type of file for synthetized components. It generates the structure of synthetized components dynamically based on the XML or SOA composite they represent. :
You cannot modify synthetized components or move them to another module. Because these components are dynamically generated, they automatically reflect any change you make to the XML schema or SOA component they are based on.
The following components are synthetized:
Auto-generated types
Business Rules
Human Tasks
BPEL Processes
Mediators
The way you add a component to the business catalog varies according to the type of component.
Errors: When you add a service or a reference to your BPMN Project if the operations they contain can generate an errors, then these errors appear in the Errors predefined module.
Events: When you add events to the SOA Composite, they appear in the Events predefined module. See .Section 19.7, "Introduction to Communicating Between Processes Using Signal Events", for more information on how to use events in a BPM project.
Human Tasks: The existing Human Tasks included in the SOA Composite and the new ones you add, automatically appear as components in the HumanTask predefined module. This component is generated from the Human Task you added. See Chapter 14, "Using Human Tasks" for more information.
Business Rules: The existing Business Rules included in the SOA Composite and the new ones you add, automatically appear as components in the BusinessRules predefined module. This component is generated from the Business Rule you added. See Chapter 16, "Using Business Rules" for more information.
Service Adapters: The existing adapters in the SOA Composite, and the new ones you add, appear in the Services and References predefined modules. See Chapter 15, "Working with Services and References" for more information.
BPEL Processes and Mediators: The BPEL Processes and Mediators included in the SOA Composite and the new ones you add, automatically appear as components in the Services and References predefined modules. See Section 15.3, "Introduction to Oracle Mediators in Oracle BPM" and Section 15.4, "Introduction to BPEL Processes in Oracle BPM" for more information.
Auto-generated Types: When you add a service or a reference that requires one or more arguments, if the data type of those arguments does not exist in the Types predfined module then Studio automatically adds them. See Section 15.1, "Introduction to Services and References" for more information.
Business Objects: There are different ways of adding Business Objects to the business catalog. See Chapter 13, "Modeling Business Objects" for more information.
You can organize the Business Objects in the business catalog into different groups using modules. Generally you group all the related components into a module.
In the Sales Quote example you can create a module named Quotes to store all the components used to manage the information about the quotes used in the process.
You can nest modules. Nesting modules enables you to create a hierarchical structure that reflects the organization of your components.
In the Sales Quote example you might want to group all the modules that handle the information in the project into a single module. To do this you can create a module named Data that contains modules like Quotes and Contracts.
Organizing components using modules has the following benefits:
It improves the readability of your project. Ideally the name of the module provides information about the components it contains.
It makes it easier to locate a specific component.
If needed, you can use the same name to identify different components that belong to different modules.
You cannot add Business Objects in the root level of the business catalog. You must always create a module where you can store your Business Objects.
It is a good practice to name the modules using a descriptive identifier. This makes it easier to find a component and makes your project easier to understand for other developers.
The business catalog contains the following predefined modules:
Errors: Stores the errors that the operations in the services and references in your project define.
Events: Stores the Events that you add to the SOA Composite.
HumanTasks: Stores the Human Tasks that you add to your project.
References: Stores the interfaces you can use to define the interface of your BPMN process.
BusinessRules: Stores the Business Rules that you add to your project.
Services: Stores the components that you can use to implement the flow object in your BPMN process.
Types: Stores the types that Studio generates when you add a service or a reference that require arguments of types that do not exist in the business catalog.
These modules are a permanent part of the business catalog and you cannot remove or rename them. Studio does not allow you to create new top level modules with these names.
You cannot create new modules within these predefined modules. Because the components stored in them are synthetized you cannot rename them or move them to other modules.
The business catalog enables you to create new modules to store and organize the Business Objects in your project. You can add a module at the root level of the business catalog or within another module.
To add a new module:
In the Project Navigator window, right-click the business catalog node or on a user-defined existing module.
Select New and then select Module.
Enter a name to identify the module.
Click OK.
You can delete the custom modules in the business catalog. You cannot delete the predefined modules. When you delete a module, you also delete all the components within the module.
To delete a module:
In the Project Navigator window, right-click the module you want to remove.
Select Delete.
A confirmation message appears.
Click OK.
When you delete a module, the module and the components within the module are removed from the business catalog.
If there are any flow objects or components in your project that use any of the deleted components, then this causes errors when you build your BPM project.