Modeling and Implementation Guide for Oracle Business Process Management
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3 Introduction to Oracle BPM Studio

This chapter provides a general introduction to Oracle BPM Studio and describes how it is used within the Oracle BPM Suite.

This chapter includes the following sections:

3.1 Overview of Oracle BPM Studio

Oracle BPM Studio is a component of the Oracle BPM Suite that enables process developers to create process-based applications. It also enables process analysts and developers to model business processes.

Oracle BPM Studio is part of the Oracle JDeveloper IDE. and shares many of the JDeveloper user interface elements used by the Oracle SOA Suite.

3.1.1 Oracle BPM Studio Use Cases

There are three typical use cases for Oracle BPM Studio:

See Section 3.2 for information on how these use cases fit into the general workflow of the application development life cycle.

3.1.2 Introduction to JDeveloper Roles

The JDeveloper environment can be tailored based on the role selected by the user. The modified environment removes unneeded items from JDeveloper, including menus, preferences, New Gallery, and even individual fields on dialogs. The JDeveloper role you select determines which technologies and options are available to you as you work in JDeveloper.Oracle BPM includes the Analyst Role which only includes process design elements that are useful to business analysts.Process developers who need access to the complete funcionality of the Oracle BPM and SOA Suites should use the default role.

3.2 Overview of the Application Development Life Cycle

This section describes the application development life cycle from the perspective of a process developer using Oracle BPM Studio.

3.2.1 Introduction to Modeling, Implementation, and Deployment

The different workflows of the application development cycle described in the following sections are divided into the following stages:

In a real-world application development environment, the distinctions between these stages may not be clearly defined. Process developers may need to add to or change a process during when creating an application.

A final production application may go through several iterations of modeling and implementation before it is deployed as a working application. Additionally, applications may be deployed for testing then passed back to the modeling and implementation stages before being deployed to a production environment.

3.2.2 Workflow: Modeling, Implementing, and Deploying an Application

Figure 3-1 show a typical workflow where all stages of application design are performed using Oracle BPM Studio.

Figure 3-1 Modeling, Implementation, and Deployment from Studio


The following steps describe each stage of the workflow:

  1. Create process models using Oracle BPM Studio (process analyst / process developer)

  2. Implement the required services and application resources (process developer)

  3. Compile the application (process developer)

  4. Deploy to Oracle BPM runtime (process developer / process administrator)

3.2.3 Workflow: Creating Applications Based on Process Blueprints

Figure 3-1 shows a typical workflow for using Oracle Business Process Composer to perform the initial stages of the application development life-cycle.

Figure 3-2 Using Oracle Business Process Composer to Create Project Blueprints


The following steps describe each stage of this workflow:

  1. Create blueprints using process composer (process analyst)

  2. Publish the project containing the process blueprint to MDS (process analyst)

  3. Open the project in Oracle BPM Studio (process developer)

  4. Implement the project as part of a process-based business application. (process developer)

  5. Deploy the project to runtime or save as a project template

    1. Deploy the process to runtime (process developer, business administrator), or

    2. Save the application as a project template (process developer)

3.2.4 Workflow: Creating Project Templates

Figure 3-1 shows a typical workflow for using Oracle BPM Studio at the beginning of the workflow to create process templates which are then edited by process analysts using Process Composer.

Figure 3-3 Using BPM Studio to Create Project Templates


The following steps describe each stage of this workflow:

  1. Create a project template using Oracle BPM Studio (process developer)

  2. Publish the template to MDS (process developer)

  3. Create a new project based on the project template using Business Process Composer. (process analyst)

  4. Edit the processes within the project based on the edit policies defined by the template (process analyst)

  5. Deploy the project or return the project to the process developer. by republishing to MDS.

    1. Deploy the process to BPM runtime (process analyst, business administrator), or

    2. Republish the project to MDS so that process developers can perform further implementation.

3.2.5 Workflow: Implementing Processes Created Using Oracle BPA

Figure 3-4 shows a typical workflow for creating process models using the Oracle BPA Suite, then using Oracle BPM Studio to create and deploy process-based business applications.

Figure 3-4 Using Studio to Implement Processes from Oracle BPA


The following steps describe each stage of the workflow:

  1. Create process models using the Oracle BPA suite (process analyst)

  2. Import process models to Oracle BPM Studio (process developer)

  3. Implement (process developer)

  4. Compile (process developer)

  5. Deploy to Oracle BPM runtime (process developer / process administrator)

    1. Deploy directly from Oracle BPM Studio using MDS.

    2. Export the project as a SAR file that can be imported to BPM runtime using Oracle Enterprise Manager

3.3 Introduction to the Oracle BPM Studio User Interface

Since Oracle BPM Studio is an integrated part of Oracle JDeveloper, the user interface uses many of the same components as other Oracle products. This section describes the various UI components used by Oracle BPM Studio.

Figure 3-5 shows the layout of Oracle BPM Studio displaying the Request Quote example process.

Figure 3-5 Oracle BPM Studio


3.3.1 Oracle BPM Project Navigator

The Oracle BPM Project Navigator displays a hierarchical view of the components of an Oracle BPM project.The components displayed in the navigator are related to the modeling and implementation of business processes.

See Chapter 4, "Working with Projects and Project Templates" for more information.

Table 3-1 Oracle BPM Project Components

Component Description

Processes

Contains the business processes of this project. These can include both BPMN and BPEL processes.

Activity Guide

Contains the milestones defined for this project.

Organization

Contains the organizational elements defined for this project.

Business Catalog

Contains the business catalog elements defined for this project.

Simulations

Contains the process and project simulation models defined for this project.

Resources

Contains the XSLT transformations of the project.


Figure 3-6 shows the Project Navigator displaying the contents of the Request Quote demo process.

Figure 3-6 Project Navigator


3.3.2 Application Navigator

Like the Project Navigator, the Application Navigator displays a hierarchical view of the components of a project. However, these are lower-level components that include the underlying configuration files, XML files, java classes, and other resources used by a SOA composite application.

Figure 3-7 shows some of the files that appear under the application navigator. for the Request Quote example process.

Figure 3-7 Application Navigator


See the Developer's Guide for Oracle SOA Suite for more information about the contents of a SOA composite application.

3.3.3 BPMN Process Editor

The process editor enables you to model business processes by dragging and dropping BPMN components, called flow objects, from the component palette.

Figure 3-8 Process Editor


3.3.4 BPMN Component Palette

The BPM Component Palette contains a list of the BPMN flow objects supported by Oracle BPM. You can model business processes by dragging and dropping these flow objects from the BPM Component Palatte to the Process Editor.

The BPMN flow objects are divided according to type. See Chapter 6, "Modeling Business Processes with Oracle BPM" for more information on using flow objects to model business processes.

Figure 3-9 shows the BPM Component Palette expanded to show activities.

Figure 3-9 Component Palette


3.3.5 Oracle BPM MDS Browser

The Oracle BPM MDS Browser allows you to view and use projects and project templates stored in the Oracle BPM MDS repository. See Section 4.5, "Using the Oracle BPM Metadata Service (MDS) Repository" for more information.

Figure 3-10 Oracle BPM MDS Browser


3.3.6 Structure View

The Structure window offers a structural view of the data in the component currently selected in the active window of those windows that participate in providing structure: the diagrams, the navigators, the editors and viewers, and the Property Inspector.

The components displayed in the Structure window are usually components in the Project or Application Navigators.

You can perform a variety of tasks from this window, including:

Figure 3-11 shows the Structure View when a BPMN process is selected in the Project Navigator.

Figure 3-11 Structure View


3.3.7 Simulation View

The Simulation View allows you to run and see the result of project simulation models. Figure 3-12, shows the results of a simultion displayed as a bar chart.

Figure 3-12 Simulation View


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3.3.8 Log Window

The Log Window displays messages, errors, and warnings to the BPM project as well as compilation and deployment of SOA composite applications.

3.3.9 Documentation Window

The Documentation Window allows you to create end-user and use case documentation for your processes. You add documentation for the entire process or for each flow object within your process. Figure 3-13 shows the Documentation Window.

Figure 3-13 Documentation WIndow