[jboss-user] [jBPM] - jBPM designer present and future

[Guillermo L]

Guillermo L [https://community.jboss.org/people/gmlopezdev] created the discussion

"jBPM designer present and future"

To view the discussion, visit: https://community.jboss.org/message/821964#821964

--------------------------------------------------------------
I've been trying to use jBPM and it is my belief that there's no engine without a designer. I've first tried to use the eclipse plugin for indigo release (SOA tools) and had several issues so I moved to the web designer which it appears to be the recommended way as per some post, articles, etc.

The designer (v2.4) boundled with guvnor and jBPM installer (v5.4) has several issues right from the start. The first issue I've found out, was that after designing a very simple process and tried to execute it, I got an exception because the designer didn't set the "y" position of some elements.

Currently there is no other published version of the web designer nor eclipse plugin and even I tried with other tools, at some point they do not quite integrate with jBPM finding myself after some time editing the BPMN2 tags which it is driving me crazy .

I've seen that there is a 2.5 branch for the designer which I'm downloading and IÂŽll try to build it and deploy it to evaluate it.

Is there anyone who can tell me whether 2.5 branch is really stable, and share experiences with either v2.4 or v2.5?

What about the v6 currently under development? Will this designer be compatible with previous jBPM engine (i.e. v5.4)?

The engine looks great, do not get me wrong, however I'm not quite sure/afraid about the maturity of v5.4 ecosystem (engine, repository, designer) and looking forward how is this going to scale and backward compatibility of new releases of the designer.

I'll appreciate the feedback you may provide in order to clarify all this uncertainty I have.

Thanks!
--------------------------------------------------------------

Reply to this message by going to Community
[https://community.jboss.org/message/821964#821964]

Start a new discussion in jBPM at Community
[https://community.jboss.org/choose-container!input.jspa?contentType=1&containerType=14&container=2034]

[Jiri Svitak]

Jiri Svitak [https://community.jboss.org/people/jsvitak] created the discussion

"Re: jBPM designer present and future"

To view the discussion, visit: https://community.jboss.org/message/822034#822034

--------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Guillermo,
I haven't noticed such problem with web Designer you describe (no "y" position set). Have you tried the 'Validate' button and build the package in Guvnor? Do you have clear steps to reproduce the problem?
One tip - you can also try new BPMN2 Modeler for Eclipse: http://www.eclipse.org/bpmn2-modeler/ http://www.eclipse.org/bpmn2-modeler/

My 2 cents.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Reply to this message by going to Community
[https://community.jboss.org/message/822034#822034]

Start a new discussion in jBPM at Community
[https://community.jboss.org/choose-container!input.jspa?contentType=1&containerType=14&container=2034]

[Guillermo L]

Guillermo L [https://community.jboss.org/people/gmlopezdev] created the discussion

"Re: jBPM designer present and future"

To view the discussion, visit: https://community.jboss.org/message/822045#822045

--------------------------------------------------------------
I cannot remember right now, but I'd say that happened by dropping lanes into it. Beside this error, I faced so many others and I've spent more time struggling with errors than designing the process. I've deployed drools-guvnor and designer trying to work with both. One other problem I've faced, is with an image that cannot be found when you save the process (into guvnor) and you cannot save it till you upload whatever image to make it happy... Also, it frequently hangs while resizing lanes loosing part of the work...

I'll try the eclipse plugin you mentioned. I'd love having more answers about the present and future of jBPM designers/modelers from the project leads because as I previously stated, I believe the engine will have no future without them. Having and idea about the future work may give us more certainty about it to take the go/no go decission when planning to use these tools. We can actually see a lot of work and efforts invested but I cannot see a clear future :-(
--------------------------------------------------------------

Reply to this message by going to Community
[https://community.jboss.org/message/822045#822045]

Start a new discussion in jBPM at Community
[https://community.jboss.org/choose-container!input.jspa?contentType=1&containerType=14&container=2034]

[Guillermo L]

Guillermo L [https://community.jboss.org/people/gmlopezdev] created the discussion

"Re: jBPM designer present and future"

To view the discussion, visit: https://community.jboss.org/message/822548#822548

--------------------------------------------------------------
Isn't there anyone from the jBPM team leads who can share some comments about present and future plans for the design tools (i.e. eclipse plugins/web designer)?

Thanks!
--------------------------------------------------------------

Reply to this message by going to Community
[https://community.jboss.org/message/822548#822548]

Start a new discussion in jBPM at Community
[https://community.jboss.org/choose-container!input.jspa?contentType=1&containerType=14&container=2034]

[Tihomir Surdilovic]

Tihomir Surdilovic [https://community.jboss.org/people/tsurdilovic] created the discussion

"Re: jBPM designer present and future"

To view the discussion, visit: https://community.jboss.org/message/822637#822637

--------------------------------------------------------------
I am not relly sure what you would like to be told. Both the jBPM Eclipse and Web-based BPMN2 Editors are very strong and keep improving and having community support behind it. We are an open-source project where community help is very important (that's why you get it for free ;) ) so it would help us more if you report about any issues you man find rather than just complain about it afterwards. We will be more than happy to work with you in fixing any issues you may find and give you (again free) help on the forums or IRC.

You could follow our several blogs and tweets and jira to keep being updated on new versions, features, and bug fixes that we all are doing.

Be proactive ;)
HTH
--------------------------------------------------------------

Reply to this message by going to Community
[https://community.jboss.org/message/822637#822637]

Start a new discussion in jBPM at Community
[https://community.jboss.org/choose-container!input.jspa?contentType=1&containerType=14&container=2034]

[Mauricio Salatino]

Mauricio Salatino [https://community.jboss.org/people/salaboy21] created the discussion

"Re: jBPM designer present and future"

To view the discussion, visit: https://community.jboss.org/message/822638#822638

--------------------------------------------------------------
+1000 for Tiho! well said!
--------------------------------------------------------------

Reply to this message by going to Community
[https://community.jboss.org/message/822638#822638]

Start a new discussion in jBPM at Community
[https://community.jboss.org/choose-container!input.jspa?contentType=1&containerType=14&container=2034]

[Guillermo L]

Guillermo L [https://community.jboss.org/people/gmlopezdev] created the discussion

"Re: jBPM designer present and future"

To view the discussion, visit: https://community.jboss.org/message/822643#822643

--------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Tihomir,
I really appreciate your response. I was not actually complaining. I didn't try to mean that. That's why I initially asked not to be missunderstood.

I understand that this is an open source project and so forth. My point is that I've found several issues while trying to work with the web designer and some others with the eclipse plugin. Actually different ones and tried to resolve them myself using any workaround or whatever. Also, currently there are two different eclipse plugins and I'm not sure which one is going to continue being developed. Maybe both. On the other side, we have the web designer which looks great but found many issues trying to get it to work and I haven't seen much progress or new releases. This is not a complain. It is just a fact or the problems I've faced so far and I'm trying to deal with. Count on me to report the issues when I have time to reproduce and create a real test case scenarios since I cannot report a bug for which I have not clear steps to reproduce. It will be a waste of time for you and me.

What I would actually hear, is the future plans. Where are those tools moving to? It has been a while from the last release of the SOA tools and it is my belief that a new version is going to come out with the next jboss tools release but I haven't been able to get clear plans about when and what we will get with this new release, so any information you may provide about future releases, possible dates and features will be very appreciated. Maybe a pointer to some community site I have not been able to find and read.

Again, this is not a complain :-) Just have to get some more info to decide whether we can get safely into jBPM world in my company or not and the future of these tools seem to be quite important for us.

Thanks for your time to respond!
--------------------------------------------------------------

Reply to this message by going to Community
[https://community.jboss.org/message/822643#822643]

Start a new discussion in jBPM at Community
[https://community.jboss.org/choose-container!input.jspa?contentType=1&containerType=14&container=2034]

[Tihomir Surdilovic]

Tihomir Surdilovic [https://community.jboss.org/people/tsurdilovic] created the discussion

"Re: jBPM designer present and future"

To view the discussion, visit: https://community.jboss.org/message/826771#826771

--------------------------------------------------------------
BPMN2 Modeler ( http://www.eclipse.org/bpmn2-modeler/ http://www.eclipse.org/bpmn2-modeler/) and jBPM Designer are the two editors that are used going forward. jBPM Designer v6 which will be released alongside jBPM 6 will be an Uberfire component with tons of functionality. For any issues you find please open a JIRA so we can fix asap.

HTH
--------------------------------------------------------------

Reply to this message by going to Community
[https://community.jboss.org/message/826771#826771]

Start a new discussion in jBPM at Community
[https://community.jboss.org/choose-container!input.jspa?contentType=1&containerType=14&container=2034]

[Guillermo L]

Guillermo L [https://community.jboss.org/people/gmlopezdev] created the discussion

"Re: jBPM designer present and future"

To view the discussion, visit: https://community.jboss.org/message/826773#826773

--------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks Tihomir!
That's all the informmation I was looking for :-).

I'm happy I was finally able to be clear enough about my intention when I first posted the questions I posted.

Be sure as soon as jBPM 6 is released I'll start testing and posting issues as I found them. Meanwhile I got forced to postpone jBPM integration but I'm more than whiling to contribute as you're surely whiling to provide information, feedback and help when requested.

Any hint about jbpm6 release date?

Thanks again,
Guillermo
--------------------------------------------------------------

Reply to this message by going to Community
[https://community.jboss.org/message/826773#826773]

Start a new discussion in jBPM at Community
[https://community.jboss.org/choose-container!input.jspa?contentType=1&containerType=14&container=2034]

[Robert (Bob) Brodt]

Robert (Bob) Brodt [https://community.jboss.org/people/bbrodt] created the discussion

"Re: jBPM designer present and future"

To view the discussion, visit: https://community.jboss.org/message/826881#826881

--------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Guillermo,

Thanks for your continued testing of jBPM and the tooling! Our goal is to provide best in class tools for enterprise applications so we try to be as responsive as possible when new bugs are found and reported. As Tiho already mentioned, community interest and support is growing around these projects and the more feedback we get, the better we can respond to any serious issues. Please report any bugs or enhancement requests you may find with the Eclipse BPMN2 Modeler here: https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/enter_bug.cgi?product=BPMN2Modeler https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/enter_bug.cgi?product=BPMN2Modeler (you'll have to register with eclipse bugzilla first)

Cheers,
Bob
--------------------------------------------------------------

Reply to this message by going to Community
[https://community.jboss.org/message/826881#826881]

Start a new discussion in jBPM at Community
[https://community.jboss.org/choose-container!input.jspa?contentType=1&containerType=14&container=2034]

[Mauricio Salatino]

Mauricio Salatino [https://community.jboss.org/people/salaboy21] created the discussion

"Re: jBPM designer present and future"

To view the discussion, visit: https://community.jboss.org/message/826885#826885

--------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Guillermo,
You can start testing before the release. We are going to release beta5 anytime now, so feel free to download that and start reporting bugs. This is indeed the best time to submit bugs, because it will give you the chance to get your report fixed for the Final release.

Cheers
--------------------------------------------------------------

Reply to this message by going to Community
[https://community.jboss.org/message/826885#826885]

Start a new discussion in jBPM at Community
[https://community.jboss.org/choose-container!input.jspa?contentType=1&containerType=14&container=2034]