Eric D. Schabell

Singapore JBUG gets a JBoss BRMS Primer

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Wed, 22 May 2013 23:14:16 PDT

I was invited to speak last night at the JBoss User Group (JBUG) in Singapore. It was to be a session that was both informative and interactive with hands on demo projects based on my Customer Evaluation and Rewards demo projects.

The crowd was a mix of students, enterprise developers, and even a few customers. I covered the basics around JBoss BRMS, explaining both Rules and BPM aspects. After this we did a hands on installation, both on Unix and Windows based machines, of the Customer Evaluation demo project. The goal being that attendees would head home with two demos on their personal
machines.

After this the attendees went to work installing the Rewards demo project and were challenged by being able to win one of three free copies of my e-book (OpenShift Primer) by being the fastest to get the demo running. They were gone in less than 5 minutes, so consider the mission accomplished.

Of course there were give aways of t-shirts, rubber balls, and stickers for the laptops. The organization put on a nice Asian buffet and the beer was free flowing during the coding. ;-)

I enjoyed meeting all the new faces and interacting with a few of our JBoss BRMS customers that showed up to chat with me during and after my session.

Thanks guys for the great evening!

JBoss BRMS Customer Evaluation Demo Updated with EAP 6.1.0

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Wed, 22 May 2013 22:30:54 PDT

This week the final GA of JBoss EAP 6.1.0 was released. Previously I had updated the Customer Evaluation Demo to run on JBoss EAP 6.1.0.Beta, so this is a small step forward.

Getting the project
The project is available on Github at https://github.com/eschabell/brms-customer-evaluation-demo/tree/v1.9. You can retrieve this with a simple 'git clone git://github.com/eschabell/brms-customer-evaluation-demo.git' and 'git checkout v1.9', after which you can follow the step-by-step guide found in the Quick Start Guide. This is provided in both ODT and PDF formats. It is all kicked off by the init.sh script you will find in the project, which is quite verbose and points you to the various steps you might need to take should you have chosen to not to read the provided Quick Start Guide.

Enjoy!

JBoss BRMS Rewards Demo Updated with EAP 6.1.0

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Wed, 22 May 2013 22:30:37 PDT

This week the final GA of JBoss EAP 6.1.0 was released. Previously I had updated the Rewards Demo to run on JBoss EAP 6.1.0.Beta, so this is a small step forward.

Getting the project
The project is available on Github at https://github.com/eschabell/brms-rewards-demo/tree/v1.8. You can retrieve this with a simple 'git clone git://github.com/eschabell/brms-rewards-demo.git' and 'git checkout v1.8', after which you can follow the step-by-step guide found in the Quick Start Guide. This is provided in both ODT and PDF formats. It is all kicked off by the init.sh script you will find in the project, which is quite verbose and points you to the various steps you might need to take should you have chosen to not to read the provided Quick Start Guide.

Enjoy!

Red Hat JBoss Middleware is faster than an 855 foot Sky Jump

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Sat, 18 May 2013 02:17:10 PDT

I would like to introduce you to our new Red Hat JBoss Rock Star.

His name is Radical Rich and he will stop short of nothing to bring the message home to you how awesome and fast the Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (EAP) is.

Without further delay, we bring you Radical Rich!

Red Hat JBoss EAP is faster than an 855 foot Sky Jump.

JUDCon United States - talk accepted on OpenShift Primer

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Fri, 17 May 2013 02:49:28 PDT

This year in Boston, June 9-11 we will be gathering for the JBoss User and Developer Conference (JUDCon) where I will be giving you an OpenShift Primer on Monday, 10 June at 1300 hrs in Track 2.

This will be a unique chance for you to get to meet all the world class developers, project members, and rock stars in a single venue. There will be beers, food, a meet & greet reception, live podcast recording, and plenty of laughs. You really do not want to miss this event.

I will also be giving away a few copies of codes to download the book, so if you are around, be sure to attend this session.

OpenShift Primer - get your JBoss into the Cloud

Ever wondered about the new Cloud offerings out there? What is a PaaS? What is this thing called OpenShift?

Whether your business is running on applications based on Java EE6, PHP or Ruby, the cloud is turning out to be the perfect environment for developing your business. There are plenty of clouds and platform-as-a-services to choose from, but where to start? Join us for an action-packed hour of power where we'll show you how to deploy your existing application written in the language of your choice - Java, Ruby, PHP, Perl or Python, with the JBoss project of your choice - jBPM, Ceylon, Switchyard, Drools Planner, Aerogear, GateIn, Drools (Rules / BPM) and more deployed into the OpenShift PaaS in just minutes. All this and without having to rewrite your app to get it to work the way the cloud provider thinks your app should work.

If you want to learn about OpenShift PaaS and see how investing 45 mins of your time can change everything you thought you knew about putting your business applications in the cloud, this session is for you!

(Speaker is author of e-book: OpenShift Primer, will be giving away copies in this session)

JUDCon United States - talk accepted on becoming a JBoss Rock Star

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Fri, 17 May 2013 02:44:20 PDT

This year in Boston, June 9-11 we will be gathering for the JBoss User and Developer Conference (JUDCon) where I will be talking about how you too can be a JBoss Rock Star on Tuesday, 11 June at 1230 hrs in Track 2.

This will be a unique chance for you to get to meet all the world class developers, project members, and rock stars in a single venue. There will be beers, food, a meet & greet reception, live podcast recording, and plenty of laughs. You really do not want to miss this event.

Do you want to be a JBoss Rock Star?

So you have seen the perfect JBoss project for your current development problem. Now what?

You have seen amazing demos done by the core developers of these projects, but you want to create your own awesome demo to convince your friends, team and boss that this is exactly what they need. We can help you to become a local JBoss Rock Star with this session. We will provide you with the tools to setup repeatable demos and provide you with guidelines to allow you to consistently amaze and dazzle. This session will walk through three example integration demonstrations that span multiple JBoss components and are setup from scratch in minutes.

You won't want to miss this session as it is the first step towards a future as a JBoss Rock Star!

JUDCon United States - talk accepted for JBoss jBPM Migration project

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Fri, 17 May 2013 02:38:27 PDT

This year in Boston, June 9-11 we will be gathering for the JBoss User and Developer Conference (JUDCon) where I will be talking about the jBPM Migration project on Tuesday, 11 June at 1330 hrs in Track 3.

This will be a unique chance for you to get to meet all the world class developers, project members, and rock stars in a single venue. There will be beers, food, a meet & greet reception, live podcast recording, and plenty of laughs. You really do not want to miss this event.

jBPM Migration - generating your process future

Since its birth in late 2010, the jBPM migration tool project has been marching forward to support the transformation of your jBPM3 processes to the latest versions of jBPM. It has been a journey that covers the support of a vast array of use cases, example enterprise process projects, supports various process designers and has finally been included into the Drools / jBPM project team as an official project.

This session will outline the status of the jBPM migration tooling project. We will take a look at the background of jBPM 3 process projects and detail what is supported right now to get your processes deployed onto the current version of jBPM. We will demo the existing tooling on several real life enterprise jBPM projects and outline our strategy for the various conceptual problems we encountered in moving your process constructs to BPMN2. These examples will provide you with real life scenarios to take home as an example for your own BPM projects.

We will finish up with a demonstration of the jBPM migration tooling running in the Cloud. Each participant will depart this session fully enabled with their very own Cloud deployed jBPM Migration tooling.

JBoss BRMS (BPM) - Car Insurance Demo

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Tue, 07 May 2013 02:00:28 PDT

Car Insurance Process

This is a brand new demo project that was put together by our very own Red Hat UKI SA team. They have plans to put together six product demos in this project hosted on github, starting with a pretty nice car insurance example built on JBoss EAP 6 and JBoss BRMS 5.3.1.

I extracted this part of their demo, packaged it up in the same demo framework you are used to getting from us so that you can become the JBoss Rock Star that is hiding inside of you. You can find the Car Insurance Demo here:

https://github.com/eschabell/brms-car-insurance-demo/tree/v1.0

Here is the original video tour, in seven minutes, so you can get started as quickly as possible. This video was recorded by Derek Howlett, be sure to pass you thanks to the team through him.

JBoss BRMS Car Insurance Demo from Eric D. Schabell on Vimeo.

There were diverse people from the UKI team that put this demo together, so kudos to all of them and forgive me for not mentioning you all by name.

You will enjoy this one. :)

Writing daily for the Red Sox Life fan blog

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Mon, 06 May 2013 03:56:08 PDT

It has been a bit of a hobby for me to try and find more ways to write.

I have been publishing lots of technical content over the years, on blogs, in papers, and even a book or two along the way. This is stuff I know, but to challenge myself I have tried to go outside of the normal content and write something non-technical.

Research on the subject led me to the advice everyone seems to be giving on writing, "If you want to be a writer, you have to write every single day..."

With my schedule and lifestyle I am not always able to do that on non-technical topics, so I tried to put a deadline out to produce a short story every month or two this year. That has even proven to be too much of a challenge with my time constraints.

Then along came this invitation on Red Sox Life, a Boston Red Sox baseball fan blog that I have been a follower of for several years. I could not resist, this would be a perfect combination of baseball and writing with a daily deadline. I submitted an example, suggested a weekly segment piece and guess what? I was one of eight new writers to get selected.

You can follow my journey as I try to write a bit different angles to the Boston Red Sox daily scene. I want to be me, make it fun, and above all challenge myself to write daily on one of my favorite subjects.

So with a motto of 'writers write', I hope to see you at the ballpark every day!

JBoss BRMS Cool Store Demo Part III - BPM and decision tables (video)

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Wed, 01 May 2013 08:30:48 PDT

Following up on the initial announcement of the JBoss Business Rules Management System (BRMS) Cool Store Demo I wanted to provide a three part series of videos that outline how to work with the project and its basic features.

These videos should give you a quick overview of the online shopping cart web application and its JBoss BRMS feature usage. You can quickly spin up a demo or use the project as a start to your own Proof-of-Concept.

Part III - BPM / Decision Tables
In this final video we take a look at the BPM process features, designer and examine how JBoss BRMS integrates decision tables into our online shopping cart application.

JBoss BRMS Cool Store Demo Part III - BPM and decision tables from Eric D. Schabell on Vimeo.

Part I -- Part II

JBoss BRMS Cool Store Demo Part II - Complex events and business rules (video)

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Wed, 01 May 2013 08:30:14 PDT

Following up on the initial announcement of the JBoss Business Rules Management System (BRMS) Cool Store Demo I wanted to provide a three part series of videos that outline how to work with the project and its basic features.

These videos should give you a quick overview of the online shopping cart web application and its JBoss BRMS feature usage. You can quickly spin up a demo or use the project as a start to your own Proof-of-Concept.

Part II - Complex Events / Business Rules
In this video we take a closer look at the event stream as managed in the online shopping cart and exposes you to the business rules and CEP features of JBoss BRMS.

JBoss BRMS Cool Store Demo Part II - Complex events and business rules from Eric D. Schabell on Vimeo.

Part I -- Part III

JBoss BRMS Cool Store Demo Part I - Installation (video)

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Wed, 01 May 2013 08:29:43 PDT

Following up on the initial announcement of the JBoss Business Rules Management System (BRMS) Cool Store Demo I wanted to provide a three part series of videos that outline how to work with the project and its basic features.

These videos should give you a quick overview of the online shopping cart web application and its JBoss BRMS feature usage. You can quickly spin up a demo or use the project as a start to your own Proof-of-Concept.

Part I - Installation
In this video we take you on a tour to install the project in minutes on your local machine, which gives you a quickstart into the world of JBoss BRMS, BPM, Rules and CEP.

JBoss BRMS Cool Store Demo Part I - Installation from Eric D. Schabell on Vimeo.

Part II -- Part III

Red Hat JBoss BRMS - a shopping cart example in the Cool Store Demo

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Thu, 02 May 2013 01:38:39 PDT

Red Hat Cool Store

It is time for another awesome JBoss Business Rules Management System (BRMS) Cool Store Demo, this time brought to you by Jason Milliron, one of our JBoss Solution Architects.

He put together an example web application based on the popular framework Vaadin which is an example of an online shopping cart. This web application demonstrates interaction between a web front end and a decision table and rules package. This allows the business logic to become externalized from your deployed application and can then be modified as needed at runtime. This application leverages the rules to calculate the shipping costs based on your rules in the table below.

Shipping pricing table

It is pretty simple really, you can adjust how much the ranges are and what the shipping for the shopping cart total order will be by tweaking this table, for example:

the price from Tier 1 based on value totaling between $26 - $50 is $5.99
you can fill your cart with under $25 of materials to validate
adjust it to $6.99 (as shown in yellow)
save and commit changes
build your coolstore package
clear the shopping cart application
re-order the same materials and validate the charge to shipping is now $6.99

I have released version 1.0 which will get you started in a very short amount of time. See the provided documentation and Readme file in the project. You will also find a complete BRMS rules package with unit test scenarios. This is a complete project.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: Three part video series covering the functionality in this demo project is available now, get started with Part I - Installation.

Red Hat JBoss BRMS - Customer Evaluation Demo updated to JBoss EAP 6.1.0.Beta

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:20:52 PDT

Customer Evaluation

With the latest release of JBoss EAP 6.1.0.Beta, it was time to overhaul my existing demo projects and here you will find the results. Previously I had updated this project to JBoss EAP 6.0.

From now on the Beta releases of our products will be available for free in the community projects, so with JBoss Application Server project being the first to do this it was time for my projects to integrate these upcoming releases.

More new goodness
The demos have also been updated to provide Windows platform installation scripts, the latest BPM web process designer patches, and the projects are now fully Manvenized. All the documentation has been updated to reflect the changes and you will notice the readme files have been expanded to include your quickstart information right from the start of your experience with the projects.

Getting the project
The project is available on Github at https://github.com/eschabell/brms-customer-evaluation-demo/tree/v1.8. You can retrieve this with a simple 'git clone git://github.com/eschabell/brms-customer-evaluation-demo.git' and 'git checkout v1.8', after which you can follow the step-by-step guide found in the Quick Start Guide. This is provided in both ODT and PDF formats. It is all kicked off by the init.sh script you will find in the project, which is quite verbose and points you to the various steps you might need to take should you have chosen to not to read the provided Quick Start Guide.

Enjoy!

Red Hat JBoss BRMS - Rewards Demo updated to JBoss EAP 6.1.0.Beta

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:21:06 PDT

Rewards

With the latest release of JBoss EAP 6.1.0.Beta, it was time to overhaul my existing demo projects and here you will find the results. Previously I had updated this project to JBoss EAP 6.0.

From now on the Beta releases of our products will be available for free in the community projects, so with JBoss Application Server project being the first to do this it was time for my projects to integrate these upcoming releases.

More new goodness
The demos have also been updated to provide Windows platform installation scripts, the latest BPM web process designer patches, and the projects are now fully Manvenized. All the documentation has been updated to reflect the changes and you will notice the readme files have been expanded to include your quickstart information right from the start of your experience with the projects.

Getting the project
The project is available on Github at https://github.com/eschabell/brms-rewards-demo/tree/v1.7. You can retrieve this with a simple 'git clone git://github.com/eschabell/brms-rewards-demo.git' and 'git checkout v1.7', after which you can follow the step-by-step guide found in the Quick Start Guide. This is provided in both ODT and PDF formats. It is all kicked off by the init.sh script you will find in the project, which is quite verbose and points you to the various steps you might need to take should you have chosen to not to read the provided Quick Start Guide.

Enjoy!

The future of JBoss SOA Platform, Switchyard training

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 11:36:51 PDT

Last week I was in the area for the Gartner BPM Summit 2013 so I thought I would drop in on Keith Babo and the SwitchYard training being held in Washington, DC.

Keith is a rock star at leading the SwitchYard efforts, but he is now a confirmed educator. He put together a very hands on and incredibly informative two days of workshop style training on his project. This project will become the backbone of the upcoming JBoss SOA Platform v6 so it was fantastic to get hands on with the experts.

Below a short impression, but I would suggest you get your hands on this technology as soon as you can, it is really amazing stuff!

Switchyard training DC Apr 2013

JBoss BRMS (BPM) at Gartner BPM conference in Washington, DC

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 10:43:06 PDT

I was fortunate enough to participate this year in the Gartner BPM Summit 2013 in DC. It was my first time at a Gartner event and I was looking forward to the high level business activities and session that would be part of the event.

What I did not expect was that if you are not an end customer then you do not get to attend a lot of the events. Though I was sporting an 'Attendee' pass, the sessions required pre-registration which ended up in my being rejected for admittance. Bummer as there were some really interesting sessions.

Outside of that, it was hosted at the DC Gaylord Resort and it is an awesome place to have to be for a conference. I was lucky to meet up with colleagues from our North America field teams (thanks to Mark Yourcheck for a great few days at our stand).

Below is an impression of our days at the conference.

Gartner BPM, DC Mar 2013

JBoss BRMS demos - now available for installation on Windows

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:43:58 PDT

This last week I have been busy, with some help from my friends, to update the existing JBoss Business Rules Management System (BRMS) demos with some interesting fixes. Think of this a giving the demos a fresh coat of paint to make them new and shiny again.

It came about as I was preparing for a couple of webinars we have running this week. I wanted to fix a few inconsistencies and leverage a few new features that are coming down the road for our customers. I also had contacted a friend in the USA who was willing to sort out the Windows installation script, a much requested feature when I am on the road showing off with these demos.

The demos that have been patched and released are listed here to provide a starting point for you:

The first was to pull in a new web process designer version that contains bug fixes that will very shortly be made available to the customer base in a patch roll-out. The fix I was looking for has been pushed to these versions:

The most exciting fix was to enable Windows users to be able to install these demos in a fully automated fashion like the Unix based users do with an init script. On my last trip I bumped into a colleague who offered to provide these scripts. Pass your thanks to Andrew Block for his great work to enable Windows users on these demos and it was released in these versions:

Finally, don't forget to enjoy the webinars that were run highlighting these demos.

Enjoy! ;)

JBoss Developer Studio 7 - how to setup SOA Tools (BRMS example)

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 03:33:38 PDT

Step 2: SOA Tools Update Site

Continuing on the series of how to install and configure your latest JBoss Dev Studio (JBDS) for JBoss BRMS / SOA products, here we provide the latest early release of JBDS version 7.

The plugin update site for the BRMS and SOA tooling is providing developing components so be aware of that.
Here is how you set it up:

Get the latest JBDS 7 from your local Customer Support Portal (CSP) or get your evaluation copy.
You are missing the BRMS tooling, so add the JBoss SOA Tools update site via "Help -> Install New Software..." http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/updates/integration/juno/integration-stack/aggregate/4.0.0/

Step 3: BRMS tooling

Select "BRMS Tooling"

After install you are ready to rock with all the new tooling supporting Rules, Events and
Processes (jBPM).

Want to hide your osX (macbook) desktop icons

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 05:05:14 PDT

This is just a quick hint as to how to hide desktop icons (all of them) in a temporary fashion.

I create a lot of video demos that make it a pain when I have my personal icons to documents, folders, and other content I don't really want to have posted all over the Internet.

Here is how to do it:

Hide Desktop Icons

Launch Terminal and type the following:
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false

Kill the Finder so that it relaunches:
killall Finder

Files are now discretely hidden in home folder’s “Desktop” directory. To reverse, open Terminal and type the following:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true

Kill the Finder so that it relaunches and they are back.

If you want to automate these into a single click of your mouse button, just put this into a file, make it executable, create an alias, and drop the alias file onto your task bar. One for icons on and one for icons off:


#!/bin/bash



# 1. copy this code to file iconson.command

# 2. make executable with 'chmod +x iconson.command

# 3. make alias file and drop onto menu bar

#

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true



killall Finder


#!/bin/bash



# 1. copy this code to file iconsoff.command

# 2. make executable with 'chmod +x iconson.command

# 3. make alias file and drop onto menu bar

#

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false



killall Finder

Now you can clean your desk for screencasts and video capturing and put it all back when you are done by clicking on the files!

JBoss Developer Studio 6 - how to setup SOA Tools (BRMS example)

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:50:27 PDT

Step 2: SOA Tools Update Site

I have been getting questions about getting started with JBoss Developers Studio (JBDS) version 6 and the latest greatest Business Rules Management System (BRMS) tooling. For posterity, here is how I do it:

Get the latest JBDS 6 from your local Customer Support Portal (CSP) or get your evaluation copy.
You are missing the BRMS tooling, so add the JBoss SOA Tools update site via "Help -> Install New Software..." http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/updates/integration/juno/integration-stack/aggregate/

Step 3: JBoss BRMS tooling

Select "BRMS Tooling"

After install you are ready to rock with all the new tooling supporting Rules, Events and Processes (jBPM).

Zero to Hero with JBoss BRMS Primer (webinars)

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:10:20 PDT

I will be giving a two part JBoss Business Rules Management System Primer webinar, something to get you up and running in a hurry with the technology. It is designed around a few demo projects that you an install in minutes, run at home or work, and will get you familiar with the basics around rules, processes and integration with more advanced enterprise components like BPEL, ESB and more.

It is in two parts so here you have the abstracts, dates, times and link to registration:

Zero to Hero with JBoss BRMS Primer (part I)

This session will get you started with JBoss BRMS. It will walk you through some of the capabilities, components and basic concepts that one needs to understand to start building process and rule-driven applications. Join us for an hour of Business Process Management (BPM) concepts, explanations of how to capture your enterprises logic in business rules and a demonstration or two from real live processes that bring these concepts to life. Take a walk with us through the Customer Evaluation Demo and the Rewards Demo where we explain step by step what is happening and how you too can reproduce these locally. By the end of this session you too can amaze your friends and colleagues, becoming the local Red Hat JBoss BRMS hero!

Register online:

Thursday, April 11, 2013 | 16:00 UTC / 11:00AM (New York) / 5:00PM (Paris) / 9:30PM (Mumbai)

Zero to Hero with JBoss BRMS Primer (part I) from Eric D. Schabell

Zero to Hero with JBoss BRMS Primer (part II)
This session will build on the first webinar and take you to the next level with integration into more complex components in you enterprise. The Home Mortgage Integration demo will be put on display, so that you can follow along with the various details that will be presented. We will look at advanced concepts and illustrate how Red Hat JBoss BRMS can work in concert with other components of your Red Hat JBoss Middleware stack to deliver intelligent, integrated business applications.

Register online:

Thursday, April 18, 2013 | 16:00 UTC / 11:00AM (New York) / 5:00PM (Paris) / 9:30PM (Mumbai)

Zero to Hero with JBoss BRMS Primer (part II) from Eric D. Schabell

Look forward to seeing you all there at these April webinars! :)

JBoss BRMS Performance Testing Framework initial release

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 08:50:42 PDT

This project was started to give one the ability to run your JBoss Business Rules Management System (BRMS) business processes through some sort of a testing and load framework. We have take just the initial steps, with more work to be done moving forward, but the basics are there. This article is to introduce you to the JBoss BRMS Performance Testing Framework, initial project release.

This video tour takes you through the setup and demo run of the supported processes. We provide documentation to get started and you can extend this framework to include more process node types than are currently supported. Please consult the Quick Start Guide for more information on how to use your own processes.

Take it for a spin, let us know what you think of it?

Red Hat JBoss BRMS - adding a declarative data model to the Customer Evaluation demo

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:56:25 PDT

Customer Evaluation
with
declarative data model

Previously I posted a demo of Business Process Management (BPM) integration with rules, using the JBoss Business Rules Management System (BRMS) product. This demo provided a look at both the developers JBoss Developer Studio (JBDS) IDE project and then the business user side with the project also in the Business Rules Manager (BRM) web tooling.

The data model at that time was built using JBDS and is nothing more than Java objects, a Person object and a Request object to be precise. These are then put into a single Java archive (jar) file and importing into the BRM project.

Declarative models

Many customers are interested in using the declarative data model, which is the data model hosted in your rules repository. You will not create Java object classes, instead you create your model using the BRM tooling guided editor.

Our declarative model in knowledge base.

Using a declarative model has some benefits:

it reinforces that the model belongs to the knowledge base and not to the application.
the model lifecycle is separate from your applications.
your Java types can be enriched with rule specific annotations.
when using imported Java archive (jar) files, they must be kept synchronized between the rules and the applications that use them, a declarative model does not.

Using the declarative model example project

The Quick Start documentation covers how to use the project to demonstrate the declarative model, but for ease of getting started:

clone the project from https://github.com/eschabell/brms-customer-evaluation-demo/tree/v1.4
add JBoss BRMS product, see installs/README
run init.sh to setup project
start JBoss BRMS server at with standalone.sh (in newly created target directory)
import support/repository_export_declarative_model.zip into BRM at http://localhost:8080/jboss-brms
build project and deploy
run process from Business Central at http://localhost:8080/business-central and see server log.

You server log should play out something a lot like this:

16:49:24,047 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) starting new transaction
16:49:26,555 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Entering Initialize Node
16:49:26,556 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) There as no evaluation objects defined, adding default ones for demo purposes.
16:49:26,562 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Leaving Initialize Node
16:49:26,565 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Gateway: Qualify Age
16:49:26,565 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Gateway: Qualify Age
16:49:26,567 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Entering Adult Customer Node
16:49:26,568 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Detected and reporting valid request
16:49:26,569 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Set validRequest to: true
16:49:26,573 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Leaving Adult Customer Node
16:49:26,573 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Entering Finance Rules Node
16:49:26,585 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Leaving Finance Rules Node.
16:49:26,585 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Gateway: Decide Financial Status
16:49:26,585 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Determined request is valid, heading to Rich Customer Node
16:49:26,588 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Entering Rich Customer Node
16:49:26,588 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Detected and reporting valid request
16:49:26,588 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Customer has amount: 5000 in the bank.
16:49:26,589 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Leaving Rich Customer Node
16:49:26,589 INFO  [stdout] (http-/127.0.0.1:8080-3) Process ended in End Rich Customer Node.

You can examine the different ways you need to interact with the declarative model by examining the process in the web designer:

Initialize script task shows how to interact with process context variables and load our model with data.
Gateways can be viewed by examining the exit transitions, they show interaction with the model.
Adult Customer script task shows how facts are inserted into working memory using our declarative model.

I hope this demo helps in your understanding of the different ways our data model can be implemented in JBoss BRMS BPM projects.

jBPM5 Developer Guide review

eric@schabell.org (eric@schabell.org) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 06:35:26 PDT

I had previously done a review on the first jBPM Developer Guide that Packt offered and was not very impressed. When approached this time I was hesitant to review when asked, but thought it deserved at least a look.

Below you will find my impressions and comments as I first give you an overview, then walk through each chapter.

General impressions

The previous review showed a lack of editing, but this time it is a professional manuscript. There could be a better use of references and the addition of a bibliography as many links are just included in-line which disturbs the flow of learning for a reader.

The authors state that they are targeting java developers and architects. I found that they dive fast and deep into topics like BPM, jBPM and Java technical concepts that you need to consider this book as targeting advanced or senior Java developers and technical architects. It is really meant for those implementing jBPM projects and less for those evaluating jBPM as a potential BPM solution.

The price online right now is just over 20 euros for the e-book and 38 euros for the printed version, contains 364 pages, it is good value for the money. It reads easily and if you are familiar with the content you can easily jump to sections that interest you without worrying about missing material from earlier chapters.

Chapter 1 - Why do we need BPM

Authors start with a theoretical background of BPM as to why you would do this and attempts to position the 'business' aspect of BPM. It is then strange that the authors state, “If you hate the word 'business' as much as I do, please feel free to mentally skip it or replace it...” This warns us of the authors views being technical or developer centric in their focus.

The rest of the chapter is a light dusting of how to get to the point where the focus of this book lies, coding your BPM project. If you are interested in this facet of BPM within your organization then you would be well served to dig deeper elsewhere. Would have been nice if a few references were provided for readers looking for more.

Chapter 2 - BPM systems structure

he authors dive in head first, taking you into the BPM core engine and process concepts without being shy about putting code samples in front of you. It is exactly what a senior developer is looking for to get her head around jBPM for a project. You will need to pay close attention as concepts are dealt with that do not appear in jBPM5 as we know it (token based approach in designing a process engine) which might confuse readers. The internals are exposed to the reader on the hand of a basic process to try and keep the code snippets as small as possible.

As we continue the chapter we are taken through the HT, BAM, history, persistence, transactions, and data mining tools as related to BPM. This marches right into the Knowledge api's as jBPM5 is very closely tied into the Drools project; KnowledgeBuilder, KnowledgeBase, and KnowledgeSessions.

The authors then turn off the path a bit with a tour of SOA, BPEL, ESB, Rule engines, event driven architecture, and CEP. As you can see, this chapter is a whirlwind tour of placing BPM into the architectural complexities that you might be faced with in your organization. Again, you would be well served by references to these topics where the authors only lightly touch on them.

Chapter 3 - Using BPMN2 to model business scenarios

Designing your business processes with BPMN2 might not really be what you are interested in, but understanding some of the concepts within this standard can be helpful. This chapter walks through some of the basic elements, but for more complete coverage the authors should have pointed the readers to other content (such as Bruce Silver BPMN Method and Style).

We are then taken by the hand through a hospital emergency example scenario which is an excellent way to mentor the reader through a process project. The various decisions and concepts covered so far are explained and the reader is walked through the process, including details around what actual BPMN2 XML process definition code looks like.

Chapter 4 - Knowing your toolbox

In this chapter we are introduced to our BPM tooling, with something called a Business Logic integration Platform (BLiP). I have never heard of this term BLiP (again, no references are provided), so can only assume the authors are introducing the concept but fail to define it to my satisfaction.

The chapter gets you rolling by installing the jBPM5 Platform and summarizing the components; JBoss app server, Guvnor, process server, GWT console, web designer, and how to get started with the samples in an Eclipse IDE. You will have not only the platform up and running, but also your development environment configured with an example process that you will build and run in the jBPM GWT console.

Chapter 5 - The process designer

We tour the process designers available to us in this chapter; jBPM Eclipse plug-in designer, web process designer, and finally the Native Eclipse project called the BPMN2 Modeler (incorrectly referred to in this chapter as the Eclipse BPMN2 Plugin). Again a shame that the authors did no include references to the designer projects discussed.

The rest of the chapter takes up on a more detailed tour of the web process designer, arguably the best component in the jBPM5 project. This is done based on an example process for emergency hospital bed allocation, keeping in-line with the running hospital theme in the book. this is done in three iterations, an excellent example of real world refining of your process project as it evolves over time. You should be properly amazed by the end of this chapter and able to design your first process with relative ease.

Chapter 6 - Domain specific processes

Domain specific processes is covered in the detail that most will need to expand their processes with custom nodes. This is a very important topic and the authors cover the various nuances that will be very important to the readers and their process projects. Having used this feature several times, I can verify that I could have used this chapter. The example project used to highlight the various concepts is not for beginners, but if you got this far you have shown that you are a developer of some experience.

Chapter 7 - Human interactions

We dive into another very important topic, human interaction with your processes. Interaction with the HT service is explained with an example project and runs over into building your own UI to interact with your tasks.

It can argue that this is beyond the scope of the target subject of this book, but in this case reality is that organizations are building their own interfaces to have a consistent look and feel. The authors taking the time to elaborate on the functionality exposed to allow you to create your own task interfaces is extremely interesting.

Chapter 8 - Persistence and transactions

This chapter walks through the persistence and transaction functionality as it applies to jBPM 5. Not only do we find out how it works, but we are shown how to configure it to our needs.

Chapter 9 - Smart processes using rules

Here is where the authors add intelligence to our business processes by showing us how to integrate rules or decisions into our processes by leveraging the Drools Rule Engine.

I got excited when I first saw the section 'Multi-process instance evaluations' as I thought they would detail the issues with using a single StatefulKnowledgeSession. I was interested in how multiple instances can interfere with each others facts as inserted into working memory, where we then have one process instance farther along that requests a rule evaluation (fireAllRules) thereby removing all facts and/or modifying facts in working memory. This will effect the second instance that tries to request a rule evaluation only to find the fact as she inserted them have mysteriously vanished. The only real option is to manage process execution so that process instances have their own individual StatefulKnowledgeSession.

The authors side-step this here, but as we will find out later it is revisited in chapter 11.

Chapter 10 - Reactive processes using Drools Fusion

A chapter covering rules or decisions using a temporal element. Reasoning over time, or better known as Complex Event Processing (CEP). The authors also introduce Event Driven Architectures (EDA), but this is not woven into the rest of the chapter nor are there references made for further reader research.

The technology from within Drools Fusion project is covered in deep technical detail, giving you a strong basis should you wish to add these concepts to your processes.

Chapter 11 - Architectural and integration tips

This chapter covers designing your architecture based on how your process project requirements pan out. Here the authors state, "Most of the time, we don't exactly know what our applications will look like until we start coding and narrowing down its requirements..." This is a very ad-hoc developer oriented take on process projects that would never gain traction within enterprise process projects. I suggest we all try to take these comments that we encounter in this book with a grain of salt.

The authors spend considerable effort trying to convince the reader of the importance of where the KnowledgeSession needs to reside in your architecture. I think the real value in this chapter starts at the section “One session per process instance”, so read from this point onwards with great attention to detail. I was looking for this discussion in chapter 9, but it is of extreme interest to anyone trying to develop processes in anything but the simplest of architectures.