Eric D. Schabell

The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Rules and Processes

2023-03-03T07:00:00.005+01:00

There are so many ways and so much content out there to get you started with open source rules and process automation tooling by Red Hat, so where do you start?

The goal of this guide is to provide you with a learning path through this content as a way to get started from download, to installation, to quick starts, to hands-on workshops, and all the way to using this technology for your cloud-native development projects.

You'll walk away from this guide with a learning path mapped out through content that's enjoyable to work with and can help you get started on your rules and process automation projects today.

There is a way to start from the beginning and walk a path to rules and process automation proficiency, outlined as follows:

Choosing the rules or process automation path
Obtain the tooling (downloads)
Quick start projects (installs, cloud-native, demos)
Published content collections
Video collections
Free hands-on workshops

To get started on your learning path just explore the outline below:

(As seen on KieLive episode #14)

KieLive: The ultimate beginners guide to rules and processes (episode 14)

2020-11-04T07:00:00.011+01:00

I've been invited to join the KieLives series online for episode 14 of live streaming around how to get started with rules and processes on Tuesday, November 10th 2002.

What is KieLives?

The KIE Live Series is composed of live streamings that bring technical information and updates about business automation delivered by the projects under the KIE umbrella: Drools, jBPM, OptaPlanner, and Kogito.

Problems like process automation, decision automation, resource planning solution are the main topics, and of course, we always have in mind recent technology concepts like cloud-native application target for any type of cloud (private/public/hybrid/edge). You can expect to hear from business automation experts who code or/and deliver business automation within big enterprises across the world.

It's one thing to dive into rules and another to dive into process automation, but what about bringing them both together in a getting started learning path?

Join me and the hosts for an hour session online, free of charge, for a learning tour de force.

The session is about bringing years of content development, coding, demo creation, delivery on production solutions, and publishing to you in a simple learning path as follows:

KieLive: The ultimate beginners guide to rules and processes

There are so many ways and so much content out there to get you started with open source rules and process automation tooling by Red Hat, so where do you start?

How about spending an hour with Eric D. Schabell, taking a tour on where, why and how to get started from installation, hands-on workshops, all the way to cloud-native container-based fun?

We'll share insights and answer any questions you might have on getting started, scaling projects up for real organizations, and more. You'll walk away from this session with a list of content that's enjoyable to work with and can help you get started on projects today.

Date: 10 Nov 2020

Time: 17:00 - 18:00 CET (that's 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Eastern US time zone)

Where: http://red.ht/KieLive14 (live link day of event)

Just join the provided live streaming link during the indicated times, or watch for the link to the recording to be published post-event.

Hope you enjoy the tour!

DevConf.US 2019 - 7 Steps to Expanding Your AppDev Toolbox (slides)

2019-08-17T20:30:00.000+02:00

Previously I talked about submitting to DevConf.us in Boston.

This week I was in Boston presenting three talks that got accepted.

It was a lot of fun and happy to see so many faces of friend, to meet so many eager new developers, and to share the stories I have to tell.

Below are the slides from the talk I gave on 7 steps to expanding your application development toolbox.

First the slides and then the abstract:

7 Steps to Expanding Your AppDev Toolbox

Are you ready to add automation to your development toolbox? Are you looking to integrate processes in your application development projects but not sure where to start? Do the process integration tools intimidate you a little? No worries, we've got the easiest way to spin up your knowledge around process integration using open source technologies. Take a tour with us and learn how in 7 easy steps you can soar to new heights by adding these new skills to your AppDev toolbox. You'll walk away from this session with the learning path to integrating automation in to your next project. This session content provides all materials free, online, and available in easy to follow hands-on format. Attendees can head homeward after this session and continue advancing their skills at their own pace.

Thanks for attending and feel free to reach out via this sites contact form if you have any questions or comments.

DevConf.US 2019 - How to Jump Start Your Career in Open Source (slides)

2019-08-17T19:40:00.000+02:00

Previously I talked about submitting to DevConf.us in Boston.

This week I was in Boston presenting three talks that got accepted.

It was a lot of fun and happy to see so many faces of friend, to meet so many eager new developers, and to share the stories I have to tell.

Below are the slides from the talk I gave on how to jump start your career in open source.

First the slides and then the abstract:

How to Jump Start Your Career in Open Source

It's not coincidence. It's not luck. It's not going to happen by itself, so what's the secret sauce? Understanding what makes a career in open source grow, what choices are crucial, and what actions accelerate or damage your open source future are sometimes hard to grasp. Learning to position, expand and grow your personal brand in the open source world is what this session provides. Be ready for your next step in open source. Join me for an hour of power where you'll be given a clear and easy to use plan for jump starting your open source career immediately.

Thanks for attending and feel free to reach out via this sites contact form if you have any questions or comments.

DevConf.US 2019 - 3 Pitfalls Everyone Ignores with Microservices (slides)

2019-08-17T16:40:00.000+02:00

Previously I talked about submitting to DevConf.us in Boston.

This week I was in Boston presenting three talks that got accepted.

It was a lot of fun and happy to see so many faces of friend, to meet so many eager new developers, and to share the stories I have to tell.

Below are the slides from the talk I gave on 3 pitfalls everyone ignores with microservices.

First the slides and then the abstract:

3 Pitfalls Everyone Ignores with Microservices

The daily hype is all around you. Microservices are a necessary step along the path to integration for a digitally successful future for your organization. The choices you’ve got to make don’t preclude the daily work of developing amazing applications. From containers, cloud, multicloud, and beyond, microservices are the core infrastructure ensuring your organization's flexibility in the digital world. Join us for an hour of power, where real life developer experiences are used to highlight the three top lessons we're all learning as we transition our integration infrastructure into modern day microservices.

Thanks for attending and feel free to reach out via this sites contact form if you have any questions or comments.

DevConf.US 2019 - Open Source Career with Automation Integration Acceptances

2019-06-18T07:00:00.000+02:00

Previously I talked about submitting to DevConf.us in Boston.

After submitting I was asked to help chair the Application Development and Containers track, so told the organizers we would not be selecting any of my talks for our track.

I kind of assumed I would just be attending as a track chair to assist the speakers in presenting smoothly through the entire conference. Then last week the acceptance letters arrived and all three talks have been chosen.

Gonna be busy time but fun week in Boston, MA from Aug 17 - 19, so hope to see you at one of these talks or just for a chat in the halls.

I'll be presenting the following talks in Boston:

How to Jump Start Your Career in Open Source

It's not coincidence. It's not luck. It's not going to happen by itself, so what's the secret sauce? Understanding what makes a career in open source grow, what choices are crucial, and what actions accelerate or damage your open source future are sometimes hard to grasp. Learning to position, expand and grow your personal brand in the open source world is what this session provides. Be ready for your next step in open source. Join me for an hour of power where you'll be given a clear and easy to use plan for jump starting your open source career immediately

Date: Saturday August 17, 2019
Time: 13:50 - 14:35
Room: Metcalf Small GS Union, BU

3 Pitfalls Everyone Ignores with Microservices

The daily hype is all around you. Microservices are a necessary step along the path to integration for a digitally successful future for your organization. The choices you’ve got to make don’t preclude the daily work of developing amazing applications. From containers, cloud, multicloud, and beyond, microservices are the core infrastructure ensuring your organization's flexibility in the digital world. Join us for an hour of power, where real life developer experiences are used to highlight the three top lessons we're all learning as we transition our integration infrastructure into modern day microservices.

Date: Saturday August 17, 2019
Time: 10:50 - 11:35
Room: Conference Auditorium GS Union, BU

7 Steps to Expanding Your AppDev Toolbox

Are you ready to add automation to your development toolbox? Are you looking to integrate processes in your application development projects but not sure where to start? Do the process integration tools intimidate you a little? No worries, we've got the easiest way to spin up your knowledge around process integration using open source technologies. Take a tour with us and learn how in 7 easy steps you can soar to new heights by adding these new skills to your AppDev toolbox. You'll walk away from this session with the learning path to integrating automation in to your next project. This session content provides all materials free, online, and available in easy to follow hands-on format. Attendees can head homeward after this session and continue advancing their skills at their own pace.

Date: Saturday August 17, 2019
Time: 13:00 - 13:45
Room: Conference Auditorium GS Union, BU

See you soon in Boston!

DevConf.US 2019 - Open Source Career with Automation Integration

2019-04-09T07:00:00.000+02:00

Last year I submitted to this great conference, but for the first time since I've been doing conference submissions, I had to pull out due to unforeseen circumstances.

I really wanted to make a point of returning to support this event, so I have put in three of my best talks. I hope the committee gives this another chance, as I've cleared my schedule for this event and can't wait to meet everyone at Boston University on 15-17 August.

Here's my list of submissions, fingers crossed:

These talks I've submitted are some of the best with regards to attendee reactions, participation in discussion during the sessions, and in providing content to expand attendees developer skill set.

How to Jump Start Your Career in Open Source

3 Pitfalls Everyone Ignores with Microservices

7 Steps to Expanding Your AppDev Toolbox

Beginners Guide: How to Configure an Email Service Task for Red Hat Process Automation Manager

2019-03-04T07:00:00.000+01:00

Recently I've been updating my free online workshops, specifically the series based on JBoss BPM Suite so that you can get started with the newer Red Hat Process Automation Manager.

In this article I'm sharing something that I've stumbled on while trying to use email notifications in my automation project.

I discovered while updating this project that the email service task, a task type that should allow you to send emails from a process, is not pre-configured out of the box. Not only that, I'm unable to find the solution online for Red Hat Process Automation Manager.

Let's fix that shall we and take a look at what's needed to get our emails flowing in our processes?

Configuring email tasks

Figure 1: An email service task.

Many years ago I published a few articles around automating email user tasks. This included details requiring adjusting the underlying JBoss Enterprise Application Server mail configuration, but with the current version 7.2 we're using that's working for your local machine right out of the box.

<outbound-socket-binding name="mail-smtp">
     <remote-destination host="localhost" port="25"></remote-destination>
</outbound-socket-binding>

As you can see, the localhost port 25 will be used for binding all email activity our Red Hat Process Automation Manager generates, so all we need to do is configure our current project to process the email task correctly.

Figure 2: Project settings for WIH's.

There are a few concepts in using a service task like email in our project. First off, any service task requires a Work Item Handler (WIH) to be defined for handling the task. In our case it's defining the email task to use a WIH that's included in the product, but not pre-configured for our projects.

The second item is that you'll need something to listen to port 25 and process the messages our email task generates. Normally you'd setup some sort of SMTP or email server, but that's a bit much for just testing our process. We'll be using a simple java solution to capture these messages and display them in a simple inbox.

Email Work Item Handler
First, let's look at configuring the project itself to make use of a specific handler specification. From the project assets view shown, shown in figure 2, select the settings tab. This provides all the project configuration options and we'll start on the left side choosing deployments and then work item handlers.

Figure 3: Email work item handler.

From there we add a new work item handler and fill in the details for the email handler as shown in figure 3. For completeness the details are included here so you can cut-and-paste them in to your projects.

Name: Email
Value: new org.jbpm.process.workitem.email.EmailWorkItemHandler("localhost", "25", "", "", "true")

Save these settings and you can now build and deploy this project with an email task sending emails on the localhost SMTP over port 25.

Figure 4: fakeSMTP helper application.

The final question is how can we capture these emails on port 25 without setting up our own SMTP server?

Capturing email
Included in the Red Hat Process Automation Manager installation demo project (used in the online workshops) you'll find in the support directory a java helper application called fakeSMTP.

This project provides a simple java application you can run as shown in figure 4, which once started provides a SMTP server and inbox capture. Run this before executing any process that is configured as shown in this article and your emails are sent, processed, and captured in this application.

For more details on how that looks you can see the free online workshop lab 7 which details it all for you step by step.

Happy automation integrating!

Get a Signed Copy of Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM

2018-05-21T07:00:00.000+02:00

As mentioned previously, a few weeks ago in San Francisco, CA I spent some time signing copies of my book Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM for attendees of the Red Hat Summit.

Since the book was launched as a free ebook download on Red Hat Developers, it was not really possible to get your hands on a real paper copy of the book.

Until now.

With over 200 put in print for Red Hat Summit, it was amazing to see the lines of people wanting to meet, greet and obtain their signed copies.

If you would like to receive a copy, possibly signed by me, read further.

Share your JBoss BPM story

It was wonderful to meet people from all across the globe. Just off the top of my head, I spoke with readers and JBoss BPM Suite fans from the UK, Australia, India, Japan, China, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Brazil and South Africa.

There might have been more, but after two signing sessions of an hour, my mind was whirling from all the friends, colleagues, customers and partners that attended the signing table.

I left the Red Hat Developers team with a few books pre-signed for their next event and they were kind enough to send me home with a small box of the book.

If you would like a free paper book copy, possibly signed by me the author, then here's what you have to do.

Share your JBoss BPM story in a comments section of this post and let me know by contacting me through my Twitter account.

I'll be in touch about finding how to get a copy of the book, while the limited supply lasts, to you!

Eric D. Schabell

The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Rules and Processes

KieLive: The ultimate beginners guide to rules and processes (episode 14)

KieLive: The ultimate beginners guide to rules and processes

DevConf.US 2019 - 7 Steps to Expanding Your AppDev Toolbox (slides)

7 Steps to Expanding Your AppDev Toolbox

DevConf.US 2019 - How to Jump Start Your Career in Open Source (slides)

How to Jump Start Your Career in Open Source

DevConf.US 2019 - 3 Pitfalls Everyone Ignores with Microservices (slides)

3 Pitfalls Everyone Ignores with Microservices

DevConf.US 2019 - Open Source Career with Automation Integration Acceptances

How to Jump Start Your Career in Open Source

3 Pitfalls Everyone Ignores with Microservices

7 Steps to Expanding Your AppDev Toolbox

DevConf.US 2019 - Open Source Career with Automation Integration

How to Jump Start Your Career in Open Source

3 Pitfalls Everyone Ignores with Microservices

7 Steps to Expanding Your AppDev Toolbox

Beginners Guide: How to Configure an Email Service Task for Red Hat Process Automation Manager

Configuring email tasks Figure 1: An email service task.

Get a Signed Copy of Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM

Share your JBoss BPM story

Configuring email tasks

Figure 1: An email service task.