JBPM 3 or 4

[tbee]

Ok. JBPM 4 alpha is out. Compliments to the team!

But as a newcomer, I'm facing a decision now. I've just finished embedding jBMP 3.2.3 into our internal framework. I've solved all the issues and am ready to present it internally. Nothing has been done with it, apart from me writing unit tests.

I know jBPM 4 will have a new API, so I isolated all API code and I should be able to migrate fairly easy.

So just now I took a peek at jBPM 4 and noticed that the XML has changed seriously. And with that I'm less pleased, because the XML I cannot isolate! My user are supposed to write XML, using the designer or not.

My questions:
- Will jBPM 4.0 still be able to interprete the 3.2.3 XML process definitions?
- How stable is the 4.0 alpha? Can I migrate and demo?
- Is jBPM 4.0 getting along quickly enough to left me hold off on this until it is stable? (Are we talking weeks or months?)

[kukeltje]

I know jBPM 4 will have a new API, so I isolated all API code and I should be able to migrate fairly easy.

Always a good choice

My questions:
- Will jBPM 4.0 still be able to interprete the 3.2.3 XML process definitions?

No, but a conversion that will yield between 80-100% (depending on what you use) will be provided.

- How stable is the 4.0 alpha? Can I migrate and demo?

Depends on what you want to demo...lots of things do not work yet, so I personally would not. What you can do is mention that jBPM is moving in the direction of taking the best of BPMN (e.g. graphical notation, terminology) and combine that with what jBPM is good at (flexible language under the hood in xml)
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- Is jBPM 4.0 getting along quickly enough to left me hold off on this until it is stable? (Are we talking weeks or months?)

Weeks? No... hahaha... there are fixed releasecycles of 8 weeks, so expect alpha2 in 8, maybe a beta1 in 16, then another beta, a cr or 2 and final. So don't expect a GA release before summerhollidays...

[tbee]

"kukeltje" wrote:
Weeks? No... hahaha... there are fixed releasecycles of 8 weeks, so expect alpha2 in 8, maybe a beta1 in 16, then another beta, a cr or 2 and final. So don't expect a GA release before summerhollidays...

Thanks for the clear answers.

Not that I am happy with them, but still. :-) I will examine if 3.2.3 and 4.0 can be used along side each other, or if the packages overlap.