4 Replies Latest reply on May 28, 2009 3:54 PM by mariusmeuser

    Support for Dynamic Workflow Changes

      Hi,

      I am currently evaluating jBPM as a candidate technology for some implementation-work.

      A special requirement from project-side is to be able to do dynamic workflow changes. That means, to change workflowdefinition during enactment and propagate changes to running instances.

      I worked through the docs but didnt find a hint about that feature.

      So here goes my question:

      Does jBPM support dynamic workflow changes somehow or is it possible to reach that requirement with some implementation work ?

      Thanks,

      Marius Meuser

        • 1. Re: Support for Dynamic Workflow Changes
          jbarrez

          It is possible. In the end its a matter of database manipulations, but I've never done it myself.

          Otoh, you should make out for yourself is this 'dynamic workflow' really is needed. Workflow systems are used to make people do the same, company-wide. If some people do need to do other things (ie what you call dynamic), then this should be modeled in your flow.

          If you want to do ad-hoc changes to your flow, what's the added value? Your KPI's will be useless and maintenance will become a hell. So, yes, I'm not a fan of dynamic workflows ;-)

          • 2. Re: Support for Dynamic Workflow Changes

            Thanks for quick response.
            Well, our project is developing an methodology for modelbase software integration. This results in a toolkit / framework. Due to the complexity of the developed procees, we intend to integrate a workflow component for user guidance and project-management purposes.

            This process will be very long-running, i know not ideal for wfms, and has to be flexible as well. Changes to a project flow are to be expected. For that purpose dynamic workflow is needed.

            • 3. Re: Support for Dynamic Workflow Changes
              jbarrez

              The long-running is not the problem, that's raison d'etre of workflow systems.

              The difficult thing here is indeed the changes at runtime. This is hard in any workflow system. But like I said, you can do it with jBPM, but you'll need to know the datamodel of jBPM by heart if you want to do it.

              • 4. Re: Support for Dynamic Workflow Changes

                I know that there is some kind of simple workflowdefiition versioning.

                Is there the possibility, to define activities by external workflowdefinitions ?

                Is the answer is yes, when are these references loaded ? during runtime or before ?