Switchyard invoking BPM signal-event

[dckes]

Where can I find more information on using a signal-event in a Switchyard BPM process? I am looking for examples or documentation.

I have a very simple process with START_PROCESS and SIGNAL_EVENT action types. The START_PROCESS works fine. It invokes the BPM process correctly.

However, the SIGNAL_EVENT operation does not seem to invoke the signal event in my BPM process.

In Switchyard I have mapped the correct operation name to the SIGNAL_EVENT action type.

I am wondering how the incoming message in Switchyard is mapped to the correct event in my BPM process? Do I have to do anything with the eventType in BPM? I have read something about changing the tooling generated ID? What is this all about?

What am I missing in the mapping of the Switchyard configuration to the BPM signal-event?

kind regards,

Dave Kes

[dward]

The event id that shows up in the tooling is actually the signalRef in the bpmn2 file.  So, if you have this in bpmn2:

<signalEventDefinition id="SignalEventDefinition_1" signalRef="test"/>

Then do this in your switchyard.xml:

<implementation.bpm...>

    <actions>

        <action id="test" operation="myOperation" type="SIGNAL_EVENT">

        </action>

    </actions>

    ...

</implementation.bpm>

If this doesn't work for you, please attach your bpmn2 and switchyard.xml files.

[dckes]

Hi David,

I think I am still doing something wrong. It does not seem to work.

In my switchyard file I added the ID attribute according to the signalRef in the bpmn file.

See attached my switchyard.xml and bpmn file.

A process instance is started by invoking the submitOrder operation. In the SOAP message I added a processInstanceId field.

In a subsequent SOAP call I invoke the receiveOrderAcknowledgement operation which is supposed to invoke the signal event in my bpmn process.

In the Switchyard message trace I can see that Switchyard receives the message correctly. Unfortunatelly, the Task script in the bpmn process is not invoked.

Do I perhaps have to pass the processInstanceId to the bpmn process? Or do I also have to add an extra SOAP header field like processEvent? Should the process be persistent?

What am I missing in my configuration?

thanks!

[dward]

When you start a process instance, the response soap message will have the newly created processInstanceId in the soap headers.  You HAVE to send that back in the subsequent (signalling) request as a soap header, otherwise SwitchYard (and thus jBPM) won't know which process instance to signal.

Try that, and if you still have problems, please copy/paste here your MessageTrace output from both of your requests/responses.

Aside, if you are using SwitchYard 0.8, you don't have to have the <workItemHandlers> section in your switchyard.xml.  The SwitchYard runtime now always auto-registers the SwitchyardServiceWorkItemHandler.

[dckes]

Hi David,

Your signalRef-id suggestion did the trick!

Apparently, I had to solve some other problems before it worked:

- I changed back the SOAP Header Type from XML to Value (unwrapped payload)

- I printed the process instance ID in a task in my processflow (kcontext.getProcessInstance().getId()), to make sure I passed the correct processInstanceId in order to invoke the event in my flow.

- My JAXB tranformation failed, so the bpmn process was not reached.

Thanks for your help!

[dward]

No problem. Glad it's working for you now!