Friday, March 4, 2011

New BPMN 2.0 Eclipse editor

We would like to show you our new and improved BPMN 2.0 Eclipse editor, which is currently being developed for jBPM 5.1 and will support a much larger part of the BPMN 2.0 specification (hopefully even including basic choreography and conversation).

For this, we've had a lot of help from the guys at Codehoop. They've been working on it for the last few months, and we believe it's currently at a stage where people can start to play it with and give us feedback.


(click on image to enlarge)

Features:
  • It supports almost all BPMN 2.0 process constructs and attributes (including lanes and pools, annotations and all the BPMN2 node types).
  • Support for the few custom attributes that jBPM5 introduces.
  • Allows you to configure which elements and attributes you want use when modeling processes (so we can limit the constructs for example to the subset currently supported by jBPM5, which is a profile we will support by default, or even more if you like).

Since it is still work in progress, there are still a few limitations or missing elements, but we should be able to clean it all up pretty soon, and include it as part of jBPM 5.1. But if you're looking for an open-source BPMN2 editor and might be interested in participating, let us know !

You can find the codebase here. We will be providing an easy-to-use update site for installation once we reach the final milestone, but if you already want to give it a go and build it from source:
  • Fetch the source and import the projects into Eclipse.
  • The project is reusing the Eclipse BPMN2 meta-model project for loading / saving BPMN 2.0 XML, so you will need to download and import the projects from the Eclipse BPMN2 repository (git://git.eclipse.org/gitroot/bpmn2) as well.
  • If you then run as Eclipse application, a new Eclipse environment should come up.
  • Create a new BPMN2 diagram by selecting File -> New -> Other and then select BPMN2 Diagram Wizard (under BPMN2 category).
There is also a Wiki page that contains some screenshots useful information.

Codehoop is a small agency building Eclipse toolkits and Java+Scala enterprise middleware. The team has been excited to work with Fortune 500 companies as well as small startups. The result is a great variety of expertise on Eclipse technologies, ranging from database management to code editors, visual modelling and vector-based animation studio.

Let us know what you think !

10 comments:

  1. This is awesomely nice!
    Hats off.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kris,

    I am trying to create custom work items with this new editor, but they dont show up in palette. Is there a different format to follow for this new editor. With the same configuration I can see the custom work items in the drools/jBPM default editor. Let me know, I need to figure this out kind of urgently.

    Thanks
    Harjot Narula

    ReplyDelete
  3. This version of the editor does not yet support custom work items like the current jBPM5 Eclipse plugin (though we're already looking at this). We've focussed mostly on the elements / attributes as specified by the BPMN2 plugin. When integrating this editor in the jBPM5 Eclipse plugin, we want to add this feature as well. So hopefully this should make the jBPM 5.1 release early May.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What profiles will be supported? Activi, TIBCO, jBPM,...?

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Erik

    We're trying to make sure we support everything that is defined as part of the BPMN 2.0 specification itself. Using Eclipse extension points, we're providing a small set of custom attributes to support a small set of custom attributes that are introduced by jBPM5.

    We have no plans ourselves to implement additional profiles at this point, but we welcome collaboration with other interested parties. Interoperability should (in theory) already be possible for the elements that are defined as part of the specification.

    Kris

    ReplyDelete
  6. In the Incident Management - coll chor.bpmn2 example from the OMG there is a choreography definition. However, I only manage to see the processes in the editor (graphical part), not the choreography (while it is present in the properties tab below it). Is there a way to achieve what you show here:
    http://codehoop.com/bpmn2img/bpmn2-2.png
    ?

    Regards,

    Pascal

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm using jboss-bpmn 5.1 final installer full. (eclipse 3.6.2 - java 1.6-26). When I open a bpmn file no link bettween elemnts apperas. Can you help me?

    ReplyDelete
  8. is there any comunuity/newsletter/wiki where asking for help?
    i need to extend the tool with a new task. does anyone have idea how to do that?

    PS: the editor in the picture is not the JBPM, right?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi, myself created bpmn2 editor using gmf, but when i open the diagram in other editor like bonita 5.5.1 or graphiti 0.8 in eclipse 3.7, it is not opening these editors. in my editor, starting node is "Collaboration" --> pool --> process --> others, what may be the issue? Kindly give proper suggessions...:)

    Regards,
    Karthikeyan
    triumph.karthikeyan at gmail dot com

    ReplyDelete
  10. @Harjot April 1st
    @Kris April 2nd

    I am able to get a custom Service Task to appear in the old "BPMN2 Process Editor" with the "drools.rulebase.conf" and WID definition file. I can't get it to appear in the new one though. Does the new "BPMN2 Visual Editor" support this yet?

    ReplyDelete