jBPM Work Items and Timers
Mgr. Marián Macik, Senior Quality Engineer
April 2021
❏ Work Item Handlers
❏ What is a Work Item (WI)?
❏ Work Item Handler (WIH) installation
❏ Example #1 - Email WIH configuration
❏ Example #2 - REST WIH configuration
❏ Timer nodes
❏ Start, Catch intermediate
❏ Boundary intermediate
❏ Example #3 - Timer nodes
TOPICS COVERED
❏ Work Item is an implementation of a domain-specific service (REST call to an external service,
email, integration with Google, Dropbox…).
❏ In other words it is “a piece of work that needs to be done” as a part of a business process.
❏ Work Items are executed using Work Item Handlers which are pluggable into the jBPM (Java
classes implementing a Work Item Handler interface).
❏ Anybody can implement its own WIH in case it doesn’t yet exist.
❏ WIH “tells” the jBPM engine how to handle the process node with a particular work item, i.e. how to
send an email, call a REST service, upload a file to Dropbox…
❏ Plenty of Work Items available in jBPM Work Items repository (already preinstalled in jBPM).
WORK ITEM
❏ First, you have to enable work item for whole Business Central.
❏ Click on the wheel in the upper right corner.
❏ Select Service Tasks Administration.
❏ Enable the service task you want.
❏ Some work items are enabled and available by default:
❏ BusinessRuleTask
❏ DecisionTask
❏ Email
❏ JMSSendTask
❏ Rest
❏ ServiceTask
❏ WebService
WORK ITEMS INSTALLATION
❏ Now you can install it to your project.
❏ In project Settings/Service
Tasks, click on Install button.
❏ Fill in needed parameters, they
vary with each work item.
WORK ITEMS INSTALLATION
❏ You should see your work item handler declared in Settings/Deployments/Work Item Handlers.
❏ If it is not there, press the Reset button to refresh the user interface
❏ Don’t press the Save button before you can see Work Item Handler as on the picture
WORK ITEMS INSTALLATION
Example #1: EMAIL WORK ITEM CONFIGURATION
❏ Configuration for GMail:
❏ new org.jbpm.process.workitem.email.EmailWorkItemHandler("smtp.gmail.com", "587",
"testMail@gmail.com", "testPassword", "true")
❏ Don’t forget the last parameter “true”. This will instruct Business Central to use secure TLS
connection, which is needed for GMail.
❏ In GMail account, don’t forget to enable access for less secure apps.
❏ Configuration for MailSlurper:
❏ Change wwwPort to 8180 in config.json (or any other available port on your system) so it
doesn’t clash with Business Central 8080 port
❏ Create credentials
❏ new org.jbpm.process.workitem.email.EmailWorkItemHandler("localhost", "2500", "user",
"password")
Example #2: REST WORK ITEM CONFIGURATION
❏ Configuration:
❏ new org.jbpm.process.workitem.rest.RESTWorkItemHandler("user", "password", classLoader)
❏ User and password can be empty, i.e. “”, if no authentication is needed
❏ classLoader is a special variable needed for jBPM to see our domain object, i.e. Person
❏ If you need other options, please have a look at the source code and choose the appropriate
constructor for your needs
Example #2: REST WORK ITEM CONFIGURATION
❏ You need your domain object, i.e. Person, to be remotable - able to be marshalled/unmarshalled
to/from JSON/XML
TIMERS
❏ Timer nodes are useful for situations when our domain relies on specific time events, durations or
deadlines
❏ We need to create a new process instance on a specific date or in specific intervals (Start)
❏ A product is painted and paint needs to dry before moving onto another stage in a factory
(Catch intermediate)
❏ A task has to be completed in 24 hours, otherwise we need to escalate to a manager (Boundary
intermediate)
❏ ISO8601 format for specifying time events
Start Catch intermediate Boundary intermediate
linkedin.com/company/red-hat
youtube.com/user/RedHatVideos
facebook.com/redhatinc
twitter.com/RedHat
THANK YOU