The BPMN Workflow mechanism based on the Jakarta EE Framework makes a powerful and efficient combination for the development of business applications with a focus on business process management. Both Jakarta EE and BPMN 2.0 are standardized and widely supported. Scalability Jakarta EE provides a secure foundation for building business applications with powerful business process management capabilities. This allows developers to take advantage of both technologies to create efficient, interoperable and sustainable BPM solutions. I will explain these aspects in more detail below.
Standardization
Jakarta EE provides a standardized platform for building enterprise applications, offering a set of specifications and APIs. This standardization ensures portability and interoperability across different Jakarta EE compliant application servers. This allows developers to work within a single framework without having to learn proprietary techniques. This not only simplifies the development process, but also promotes a broader ecosystem where developers can focus on using standardized features, thereby increasing the overall efficiency and maintainability of applications.
On the other hand, BPMN 2.0 is a standard notation for business process modeling. It provides a common language for the cooperation of business analysts and developers to define and improve business processes. This makes it easier for developers, architects and non-technical teams to talk about the same things in a common language. Moreover, BPMN facilitates interoperability between different BPMN modeling tools. This compatibility ensures that models created in one tool can be seamlessly transferred and further developed in another, fostering a collaborative and flexible business process modeling environment. BPMN effectively builds a bridge between business and IT departments while promoting a standardized and interoperable approach to process modeling.
Integration options
Integrating business applications into existing IT infrastructure is key to a sustainable architecture. Jakarta EE is designed to support the integration of various business components and systems using a robust architecture that facilitates seamless communication and collaboration. Technologies such as Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS), Java Message Service (JMS) or Jakarta Security 3.0 provide essential building blocks for the development of scalable and interoperable business applications. These technologies empower BPM systems to efficiently handle different interactions with different platforms, applications, databases and services.
Using XML as a foundation, BPMN 2.0 integrates seamlessly with Jakarta EE components such as the Jakarta XML Binding 4.0 API. By leveraging BPMN 2.0’s extension mechanism, a custom business process can be extended with technical details about integration platforms and services within a microservices architecture. This capability facilitates the orchestration of business processes that span multiple systems and services, enabling a cohesive and efficient integration framework.
Transaction management
Another aspect I want to talk about is transactions. Transactions are an essential prerequisite for the execution of business processes. Jakarta EE provides a robust transaction management framework that ensures the reliability and integrity of business processes. In a BPMN Workflow system, multiple tasks and events can often orchestrate a single business transaction. Jakarta EE’s powerful transaction management capabilities help coordinate and synchronize these steps, ensuring that either all succeed or none. This atomicity is critical to maintaining data consistency and reliability in complex business scenarios. Jakarta EE’s transaction management support therefore plays a fundamental role in the development of reliable business applications by providing a framework for managing transactions in a coordinated, fault-tolerant manner.
Scalability and performance
When we talk about scalability and performance, we usually only think about horizontal scaling in the form of more server capacity. But a well-scalable architecture is also characterized by optimal use of available system resources. With its micro-container architecture, Jakarta EE offers features for building scalable, high-performance business applications, a critical aspect for BPM systems that often need to manage a significant amount of concurrent processes and user interactions. But Jakarta EE application servers also extend to modern cloud environments, allowing them to be seamlessly deployed in a cluster configuration within a cloud infrastructure. This cloud-ready nature of Jakarta EE enhances the flexibility and scalability of BPM systems, enabling them to efficiently handle diverse workloads and ensure optimal performance. The ability to run Jakarta EE application servers in a cluster in cloud environments highlights its importance in supporting the development of robust and scalable BPMN-driven applications adapted to today’s technology environment.
Security
Security is a constant topic, especially for enterprise applications. Jakarta EE includes strong security features, addressing issues such as authentication, authorization and secure communication. These features are not only essential, they are critical to building secure BPM systems, especially given the sensitive nature of business processes and data that is often handled. In the context of BPMN applications, reliable data processing appears as an extremely important aspect. Jakarta EE’s security mechanisms play a key role in guaranteeing that only authorized users have access to certain processes and data, providing a resilient defense against unauthorized access or potential security breaches. This emphasis on reliable data processing underscores Jakarta EE’s commitment to fostering a secure environment within the BPM system, instilling confidence in the integrity and confidentiality of the information being managed.
Platforms and tools
Finally, let’s talk about the platforms and tools available. Jakarta EE has a rich ecosystem of tools, libraries, and frameworks that can be leveraged to develop BPMN business applications. Commonly used open source server platforms for building Jakarta EE applications include JBoss Wildfly, Payara/Glassfish, and Open Liberty, all of which are cloud-ready. Applications can be seamlessly exchanged between these platforms.
Various commercial and open source tools are available for BPMN diagram modeling. One free BPMN modeling tool is Open-BPMN, which can be run on various IDEs such as Visual Studio Code, Eclipse IDE, and Eclipse Theia, as well as a standalone web application. Open-BPMN can be used by business analysts to design top-level business processes, as well as by architects and developers to model the technical details of complex processing logic.
Built on the Eclipse Graphical Language Server Platform (GLSP), Open-BPMN provides an extension mechanism that allows the BPMN modeling platform to be adapted to the requirements of individual applications within a vertical domain. Using the BPMN 2.0 extension mechanism ensures the continued validity of the BPMN 2.0 standard.
Imixs-Workflow is an open-source BPMN Workflow engine based on the Jakarta EE Framework. In its latest version, it supports Jakarta EE 10 and includes the BPMN modeling extension for Open-BPMN. Imixs-Workflow provides an extensive set of APIs and plugins that enable the integration of BPMN 2.0 into any business application. The workflow engine supports a powerful multi-layered security concept with precise access control seamlessly integrated into the Jakarta EE Security API. With the concept of event-driven modeling, a human-centric workflow can be developed in less time.
Abstract
In short, the integration of the BPMN Workflow mechanism with the Jakarta EE Framework establishes a robust foundation for the development of business applications focused on business process management. The collaboration between Jakarta EE and BPMN 2.0, characterized by standardization and broad support, not only ensures the creation of efficient, interoperable and sustainable BPM solutions, but also signifies a commitment to industry standards.