Chapter 5. Introducing jBPM

We’ve spent the last two chapters talking about the Service Component Architecture (SCA) and its implementation using Apache Tuscany. You’ve learned how to use this framework to create reusable services that can be exposed through a variety of protocols, such as SOAP-based web services, JMS, and RMI. The ability to create and propagate such component-based services is one of the central principles of SOA. Now, in the next three chapters we’ll address business process management (BPM), which, at its core, is about leveraging these services to create business processes. In other words, we’re transitioning from how to create the services to how they can be consumed and used. As you’ll learn, BPM represents a new paradigm for software application development where services can be woven together into visual models that reflect actual business processes.

5.1. BPM: the “secret sauce” of SOA

5.2. History and overview of JBoss jBPM

5.3. Understanding nodes

5.4. Using transitions

5.5. Extending using actions

5.6. Using events for capturing lifecycle changes in a process

5.7. Managing context using variables

5.8. Summary