Process Data Definition – Part II… and Web form introduction by Red Maveriks

September 26, 2015 Leave a comment

 

clip_image002So here’s our new article, completing the data definition series. We’ll build the remaining Business and Data Objects as well as build our first web form based on those objects.

Using your data inside the “Request a Parking Space” process

Last time, we saw how we defined the data that will be governed by our Business Process.

Now it’s time to make use of it during the process execution. It’s this data that will be input, manipulated and condition the actual process flow for every process instance.

If you remember from the last article, you had some homework

You had to build the Parking Space Business Object. Check what you did against our proposal. It should feature the same attributes, give or take a few…

Parking Space

  • Space Nr.
  • Reservation Start Date&Time
  • Reservation End Date&Time
  • Reserved for
  • AllSpacesOccupied?
  • Meeting with
  • Employee Nr

Important Note: Remember that processes govern data, they don’t keep it. Data is kept in the database. That’s how you have to think.

Again, the purpose of this series is to help business analysts and process owners model and automate processes without writing any code, so we’ll assume that the IT department did their work and expose some services that check if there’s a parking space available for the time slot that the requester wishes to reserve and, if so, returns the information defined in the Parking Space Business Object, and if not, returns an response that indicates all parking spaces are occupied.

Remaining Data Objects

Let’s create our remaining data objects: one for the parking space and one of our special data objects that help us govern the process flow, an instance of the ProcessStatusBO.

Inside the process BPMN diagram, click on the Data Objects option Read the complete article here.

SOA & BPM Partner Community

For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center.

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Process Data Definition by Red Maveriks

August 28, 2015 Leave a comment

 

clip_image002Processes transform inputs (data) into outputs (data)

We have our BPMN process and if we only want to document our process, this is almost all the work we’ll need to do. However, Akino Fishing Co. wants to not only document, but also automate and execute the processes. For that, we need to define our process data.

A process governs data transformation

Process data refers to the entities that the process manipulates, or interacts with, during its life cycle. To put it simply, a process manipulates things. All these things must first be defined, so that the process does what it’s intended to do.

For our process, we’ll define the following data entities:

  • Request
  • Parking Space

Oracle BPM Composer allows you to define this in a fairly simple way. First, you create the data structure, that will specify what makes that “thing”. Let’s build an example to understand this better:

What makes a request? How is it defined? Think about it for 5 minutes…

5 Minutes

You should end up with something like this:

  • Requester – who made the request
  • Request date – when the request was made
  • Employee? – is the requester an employee?
  • Park date&time – when does the requester want to park
  • Fulfilled? – was the request fulfilled?
  • State – state of the request: open, closed, pending alternative

So, these set the characteristics, the structure, of our request.

Business Objects vs Data Objects

We define a request as being comprised of these 6 elements, by creating a Business Object. In the BPM process composer select the option Business Object, Read the complete article here.

SOA & BPM Partner Community

For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center.

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