How Business Process Server works

1. Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge and Business Process Modeler provide an integrated development environment (IDE) for Business Process Server, where you can design and publish business processes. The application developer designs a process template (with the *.spt or *.swt extension) in the IDE that reflects the business flow and other business process requirements. Business rules for the process template can be defined using the Rule Editor, a BPM Events component that is launched with Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge.

2. The Web Container specifies a runtime environment for servlet-based portals that include Business Process Portal, BPM Webflow, and Web services. Business Process Portal provides user interfaces for the Home, Management, and Administration modules.

3. Once the process template is defined, Business Process Server Administrators use the Administration module to install the business process on the BP Server. Administrators can also configure Business Process Server components, manage user or group access control, and publish Business Process Server applications as Web services. Once installed, users access applications through servlets that pass the requests over an RMI/IIOP connection to the BP Server within an EJB Container.

4. The EJB Container provides a runtime environment that executes and manages Java-based program components that run on the server side of a client/server network. Within the EJB Container are the BP Server and BPM Events server.

5. The BP Server writes events to event tables in the database. Each Business Process uses JDBC to connect to database server as well as store events in the database. Within the BP Server, BPM Process Store uses JDBC to connect to the database server process and retrieve the events deposited by the BP Server process. BPM Process Store interprets the events and populates the process tables. These populated tables are used by Business Process Portal modules.

6. Once the process template is installed as a Business Process Server application, application users can use the Home module to do the following:

7. Once the process template is installed as an Business Process Server application, managers can use the Management module (if they have access privileges) to monitor execution of process instances and create reports. Servlets receive requests from managers and pass them onto the BP Server over an RMI/IIOP connection. Managers use the Report Builder to define management reports that retrieve information through JDBC to the database server.

8. BPM Events is a rule-based event or message processing server that loads application rules and executes them against the BP Server and/or external events or messages. This server persists data in the database for recovery and with the help of JDBC connects to the database.

9. Managed Adapters exchange information between Business Process Server applications and external applications by converting Business Process Server-specific protocol to the protocol of an external system such as a database or ERP system. When users add a Managed Adapter to a work step, they can define complex mapping between Business Process Server dataslots and adapter inputs or outputs of the external application. At runtime when the work step is executed, the Managed Adapter sets the adapter inputs and configuration, and maps the outputs to the appropriate output dataslots.

10. BPM Webflow is a run-time component that executes the presentation flows. This component provides a Model, View, Controller (MVC) paradigm for developing presentation flow-based applications and executing them in a Web container.

11. Business Process Servers Web services component allows BP Server applications to be published as Web services.

12. The relational database management system serves as a persistent store for all Business Process Server data storage needs. Business Process Portal and the servers connect to DBMS using the JDBC driver.