Prototyping a Workflow-Driven Application in a Day: Part 1

It is undoubtable that today's business applications mostly involve automation of processes, whether the processes involved are simple or complicated. Examples of common processes in an organization are leave application approval, purchase and ordering, recruitment, and claim approval.

It's not just time-consuming to develop a process-oriented application from ground-up, but more than often the processes are hardcoded, which makes it inflexible and resource-intensive to cater for any changes in the process.

Open Source Generic Workflow Management System

Joget Workflow is an open source Java-based workflow management system designed to automate and manage people-driven processes. You can refer to the release announcement previously posted at Javalobby for an introduction to Joget Workflow.

In this tutorial article, we're going to explore how we can create (not develop) a simple workflow-driven leave application system, using Joget Workflow without any programming effort.

Download and Install Joget Workflow

Visit the Joget Workflow download page, and choose an installation bundle that suits your platform. The standard installation bundle is packaged with Java 6, Apache Tomcat 6.0.18 (port 8080) and MySQL 5.0.22 (3307). If you have problem starting up Joget server, it is most probably resulting from a port conflict. You may take a look at this forum topic for suggested resolution.

When Joget server is successfully started up, go to http://localhost:8080/wflow-wfweb/ in your browser, and you will be greeted with the Joget Workflow Management Console login screen. To login as default administrator, use admin/admin (username/password).

Workflow Management Cycle

Deploying and executing a process in Joget Workflow  involves a 3-step cycle: design, configure and execute.

Figure 1.1: Workflow Management Cycle

Design Leave Application Approval Process using Workflow Designer

In the Workflow Management Console, go to Design Process > Design New Process.
Click the "Launch Workflow Designer" button, and the Workflow Designer will be loaded using Java Web Start (requires JRE).

In the Workflow Designer, click File > New to create a new package, and a default workflow process will be created as shown:

Figure 1.2: Default package created in Workflow Designer

From the Navigator panel on the left, edit package properties (double-click "New Package") as follows, and apply changes:

• Id: leave_application
• Name: Leave Application

Figure 1.3: Package Properties

Again, from the Navigator panel on the left, edit workflow process properties (double-click "Workflow Process") as follows, and apply changes:

• Id: leave_approval
• Name: Leave Approval Process

Figure 1.4: Workflow process properties

Process Participants

In a process, there must be at least one participant to perform an activity. A participant can be seen as an actor from a Use Case Diagram.

Let's assume we are going to have the following participants in this process:

1. Applicant: the person who submits the leave application
2. Approver: the person who approves submitted leave application
3. System: performs system-executable activities, such as sending out email notification

So, based on this assumption, we're going to have three participants illustrated in this process design, each with a dedicated swim lane.

There's a default participant named "Participant" created in this default package. Now, we will rename this default participant to a more meaningful name to match the actors taking part in the leave application approval process.

Double-click on "Participant" and edit the participant properties as follows:

• Id: applicant
• Name: Applicant
• Type: Participant

Figure 1.5: Participant Properties

Now that we have a participant named "Applicant", we need 2 more participants - Approver, System.

Figure 1.6: Participant Tool

From the toolbar menu, click on Participant button, and add two more participants (swim lanes) into the process diagram.

Edit the 2nd participant as:

• Id: approver
• Name: Approver
• Type: Participant

Edit the 3rd participant as:

• Id: system
• Name: System
• Type: System

It's very important to note that  for the participant that performs system-automated activities, its type must be set as System. You can stop using the Participant tool by pressing Esc key, right-click, or the Selection arrow in toolbar.

As of now, you should have a process diagram as illustrated:

Figure 1.7: Added 3 Workflow Participants - Applicant, Approver, System

In the next part of this tutorial (Part 2), we're going to define workflow activities for each participant, the transitions between them, and workflow variable.