Oracle BPEL, How To Get Ready For It

OpenWorld 2007

Sunday, November 11

Agenda

• Statement of Direction on Oracle Workflow• What is BPEL• Skills you need for BPEL• Conversion from Oracle Workflow to BPEL• Recommended Direction• What about AME• Additional References

More Information

Search for the following using Google:bpel workflow migration site:www.oracle.com

There are many articles that will be briefly discussed here, that you can review later.

This tip was provided by Robert Wunderlich, Oracle

Statement of Direction on Oracle Workflow

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/workflow/workflow_sod.html

Some key points from the desupport notice:• Error Correction Support (ECS) ends on 11-SEP-2007.• The final version will be 2.6.x.• The desupport applies to all platforms. • Oracle Workflow Client and Oracle Workflow Server will not be included

in Oracle Database Editions 11g and above.• Oracle Workflow will only be included in Oracle E-Business Suite

releases.• Existing Oracle Workflow customers continue to receive error correction

support up until the same date that error correction support ends for product bundle purchased which include Oracle Workflow. For example, Oracle Database 10gR2 customers using Oracle Workflow will receive error correction support for Oracle Workflow until error correction supports ends for Oracle Database 10gR2.

Additional Facts

• Oracle Workflow will continue to be used and supported in R12• Use of Oracle Workflow is not planned for the Fusion product. Oracle Workflow

will be replaced in the following areas with the following technologies:Process Navigator Flows– Migrated to ADF Task Flows– In Oracle AS11 a new feature, Activity Guides, is planned to target these use casesPage Flows– Migrated to ADF Task FlowsSimple Deferred Activities (DML activities)– Database Events– BPEL can also be usedXML Transaction Flows– Transformations capabilities of E-Business Suite– BPEL can also be usedBusiness Processes– Orchestration of system services and human tasks– BPEL can also be used

Ref 1

What is BPEL

• BPEL or WS-BPELBusiness Process Execution Language

• BPEL is an open industry standardhttp://docs.oasis-open.org/wsbpel/2.0/wsbpel-specification-draft.html

– Oracle has made supported extensions to BPEL• Human Workflow Service Engine• Database Interfaces• Applications Adapter

• SOA based (Service Oriented Architecture)

What is BPEL

• BPEL allows for the integration of Web Services into end-to-end processes.

• These BPEL processes can themselves be a Web Service.

• BPEL is far more powerful than Workflow so keep an open mind as we all move through this transition.

BPEL Features

• Supports Async Transactions• Flow Control• Compensating Transactions• Data Manipulation using XPath,

XSLT, and XQuery

Oracle’s Added BPEL Features

• Human Workflow– Routing/Assignments

– Notifications

– Nomination, Delegation and Reassignment

– Escalations

– JSP Forms

– Work List Application

– Comments and Attachments

– Audit Trail

• Database Interfaces

BPEL Process in JDeveloper

BPEL Process in XML

• The graphic representation you see in JDeveloper is not BPEL. BPEL is a standard way to build a process description using XML.

• <Show file>

Products Required

You can try this out now yourself on your PC• OAS with the SOA Suite

– Runs the BPEL Processes Manager– Database to save process state information in– Provides Audit Trails and Process History

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/webservices/index.htmlsoa_windows_x86_101310_disk1.zip

• JDeveloper– Used to design the BPEL Process– Used to deploy the BPEL Process to an OAS Instance– Saves the BPEL definition as an XML file

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/jdev/htdocs/soft10132.htmljdevstudio10132.zip

Free BPEL Introductory Courses

• These courses guide you through the installation, configuration, and sample development exercises using the BPEL Process Manager and the JDeveloper tools

• Contact your sales rep for additional information• Oracle Sales is currently offering free introductory course on

Oracle BPEL

• These courses guide you through the installation, configuration, and sample development exercises using the BPEL Process Manager and the JDeveloper tools

• Contact your sales rep for additional information

Skills You Need For BPEL

• JDeveloper Knowledge• SOA Knowledge (Service Oriented

Architecture)• Oracle Application Server Knowledge• XML (JDeveloper is essentially creating a

structured XML Document that defines the BPEL Process)

• Java/J2EE• Your PL/SQL and SQL skills are still useful

Additional BPEL Resources

• OAUG Middleware SIGBPEL is a component of the Oracle Application Server

• Intro to BPELhttp://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/bpel/pdf/orabpel-BPEL101.pdf

• Oracle® BPEL Process Manager, Developer's Guide 10g (10.1.3.1.0), B28981-03, January 2007http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/cd/B31017_01/integrate.1013/b28981/toc.htm

• Oracle BPEL Process Manager Sitehttp://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/bpel/index.html

• More at the end of this presentation

Converting from Oracle Workflow to BPEL

• This information is still fairly immature. It was collected from many Oracle ML Notes and some white papers.

• It is meant to provide you with a rough outline of what we as users might expect.

Converting from Oracle Workflow to BPEL

Metalink Note: 394387.1How To Migrate Workflow Processes To Oracle BPEL Process Manager

• There will be no automated migration of business process from WF to BPEL, as these are two very different technologies.

• Standard workflow processes defined in EBS will be migrated as part of the upgrade process.

Converting from Oracle Workflow to BPEL

• WF  processes will have to be migrated manually by orchestrating business services available. Underlying PLSQL code can be reused in some cases to implement a business service.

Converting from Oracle Workflow to BPEL

• There will be guidelines on how to migrate customizations on top of workflow standard processes and custom defined workflow processes from WF to BPEL. These guidelines are not ready yet to customers.

• The best document so far is reference 1 at the end of the presentation.

Recommended Direction

Two categories for this decision:

• Existing Oracle E-Business Suite Workflows

• Standalone Oracle Workflow Processes

Existing Oracle E-Business Suite Workflows

• Continue to develop Workflow customizations as required– Oracle Workflow will be around for many of us, for years to come– We don’t know exactly how BPEL will be used at the functional level yet

• Design customizations keeping in mind BPEL– Separate API calls from functional processing– Functional Processing should be usable with BPEL– Keep API calls in one section of code so you just have to call a new API

wrapper– Know what functionality will be in BPEL and what will be in other Tech Stack

products

• Document customization– Why is this customization required? Exact gap being filled.– Document code design so it is obvious where API calls are and exactly what

they are doing– Document Notification requirements

Standalone Oracle Workflow Processes

• Provided that the Workflow Process does not use Oracle E-Business Suite functionality consider development in BPEL.– Workflows built using Oracle E-Business Suite functions (Account

Generators, E-Business Suite Processes, etc.) probably should remain in Workflow

– Keep in mind the requirement to have a recent OAS instance running to support Oracle SOA Suite

– Contact your sales representative to ensure you are in license compliance

What About . . . . .

• How will the Account Generator functionality be handled?

• Will the Workflow Mailer be replaced?

• What about the Business Events functionality?

• Will AME be replaced?

References

1) Migrating to BPEL from Oracle Work FlowJanuary 2007, Manoj Das

2) How To Migrate Workflow Processes To Oracle BPEL Process Manager Metalink Note:394387.1

3) BPEL Service Orchestration Hands-On WorkshopGuide to Labs, Oracle Sales Class

4) Oracle Application Server with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 FAQ Metalink Note:415007.1