Whats new in Business Process Server 3.6.0

With a release of BPS 3.6.0, we have a whole set of new features added to the business process server.

User substitution capability
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One of the main features of this release is the user substitution capability provided by BPS. It allows the users to define a substitution for a period of absence. ( For example , a task owner going on vacation). When the substitution period starts, all the tasks assigned will be transferred to the substituted user. Any new user tasks created against the user will be automatically assigned to the substitute as well.

See more at https://docs.wso2.com/display/BPS360/Working+with+BPMN+User+Substitution


JSON and XPath-based data manipulation capability.
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When writing a Business Process,  it is necessary to manipulate the data we are dealing with various forms. These data manipulations include, extracting data, concatenating, conversions ect. Often, we would be dealing with eitXML xml or json messages for our workflows. Hence we are introducing the JSON and XML data manipulation capabilities with this release.

See more at https://docs.wso2.com/display/BPS360/XML+and+JSON+variable+support

Instance data audit logs
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With BPS 3.6.0, we are introducing the ability to search, and view BPMN process instances from BPMN explorer UI. In addition to that, it will show a comprehensive audit information with respect to process instances data.

See more at https://docs.wso2.com/display/BPS360/Monitoring+a+BPMN+Process

Enhanced BPEL process visualiser.
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In addition to that, we are introducing enhanced BPEL process visualiser with BPS 3.6.0.

Human Tasks Editor
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We are also introducing WS-Human Tasks editor with developer studio. With this editor, you will be able to implement a human tasks package for business process server with minimum effort and time.

See more at https://docs.wso2.com/business-process-server/Working+with+BPS+Artifacts

In addition to above main features, there are many bug fixes and security fixes included in BPS 3.6.0 release.

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Building Business Process Server from Source

Building WSO2 Business Process Server (BPS) from source is quite straight forward. Let's look at how you can compile wso2 business process server using the source code.

Prerequisite

1. You need to have Oracle JDK 1.7 or above (preferably 1.8) installed on your machine.

2. You need to have apache maven ( 3.0.5 ) installed 

Understanding and building BPS Dependencies.

1. Apache ode wso2 fork

2. Activiti 

First, you need to build the Apache ODE fork. 

Clone the github repo https://github.com/wso2/wso2-ode and build it. 

~/work/wso2-ode $ mvn clean install

Since Activiti consists of a large number of dependencies, we have converted it into a single OSGI bundle. 

Clone the following repo and build activiti-all bundle.

https://github.com/wso2/orbit/tree/master/activiti-all

~/work/orbit/activiti-all/5.21.0.wso2v1 $ mvn clean install

Building Carbon Business Process Component

Carbon Business Process component contains the source code for the integration layers and the other functionality we have implemented on top of the code of ODE and Activiti implementations. 

Clone and build the business process component repository. 

https://github.com/wso2/carbon-business-process/

~/work/carbon-business-process $ mvn clean install 

Now you are ready to build the BPS Product. 

Clone https://github.com/wso2/product-bps repository and build the product. 

~/work/product-bps $ mvn clean install 

You will find the built product at ~/work/product-bps/modules/distribution/target directory.

Take a look into the root poms of each repositories properties section in order to understand how each repository connects to the other repositories.