Author: rsoika

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Open-BPMN for Visual-Studio Code

Today we released version 1.0.0 of Open-BPMN for Visual Studio Code.

Open BPMN is a free and open modeling platform to create and maintain business models based on the BPMN 2.0 standard. Open BPMN can be used by business analysts to design a top level business process, as also by architects and developers to model the technical details of complex processing logic. Further more, Open BPMN provides an extension mechanism to adapt the modeling platform to the individual requirements in any business process project.

Open-BPMN can be installed from the VS-Code Marketplace or as VSIX extension.

The goal of this project is to provide an open and extensible graphical BPMN modelling framework for an agile and innovative community around the BPMN standard.

Extensibility

BPMN 2.0 introduces an extensibility mechanism that allows extending standard BPMN elements with additional properties and behaviour. It can be used by modeling tools to add non-standard elements or Artefacts to satisfy a specific need, such as the unique requirements of a vertical domain, and still have a valid BPMN Core.

One goal of Open BPMN is to not only provide a graphical modeling tool, but also to allow developers and independent projects to easily customize the behaviour and appearance of the editor for specific BPM workflow engines that use this BPMN 2.0 extensibility mechanism.

Open Source Workflow Engines like Imixs-Workflow integrate Open BPMN into there tooling platforms and extend the core features of BPMN 2.0 with platform specific functionality.

Learn more about Open BPMN Extensions.

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BPMN Modelling with Eclipse GLSP

Imixs-Workflow started a new modelling project called Open-BPMN. Open-BPMN is a free BPMN 2.0 modelling platform that can be extended and customized by any BPMN 2.0 compliant execution engine. The primary goal of this project is to provide a graphical BPMN editing framework that can be extended in various ways by different solutions to create an agile and innovative community around the BPMN standard.

For this reason we build Open BPMN based on the Eclipse Graphical Language Server Platform (GLSP). GLSP is an extensible open-source framework for building custom diagram editors based on web technologies. The platform provides a language server protocol (LSP) for diagrams that allows to adapt any kind of modelling language. GLSP splits into a server part and a client part. The server part is responsible to handle the underlying model stored in a filesystem, database or microservice and provides the graphical model meta data. The client part communicates with the server and provides the graphical representation and the modelling tools to create and modify a model.

The main advantage of GLSP is its openness and extensibility. In this way it allows us to not only provide a new flexible BPMN modelling tool but also adapt the BPMN Extensions of Imixs-Workflow within this solution. Adapting the Imixs-Workflow engine within the Open-BPMN Modeller is a first proof of concept showing the flexibility and power of this platform.

Multi IDE Support and Extensibility

GLSP can be integrated into different IDEs like Microsoft VS Code, the web based Theia IDE and of course the Eclipse Platform. This allows us to use Open-BPMN in much more different ways and projects and opens the modelling tool to a broader community.

With the extensibility of GLSP, Open-BPMN can not only be extended within the extension mechanism of BPMN 2.0, but also by additional views, editors and UI elements in various ways. For example custom Form editors, Analyse-Panels or Reporting Tools can be adapted by individual projects.

The Community

There is also a strong and agile community around this project that supports us in adapting the technology into the Imixs-Workflow project. Of course Open-BPMN is free software and we invite you to participate in it. There are different ways how you can do that. Join the Open-BPMN Project on GitHub or help us to improve the project by reporting bugs or start a new discussion.

So if you plan to customize BPMN for your own software project, then join Open-BPMN and get support from an agile community. Of course, we also offer professional support for your project.

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Compare Workflow Engines

The term “workflow engine” is not clearly defined in software development and therefore we would like to give a brief overview of different aspects and types of workflow engines in the following blog post.

If you take a look at the Github page awesome-workflow-engines, you will find an impressive number of open source workflow engines. But not all of these engines solve the same problem. The idea behind the term ‘workflow’ can be very different and so the functionality of a workflow engine. In general a workflow is a series of tasks or activities that are required to complete a specific process. Such a process can involve multiple people, teams, microservices or even other IT systems. Thus, it becomes clear that when comparing Workflow Engines, various aspects must be taken into account.

Continue reading “Compare Workflow Engines”
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New AI for Automated Document Import

The latest version 4.5.3 of our Business Process Management suite Imixs-Office-Workflow now includes an improved AI module. The system can import documents and automatically recognize and assign their content. For example, incoming invoices and delivery notes can be processed automatically in background. This significantly shortens throughput times in document based business workflows.

The open source module Imixs-ML is based on a machine learning approach in combination with pattern recognition. Good results are achieved even with small amounts of data. In addition, Imixs-Office-Workflow includes a self-learning AI system. This means that the system permanently improves its ability to recognize content from new documents in the background without having to import big training data.

After an automated document import – e.g. from an e-mail mailbox or an Office scanner – the user can check the data and correct it where necessary.

Model Your Business Process Quick & Easily

With the Imixs Workflow Technology, all kinds of business processes can be easily modelled with BPMN 2.0. Even complex approval processes like the 4-eyes principle are supported by the Imixs Workflow engine.

Due to its openness Imixs-Office-Workflow supports many open interfaces to various IT solutions and server systems. Thus, integration into an existing enterprise IT can be done very easily.

Through our consulting concept, we help companies to digitize their business processes. Get in touch with us and find out more!

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Imixs-Admin Runs on Jakarta EE 10!

With our latest version 6.0.0 of the Imixs-Admin client we launched our first Jakarta EE10 project. Imixs-Admin is developed with Java 11, Jakarta EE 10 and Faces 4.0. It runs on Wildfly version 27.0.0.Alpha4.

This project is a first prove of concept to demonstrate the compatibility of Imixs Workflow with Jakarta EE 10. In the course of the implementation, we also migrated the Imixs Rest Client library Melman to Jakarta EE 10.

We will soon provide our next version of Imixs-Office-Workflow – a enterprise business process management suite – running on Jakarta EE 10 too.

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License Switch GPL-3.0 to EPL 2.0

We consider to switch the licence model for Imixs-Workflow from GPL-3.0 to EPL 2.0. The new license model will affect the Jakarta EE 9 development stream. Older versions of Imixs-Workflow will not be affected from this change.

The Eclipse Public License is a modern license which reflects the norms and expectations of an industry that has changed a lot in the last years. The EPL has been approved by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the Open Source Imitative (OSI).

As a weak copyleft license, the EPL is a middle ground of sorts between permissive options (like the MIT License or Apache License 2.0) and strong copyleft licenses (like GPL v2 and GPL v3.) A core requirement of the EPL – one that’s not part of permissive licenses – is that derivative works of EPL-licensed code must also be licensed under the EPL. As such, anyone who distributes a program that constitutes such a derivative work must also make their source code available. Find more details here.

In addition we plan that the new license will include also a secondary license for GPL-2.0+ compatibility. In this way you can still license your work under GPL if you like.

The notion of a “Secondary License” is intended to permit combining content licensed under the EPL-2.0 with an otherwise incompatible license, specifically the GNU General Public License, v2.0 or greater. This means that the content that includes a Secondary License clause may be combined with content distributed under the terms of that Secondary License, and the combined content can be then be collectively distributed under the terms of that Secondary License.

Does EPL-2.0 change the scope of the copyleft?

The EPL-2.0 is a weak copyleft license. In its simplest terms, that means that if you have modified EPL-2.0 licensed source code and you distribute that code or binaries built from that code outside your organization, you must make the source code available under the EPL-2.0.

Can I take a Program licensed under the EPL, compile it without modification, and commercially license the result?

Yes. You may compile a Program licensed under the EPL without modification and commercially license the result in accordance with the terms of the EPL.

Can I modify the EPL-2.0 License?

No. Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute copies of the new Agreement; however, in order to avoid inconsistency, the agreement is copyrighted and may only be modified by the Agreement Steward who reserves the right to publish new versions (including revisions) of this Agreement from time to time. No one other than the Agreement Steward has the right to modify the Agreement.

Find also more details see the EPL FAQs. If you have any questions please add your comments here.

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Why AWS & Azure Are Not Kubernetes

When you hear about Kubernetes for the first time these days, you might get the impression that Kubernetes has a lot to do with AWS or Azure. If you read blogs or tutorials about Kubernetes or even if you join conferences, AWS and Azure is everywhere. It seems like a stupid idea not to believe that Kubernetes is based on these Internet platforms and can exist outside them.

But Kubernetes is far away from being a product or internet service that is only offered by Amazon or Microsoft. Rather, Kubernetes is an open source platform which is supported and developed by the Linux Foundation. Many people are working on the concepts for this open platform on a daily basis. And the goal of Kubernetes is to provide an open and powerful platform for operating container-based applications and Microservices.

It was never a walk in the park to setup and operate a stable and highly available cloud environment consisting of many servers. With Kubernetes companies and organizations should be enabled to run a server infrastructure for container-based applications by there own. Google has published his own experiences in this area and handed it over to the Linux Foundation in order to share that knowledge with others. And it was never the goal to make a product or put organizations in a dependent situation. On the other hand, it is a big business for companies like Microsoft and Amazon to offer their services based on the concepts of Kubernetes. Binding customers to their platforms is the new way of licencing. And they do a lot of marketing to succeed.

Build Your Own Cluster

Believe it or not, you can set up your own Kubernetes cluster and run it successfully in just a few hours. The concepts of Kubernetes provide many solutions for the problems that normally arise when operating large server environments. The result will be a stable and sustainable cloud infrastructure that you can control yourself.

Of course, Kubernetes is a complex system of many different building blocks. It takes time to get used to it. But today there are also a lot of concepts available to achieve success quickly. So don’t hesitate and take control of your personal cloud platform.

If you like, you can take a look at our open source project ‘Imixs-Cloud‘, which shows a simple and stable approach for the operation of a Kubernetes cluster.

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Imixs Workflow & SpaCy 3.1

With its latest version, the Open Source Workflow Engine Imixs-Workflow fully integrates the AI Framework SpaCy v3.1. SpaCy has become an industry standard over the last two years with a huge ecosystem. SpaCy can be combined with a variety of plugins and so called pipelines, to process any kind of data within a machine learning environment.

The Imixs Workflow project Imixs-ML follows a generic approach to combine machine learning frameworks with BPMN. The project provides a core API and a Rest Service Interface. This makes it easy to combine the workflow management platform with the AI ecosystem from spaCy. The integration is based on the Imixs Micro Kernel architecture which allows a modern model based development.

The Imixs-ML project is hosted on Gibhub.

Processing Business Documents with AI

An example of how AI can be combined with BPM, is the processing of business documents. The concepts of natural language processing (NLP) with its sub domains of entity recognition and classification allows the analysis of business documents in various ways. For example, payment information like IBAN/BIC and an payment date can be extracted from an invoice document to be processed by the Imixs Workflow engine. With the classification of documents, for example, customer orders can be automatically routed to the responsible sales department. This all is embedded into a continuous learning technology where the Imixs Workflow engine automatically refines the ML models based on the decisions made by humans actors in a specific business process. Starting from scratch is possible even if only a small training database exists.

Dynamic Classification

One new feature of SpaCy 3.1 is the new multi-label classifier. This new pipeline allows the learning of new categories within an existing ML model. For a continuous learning system like Imixs-ML this is a great feature to extract more data from a business task with the help of AI.

If you like to learn more about the BPMN and AI start a dicsussion on Github or ask our experts.

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Imixs Workflow on Jakarta EE 9

Imixs-Workflow is the first open source workflow engine running on Jakarta EE 9. The latest version 6.0 can be run on every modern application server supporting the new cloud native industry standard. This allows you to digitize your business processes in a modern, portable and open IT environment.

Jakarta EE is a set of specifications that enables the world wide community of java developers to work on cloud native Java enterprise applications. Imixs-Workflow integrates into this technology and provides you a powerfull, stable and sustainable way to map your business processes according to the BPMN 2.0 standard.

For many years, Java EE has been a major platform for mission-critical enterprise applications. Imixs Workflow was founded on this technology from the first beginning. In order to accelerate business application development for a cloud-native world, the Java EE specification moved to the Eclipse Foundation enabling a community-driven collaboration and a more open innovation.

Version 6.0.0 and Java 11

With version 6.0.0, Imixs Workflow adapted the existing technology to the new Jakarta EE 9 specification and modernized various areas of the open source workflow engine. At the same time, with this release, the switch to Java 11 is now completed.

Rule Engine based on GraalVM

The integrated business rule engine of Imixs Workflow is now based on the GraalVM technology. With the new rule engine, business rules can now be written in different popular languages and can be combined with additional features and libraries. This allows the design and the execution of more complex business processes based on the BPMN 2.0 standard.

With the Jakarta EE 9 application ‘Imixs-Process-Manager‘, the Imixs Workflow project provides a reference application for a quick start. The project is hosted on Github.

Imixs Workflow is 100% open source and we invite you to participate in it. There are different ways how you can do that. Join the Imixs Workflow Project now on GitHub. You can help to improve the project by reporting bugs or start a new discussion.

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