Category: News

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Why is Imixs Workflow distributed under GPL?

Since the early beginning of the Imixs Workflow project all results are subject to the general public license (GPL). This license grants the broadest freedoms for users. There are many software systems available with this license. The most popular is the operating system Linux or the database server MySQL. So we are all using this kind of software license. Remember, you can not go into the Internet without the help of Linux.

But when you take a closer look on the smaller parts of software systems – the frameworks – a lot of these frameworks are subject to a lesser general public license like the LGPL, the Apache or Eclipse license. The argument of the software vendors behind those software license is to encourage widespread usage and adoption. But this means also to enable adopters to restrict the usage of there software build on thus a framework. This all is common practice and I think there is no need to discuss the pros and cons. So why is Imixs Workflow distributed under GPL?

The idea behind the Imixs Workflow project is to provide organizations, companies and users with a flexible software solution, to manage their business processes. Business processes are subject to constant change. And a workflow management system must provide the opportunity to follow this change. Therefore, we think that the user of Imixs Workflow must be able to adapt their software solution to meet their own needs.
From this point of view there no reason to restrict the usage of the software in any way. And as the objective group of Imixs Workflow is the final user rather than the software developer we believe that the GPL is a better solution to achieve this goal.
We do not want to discourage ISVs to use the Imixs Workflow for there own software project. Every person including software developers are free to use the Imixs Workflow for there own project. But remember that it is your commitment to pass that freedom also to other users.

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NEW JAVA EE 6 WORKFLOW ENGINE

With the latest release 3.0 Imixs provides now the first full Java EE 6 compliant workflow engine. The BPM solution can be used together with any of the newest Java EE web- or application servers like Glassfish 3.1, JBoss 6 or Geronimo.

Imixs Workflow focus on human based workflow typical used in organisations and enterprises. The Imixs Workflow provides users with all necessary information during a business process, like task lists, a process documentation or messaging features. The workflow management system helps users to start a new process, finding a document and complete running jobs. Continue reading “NEW JAVA EE 6 WORKFLOW ENGINE”

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IMIXS WORKFLOW 3.0 – NEW PROJECT STRUCTURE

As part of the new version 3.0 of the Imixs Workfow project the structure of the sub-projects will be simplified. In future only the artefacts

  • imixs-workflow-core
  • imixs-workflow-engine
  • imixs-workflow-faces

will be necessary to include all relevant APIs.

This simplifies the deployment and makes it much easier to manage complex projects. As a side effect also conflicts with the version 2.x can be avoided. The new 3.x version will be based on JEE6 and includes new JPA entities and EJB components.

Watch the Imixs project site and issue-tracking for details about the next release!

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NEXT RELASE OF IMIXS WORKFLOW API

Today we released the final version of the Imixs-Workflow API 2.1.2 and the XML API 2.1.1.

These two releases are now stable and include a lot of minor improvements in general handling and also affecting the XML processing. We recommend to use these releases instead of earlier releases. The XML release 2.1.1 is important to stable the Imixs REST Service API.

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LUCENE SEARCH WITH IMIXS WORKFLOW

The latest snapshot release of Imixs JEE Workflow now supports Apache Lucene Search Engine. With this new fulltext search the Imixs Workflow reached a new level of a flexible and powerful workflow platform.

The Lucene search integration is provided by a new plugin which contains all the necessary functionality to access and manage a search index. Workitems are automatically added into the search index during a workflow step. A fulltext search is performed considering the fine-grained access rights for workitems managed by the Imixs Workflow Engine. This means that a search result contains only workitems which are accessible by the current user. The access level to a single workitem is fully controlled by the Imixs Workflow Manager and can be managed using the Imixs Workflow Modeler. This makes it easy to setup complex and secure business process applications and support also the flexibility of a fulltext search engine.

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RELEASE 3.0 STARTED

We are now starting the next release of the Imixs Workflow 3.0

See: http://java.net/jira/browse/IMIXS_WORKFLOW-90

The general idea behind the new 3.0 release was to make use of the new EJB 3.1 container features. Because the current Imxis EntityServiceBean is in some methodes a little bit deprecated. One reason was the early implementation in the beginning of JEE5. The JPA methods are optimized for Toplink Driver which is no longer supported. So its time to make an Update!

General requirements for the new Workfow Engine

  • Replace the Entity Bean based on ItemCollection with a Map Interface
  • Use of EJB 3.1 features (JPA Map Feature)
  • Simplify the packaging (Light EJB API)
  • Optimize Scheduler Feature (persist settings in a entity)
  • No changes to the Workflow Service API – to make migration easy

Migration

A Migration is necessary as one of the main goals is to pesist no longer the ItemCollection Object but a simple portable Map Interface.
So we need a way to migrate application from Version 2.x to 3.0. As we learned in migrations from 1.x to 2.x this is not an easy work.
The goal of the new migration strategy must be a background migration.
So a tool should migrate workitems from a old datastorage into a new one running independed of a productive workflow app. This can be done by monitoring the $modified timestamp. As we know most of the data will not be changed during migration this can be done easily .

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IMIXS WORKFLOW – REPORT GENERATOR FOR PDF

With the latest version of Imixs Workflow now business reports can be created in a lot of different output formats like PDF, MS Excel, MS Word or any other XSL Transformation. Read more about the Imixs Workflow REST Interface and how it works.

http://www.imixs.org/xml/restservice.html

Imixs Workflow did not only empower you in building bpm solutions based on the JEE plattform. It also gives you a flexible architecture to fulfill business requirements like compliance features, creation of business reports and securing confidential business data in a fast and easy way.

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