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.

BPMN 2.0 – The Extension Mechansim

The ‘Business Process Model And Notation’ standard is a well designed notation for describing business workflows. BPMN 2.0 becomes the standard for modeling business logic and fits very well the model driven software design in agile software projects.

The BPMN language, which is based on XML, was intended for users at all levels, from the business analysts who create the initial design, to the developers who implement the technical details, and finally, to the business users responsible for managing and monitoring the processes. BPMN 2.0 has evolved to become a complete specification trying to fit the needs to all people involved in the design of a business process. But writing BPMN in XML and visualizing business processes becomes nearly impossible without the use of a graphical tool.

Continue reading “BPMN 2.0 – The Extension Mechansim”

Imixs-BPMN – Version 1.4.7 Released

The open source project Imixs-BPMN has released version 1.4.7. Besides the integration into the Eclipse platform Oxygen, the new version offers various improvements in modeling business processes based on the BPMN 2.0 standard.

Imixs Workflow is a human centric workflow engine that allows to model and to execute human-2-human business processes. Based on the Eclipse platform, Imixs-BPMN offers a professional and stable platform for modeling within the BPMN 2.0 standard. Both, responsibilities and access rights, as well as individual business rules can be modelled graphically.

Version 1.4.7 now represents business rules – so called ‘ conditions ‘ – and access rights (ACL) in a graphical way. This makes it easier to create process models and control them during the design phase.

In addition, Imixs-BPMN now supports so-called ‘Conditional-Events’ and ‘Split-Events’. The former can be used to model decisions based on business rules. Split-Events support parallelism. Split-Events play an important role for the mapping of audit-safe business processes. These new features increase the transparency of complex processes within an organisation.

Imixs-BPMN is open source and part of the Imixs-Workflow technology. The IMIXS Software Solutions GmbH supports enterprises and organisations in the development and implementation of digital business processes.

Imixs-BPMN 1.3.0 Released

The new version 1.3.0 of the BPMN modeling tool “Imixs-BPMN” is now finally released. The version supports the current Mars release of the Eclipse platform and offers several improvements and bug fixes. The allocation of write- and read-access in a running process instance has improved within the new version. ACL settings can take place now not only at the event level, but also directly in the process level. This allows to model business processes with different ACL settings much faster. The new ACL settings are supported by the Imixs-Workflow Engine since version 3.4.0. Another improvement represents the modeling of ‘versions’ within a process model. Thus new versions can be creating during a running process. Versions of a process instance can, for example be archived by the Imixs-Workflow Engine. So complex business processes become more transparent with the new modeling features.

The Imixs-BPMN Plugin can be installed from the Imixs-BPMN UpdateSite or directly from the Eclipse Marketplace.