Discussions

News: OpenSymphony announces OSWorkflow 2.5

Bookmark and Share Get thread feed

  1. OpenSymphony announces OSWorkflow 2.5 (15 messages)

    The OpenSymphony Group is pleased to announce the latest release of OSWorkflow, version 2.5. Many new enhancements are in this release, including a new (alpha) GUI designer as well as improved API support, more documentation, much better performance, and support for new persistence frameworks such as Hibernate.

    Along with OSWorkflow 2.5, OpenSymphony is in the process of releasing OSCache 2.0, SiteMesh 2.0, OSUser 1.0, WebWork 2.0, XWork 1.0, as well as minor releases for PropertySet and OSCore. To celebrate these major new releases, OpenSymphony is in the process of moving to java.net and plans to expand our presence in the Java Open Source community in a big way. Expect to see some very high quality projects in the coming weeks from OpenSymphony.

    New features include:
    * Much faster performance
    * Support for Automatic Actions, meaning your workflow can be driven by humans or run automatically
    * Much simpler example application (runs in memory)
    * Improved error reporting
    * Support for Hibernate as a persistence layer
    * Better documentation
    * Improved APIs (persitenceMap replaced by a PropertySet)
    * Support for intercepting all class resource requests (for passing through an Inversion of Control container, for instance)
    * Ability to modify workflows at runtime and save changes back to XML
    * Alpha workflow designer with plans to have a fully working one by version 3.0
    * Much fewer dependencies with many more optional plugins at your disposal

    You can download OSWorkflow, including the workflow designer and the example application, at our new home on java.net:

    http://osworkflow.dev.java.net/files/documents/635/483/osworkflow-2.5.0.zip
    Reply to this

    Threaded Messages (15)

  2. Web-driven workflow[ Go to top ]

    Is it possible to provide browser access to allow web users to modify the workflow on the fly? Can users create/modify/delete workflows ?

    Thanks
    Reply to this Reply to original

  3. Web-driven workflow[ Go to top ]

    There are plans in the coming versions for an administrative program. In the meantime, you can write one on your own using the exposed APIs.
    Reply to this Reply to original

  4. Web-driven workflow[ Go to top ]

    Ah, I missed the following line in the feature list:

    * Ability to modify workflows at runtime and save changes back to XML
    Reply to this Reply to original

  5. Ability to modify workflows on the fly[ Go to top ]

    Since workflows often represent execution of long-running business processes, changing them on the fly requires a special treatment for process instances that are currently executing (different, say, from process instances created after the workflow change was done). Is there support for side-by-side versioning (i.e. execution of multiple versions of the workflow in parallel) in this release?

    Doron.
    Collaxa, Inc.
    Reply to this Reply to original

  6. Ability to modify workflows on the fly[ Go to top ]

    Hi Doron,

    Fraid not, there isn't any idea of versioning of workflow descriptors, that sort of thing is left to your application to handle.
    Reply to this Reply to original

  7. Versioning of workflows[ Go to top ]

    Side by side versioning is likely to be a major overhead for developers if it needs to be taken care of as part of workflow applications they build. BPEL orchestration servers are likely to include this capability as an integral part of the infrastructure and enable easy management of multiple versions of BPEL flows through an admin console.

    Doron.
    Collaxa, Inc.
    Reply to this Reply to original

  8. XPDL?[ Go to top ]

    Any plans to support XPDL in future?
    Reply to this Reply to original

  9. OpenSymphony announces OSWorkflow 2.5[ Go to top ]

    Werkflow look like a more a flexible, extensible process- and state-based workflow engine.
    I'd never config OSworkflow ok,
    Reply to this Reply to original

  10. OpenSymphony announces OSWorkflow 2.5[ Go to top ]

    Not quite. The author of werkflow himself admittd that:

    a) nobody uses it except the company who paid him to write it
    b) It's a dead project

    See http://www.freeroller.net/page/fate/20030717#more_distressing_symptoms_werkflow
    Reply to this Reply to original

  11. discussion site[ Go to top ]

    Is there a discussion site the developers frequent so that users can ask questions? Anything other than the mailing list?
    Reply to this Reply to original

  12. OpenSymphony announces OSWorkflow 2.5[ Go to top ]

    How do you position yourself against WebLogic Integration from the 8.1 platform?
    Reply to this Reply to original

  13. OpenSymphony announces OSWorkflow 2.5[ Go to top ]

    "position yourself"?
    Reply to this Reply to original

  14. OpenSymphony announces OSWorkflow 2.5[ Go to top ]

    Patrick,

    You know what I mean so why the patronizing comment?

    Do you see OSworkflow as a competitor of WLI? If so how do they compare from a functioanlity perspective.

    They're both based around 'workflow' and although WLI seems to place more emphasis on BPM, OsWorkflow seems to support EJB, JMS, Web Services (Glue / SOAP) etc so it seems to do the B2B thing.

    Are you trying to compete in the same space as WLI?
    Reply to this Reply to original

  15. OpenSymphony announces OSWorkflow 2.5[ Go to top ]

    WLI is really trying for the "full-fledged" EAI platform isn't it? I don't see Hani looking at that right now ...
    Reply to this Reply to original

  16. poor man's workflow[ Go to top ]

    OSWorkflow = no frills, poor man's fully functional workflow, can be used in any Java app.
    BEA Integration = full o frills, BPM product, and oh, need to buy app server too.
    Reply to this Reply to original