Zenflow BPEL Editor Overview
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction
to the Zenflow BPEL Editor
Chapter 2. Starting
the BPEL Editor
Chapter 3. Creating
a New BPEL Process
Chapter 4. Loading
an Existing BPEL Process
Chapter 9. Inserting,
Deleting, and Modifying Activities
List of Figures
Figure 3‑1. Process Attributes Window for Creating a New
BPEL Process
Figure 3‑2. Screen for Specifying the WSDL Files To Link
To a Process
Figure 3‑3. Zenflow Main Screen
Figure 4‑1. Screen for Loading an Existing Process
Figure 4‑2. Linked WSDL Files Dialog Box
Figure 5‑7. Help Menu Display of Zenflow Product Version
Figure 6‑1. BPEL Editor Window Toolbars
Figure 7‑1. File View Display of Currently Loaded
Processes
List of Tables
Table 5‑2. Process Menu Options
Preface
This document provides an overview of and essential information about using the Zenflow BPEL Editor.
The Zenflow BPEL Editor is a tool designed to help create, update, and visualize BPEL processes.
BPEL is an XML language proposed by the Oasis Consortium. This tool helps with designing processes and generates the corresponding BPEL code.
This version of the tool allows only the generation of BPEL files. This means that WSDL files must be created manually. This feature will be added in a future version of the package.
Zenflow is a BPEL designer compliant with the Once the BSOA BPEL Package is installed, a Zenflow directory
will be available. This directory contains the BPEL Editor. To start Zenflow, run: It can also be started from the Windows® Start menu
(Start\Programs\BSOA\BPEL Designer\Zenflow). The following two options will display: Chapter 3, Creating a New BPEL Process, or Chapter 4, Loading an Existing BPEL Process. When a new BPEL process is created, the following screen
will be displayed. Figure 3‑1. Process Attributes Window for Creating a New
BPEL Process Enter the name of the process and the associated
targetNamespace. Specify the following characteristics of the process
(optional): suppressJoinFailure, enableInstanceCompensation and
AbstractProcess. For more information about these characteristics, refer to
the Oasis BPEL4WS 1.1
standard. The following screen is then displayed. Figure 3‑2. Screen for Specifying the WSDL Files To Link
To a Process Specify the WSDL of the Web Services orchestrated by this
process. Click on “Add file” and select the WSDL file. The corresponding namespace is automatically added to the
process definition. When all the WSDL files of the process have been added, click
on the "OK" button. The Zenflow main screen is then displayed. Figure 3‑3. Zenflow Main Screen This screen has the following elements: ·
Menus (Chapter 5) ·
Buttons (Chapter 6) ·
File View (Chapter 7) ·
Process view (Chapter 8) ·
Error View (Chapter 10) You can then start specifying processes. When loading an existing process, the following dialog box
will be displayed. Figure 4‑1. Screen for Loading an Existing Process Browse for a BPEL file: a dialog box will appear asking for
the corresponding WSDL files. Figure 4‑2. Linked WSDL Files Dialog Box Click on “Add file” and select the WSDL file. The corresponding namespace is automatically added to the
process definition. When all the WSDL files of the process have been added,
click on the "OK" button. Note that Zenflow remembers the WSDL files that the user has
already loaded in the system and will automatically propose them if the
namespace is the same. The main screen of the tool is now displayed. See the
following sections for instructions on how to use it. This section provides a description of the menu options
available in the BPEL editor. The File menu offers the standard choices. The following table describes these options. Menu Option Description New process Creates a new process.
See Create a new BPEL process. Open BPEL file Loads a new process.
See Load an existing BPEL Process. Close file Closes the current
process (only if it is not the only one open). Save file Saves the process to the same file that was previously
used. If this is a new file, the File Chooser dialog is opened to allow
specification of the desired file name and directory. Save as Saves the current
process design as a BPEL File. Exit Quits Zenflow. This menu contains the usual edit functions: copy, cut,
paste, move, delete, and the capability of editing the tool’s preferences. This menu offers the user the possibility to change the
view: ·
Display or not display the file view. ·
Display or not display the error view. ·
Display the source and process view either tabbed, or
split vertically or horizontally. This menu allows the user to insert various types of
activities into the process. Only the items that are valid to add, based on the
current graph selection, are enabled. The Process menu is used to define the characteristics of
the process. The following table describes these options. Table 5‑2. Process Menu Options Menu Option Description Define process opens the screen to
define the process name, target namespace, etc. Link WSDL file opens the screen to add
WSDL files related to this process. Variables opens a screen to
define the variables of the process. PartnerLinks opens a screen to
define the Partner Links of the process. Partners opens a screen to
define the Partners of the process. CorrelationSets opens a screen to
define the Correlation Sets of the process. The Window menu offers the capability of switching from one
open process to another. The Help → About… menu item will display the Zenflow product version. Information from
this dialog should be used when reporting Zenflow related bugs. Figure 5‑7. Help Menu Display of Zenflow Product Version The BPEL Editor window provides the following two rows of
toolbar buttons. Figure 6‑1. BPEL Editor Window Toolbars ·
The first row offers the same options as the “file” and
“edit’ menus: create, open, save, saveas, copy, cut, paste, move, delete and
restore positions. ·
The second row offers a button for each BPEL statement.
The buttons are activated depending on the location in the design of the
process. File view displays the processes that are currently loaded
in Zenflow. Figure 7‑1. File View Display of Currently Loaded
Processes To switch from one process to another, click on the chosen
process. A process can also be closed
by clicking on a button. Process view is the main part of the BPEL designer. Two viewing modes are available to view the process: the
“Process View” and the “Source view”. Activities can be operated on in one of two ways: ·
by selecting an activity node and then using the main
toolbar icons or the “insert” menu to add new activities or delete the current
activity, or ·
by selecting a node and using the right-click, context
menu which will display menu items for valid operations. Double clicking on a
node, or right clicking and selecting the “Properties” menu, will display the
properties dialog box for that node. To insert and position a new activity, click on the “parent”
statement of the desired activity then insert it with the corresponding button
or the right-click context menu item. For example, to insert a “receive”
statement in a sequence, click on the sequence statement block. The “receive”
button will then be activated and the statement can be inserted. Move it to the
right position in the process using the “arrows” buttons. Double-click on a
statement to specify its characteristics: name, value, etc. This view displays the errors of the process that is
currently being designed. Double clicking
on a particular error will bring up the properties dialog for that task.
./zenflow.sh for Linux
zenflow.bat for Windows.
5.1
File Menu
5.2
Edit Menu
5.3
View Menu
5.4
Insert Menu
5.5
Process Menu
5.6
Window Menu
5.7
Help Menu