Oracle BPEL, How To Get Ready For It

OpenWorld 2007 Sunday, November 11

Agenda
Statement of Direction on Oracle Workflow What is BPEL Skills you need for BPEL Conversion from Oracle Workflow to BPEL Recommended Direction What about AME Additional References

More Information
Search for the following using Google:
bpel workflow migration site:www.oracle.com

There are many articles that will be briefly discussed here, that you can review later.
This tip was provided by Robert Wunderlich, Oracle

Statement of Direction on Oracle Workflow

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/workflow/workflow_sod.html
Some key points from the desupport notice: Error Correction Support (ECS) ends on 11-SEP-2007. The final version will be 2.6.x. The desupport applies to all platforms. Oracle Workflow Client and Oracle Workflow Server will not be included in Oracle Database Editions 11g and above. Oracle Workflow will only be included in Oracle E-Business Suite releases. Existing Oracle Workflow customers continue to receive error correction support up until the same date that error correction support ends for product bundle purchased which include Oracle Workflow. For example, Oracle Database 10gR2 customers using Oracle Workflow will receive error correction support for Oracle Workflow until error correction supports ends for Oracle Database 10gR2.

Additional Facts
Oracle Workflow will continue to be used and supported in R12 Use of Oracle Workflow is not planned for the Fusion product. Oracle Workflow will be replaced in the following areas with the following technologies:
Process Navigator Flows Migrated to ADF Task Flows In Oracle AS11 a new feature, Activity Guides, is planned to target these use cases Page Flows Migrated to ADF Task Flows Simple Deferred Activities (DML activities) Database Events BPEL can also be used XML Transaction Flows Transformations capabilities of E-Business Suite BPEL can also be used Business Processes Orchestration of system services and human tasks BPEL can also be used
Ref 1

What is BPEL
BPEL or WS-BPEL Business Process Execution Language BPEL is an open industry standard
http://docs.oasis-open.org/wsbpel/2.0/wsbpel-specification-draft.html

Oracle has made supported extensions to BPEL

Human Workflow Service Engine Database Interfaces Applications Adapter

SOA based (Service Oriented Architecture)

What is BPEL
BPEL allows for the integration of Web Services into end-to-end processes. These BPEL processes can themselves be a Web Service.
BPEL is far more powerful than Workflow so keep an open mind as we all move through this transition.

BPEL Features
Supports Async Transactions Flow Control Compensating Transactions Data Manipulation using XPath, XSLT, and XQuery

Oracles Added BPEL Features

Human Workflow
Routing/Assignments Notifications Nomination, Delegation and Reassignment Escalations JSP Forms Work List Application Comments and Attachments Audit Trail

Database Interfaces

BPEL Process in JDeveloper

BPEL Process in XML

The graphic representation you see in JDeveloper is not BPEL. BPEL is a standard way to build a process description using XML. <Show file>

Products Required
You can try this out now yourself on your PC OAS with the SOA Suite
Runs the BPEL Processes Manager Database to save process state information in Provides Audit Trails and Process History
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/webservices/index.html soa_windows_x86_101310_disk1.zip

JDeveloper
Used to design the BPEL Process Used to deploy the BPEL Process to an OAS Instance Saves the BPEL definition as an XML file
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/jdev/htdocs/soft10132.html jdevstudio10132.zip

Free BPEL Introductory Courses

These courses guide you through the installation, configuration, and sample development exercises using the BPEL Process Manager and the JDeveloper tools
Contact your sales rep for additional information Oracle Sales is currently offering free introductory course on Oracle BPEL These courses guide you through the installation, configuration, and sample development exercises using the BPEL Process Manager and the JDeveloper tools Contact your sales rep for additional information

Skills You Need For BPEL

JDeveloper Knowledge SOA Knowledge (Service Oriented Architecture) Oracle Application Server Knowledge XML (JDeveloper is essentially creating a structured XML Document that defines the BPEL Process) Java/J2EE Your PL/SQL and SQL skills are still useful

Additional BPEL Resources

OAUG Middleware SIG
BPEL is a component of the Oracle Application Server

Intro to BPEL
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/bpel/pdf/orabpel-BPEL101.pdf

Oracle BPEL Process Manager, Developer's Guide 10g (10.1.3.1.0), B28981-03, January 2007
http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/cd/B31017_01/integrate.1013/b28981/toc.htm

Oracle BPEL Process Manager Site

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/bpel/index.html

More at the end of this presentation

Converting from Oracle Workflow to BPEL

This information is still fairly immature. It was collected from many Oracle ML Notes and some white papers.
It is meant to provide you with a rough outline of what we as users might expect.

Converting from Oracle Workflow to BPEL

Metalink Note: 394387.1 How To Migrate Workflow Processes To Oracle BPEL Process Manager

There will be no automated migration of business process from WF to BPEL, as these are two very different technologies. Standard workflow processes defined in EBS will be migrated as part of the upgrade process.

Converting from Oracle Workflow to BPEL

WF processes will have to be migrated manually by orchestrating business services available. Underlying PLSQL code can be reused in some cases to implement a business service.

Converting from Oracle Workflow to BPEL

There will be guidelines on how to migrate customizations on top of workflow standard processes and custom defined workflow processes from WF to BPEL. These guidelines are not ready yet to customers.
The best document so far is reference 1 at the end of the presentation.

Recommended Direction
Two categories for this decision:
Existing Oracle E-Business Suite Workflows Standalone Oracle Workflow Processes

Existing Oracle E-Business Suite Workflows

Continue to develop Workflow customizations as required
Oracle Workflow will be around for many of us, for years to come We dont know exactly how BPEL will be used at the functional level yet

Design customizations keeping in mind BPEL

Separate API calls from functional processing Functional Processing should be usable with BPEL Keep API calls in one section of code so you just have to call a new API wrapper Know what functionality will be in BPEL and what will be in other Tech Stack products

Document customization
Why is this customization required? Exact gap being filled. Document code design so it is obvious where API calls are and exactly what they are doing Document Notification requirements

Standalone Oracle Workflow Processes

Provided that the Workflow Process does not use Oracle EBusiness Suite functionality consider development in BPEL.
Workflows built using Oracle E-Business Suite functions (Account Generators, E-Business Suite Processes, etc.) probably should remain in Workflow Keep in mind the requirement to have a recent OAS instance running to support Oracle SOA Suite Contact your sales representative to ensure you are in license compliance

What About . . . . .

How will the Account Generator functionality be handled? Will the Workflow Mailer be replaced? What about the Business Events functionality? Will AME be replaced?

References
1) Migrating to BPEL from Oracle Work Flow
January 2007, Manoj Das

2) How To Migrate Workflow Processes To Oracle BPEL Process Manager

Metalink Note:394387.1

3) BPEL Service Orchestration Hands-On Workshop

Guide to Labs, Oracle Sales Class

4) Oracle Application Server with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 FAQ

Metalink Note:415007.1