BPMN-XPDL 2.1 transformation

[Graham Crosmarie]

Hi,

I am looking for BPMN 2.0 <-> XPDL 2.1 style sheets (xslt file). I did
not find any taking into account the last version of the BPMN2.0
specifications.
Has such a file been opened to the public since the release of BPMN
2.0 ?

Thanks in advance,

Graham Crosmarie
R&D engineer
Petals Link (http://www.petalslink.com/)

[NCoderNet]

I don't know about such an XSDL. However, if your are interested in a commercial service your find it here: http://www.businessprocessincubator.com/do/convert.html .
Or you could follow the way how I did the conversion XSLTs between BPMN 2.0 XML and XMI formats that come with the standard. You find an article here: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/c069e70b-e2c3-2d10-88ab-9d9eeb321231

[Graham Crosmarie]

Thanks for your answer,

I have read your articles, if I have understood everything, you are
trying to create an hybrid model of BPMN 2.0 CMOF and XSD in order to
make easier BPMN 2.0 textual edition. And your work to generate XSLT
files could really be useful to us.
In fact, I am designing a graphical BPMN 2.0 editor (http://
bpmneditor.ebmwebsourcing.com/) which is based on GWT model of BPMN
2.0. We currently can produce BPMN 2.0 xml files conforming to the XSD
and I was looking for more interoperabilty by offering XPDL 2.1 import
and export. We currently have a version of XPDL 2.1 interchange but
the XSLT we use has not been tested extensively and therefore
certainly contains mistakes.

Do you think that generating a XSLT file between two models using your
method is possible between to models who are not totally equivalent ?

BPMN 2.0 CMOF and XSD are almost the same : each BPMN 2.0 XSD element
has a single CMOF equivalent element and vice versa but it is not the
case between BPMN and XPDL.
On the contrary, all the information in a BPMN 2.0 file can be
depicted in a XPDL 2.1 file but not exactly at the same place and not
exactly with the same organization and might sometimes need to use
extension elements. For example, the graphical information contained
in separated elements in the BPMN 2.0 BPMNDiagram is contained
directly in the XPDL 2.1 activities which are the equivalent of the
flow nodes.

Graham Crosmarie
R&D engineer
Petals Link (http://www.petalslink.com/)

> XML and XMI formats that come with the standard. You find an article here:http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/c069e70b-e2c3-...

[Reiner Hille]

I have read your articles, if I have understood everything, you are
trying to create an hybrid model of BPMN 2.0 CMOF and XSD in order to
make easier BPMN 2.0 textual edition. And your work to generate XSLT
files could really be useful to us.

Yes, absolutely. I want the EMF metamodel to read and write both, XML and XMI without using a transformation, as transformations cost addition time and typically loose some information.
 

In fact, I am designing a graphical BPMN 2.0 editor (http://
bpmneditor.ebmwebsourcing.com/) which is based on GWT model of BPMN
2.0. We currently can produce BPMN 2.0 xml files conforming to the XSD
and I was looking for more interoperabilty by offering XPDL 2.1 import
and export. We currently have a version of XPDL 2.1 interchange but
the XSLT we use has not been tested extensively and therefore
certainly contains mistakes.

Do you think that generating a XSLT file between two models using your
method is possible between to models who are not totally equivalent ?

BPMN 2.0 CMOF and XSD are almost the same : each BPMN 2.0 XSD element
has a single CMOF equivalent element and vice versa but it is not the
case between BPMN and XPDL.
On the contrary, all the information in a BPMN 2.0 file can be
depicted in a XPDL 2.1 file but not exactly at the same place and not
exactly with the same organization and might sometimes need to use
extension elements. For example, the graphical information contained
in separated elements in the BPMN 2.0 BPMNDiagram is contained
directly in the XPDL 2.1 activities which are the equivalent of the
flow nodes.

Indeed transforming between BPMN and XPDL is much harder than what I did with BPMN XML/XMI.
I'm not sure if my method would work at all. But as you have already a "sample" that work reasonable well, you could try to find "patterns" that repeat for each BPMN (or XPDL) class. If there are such patterns, the approach could work, and has less risk to forget some aspects of the standard(s).

Reiner.

[Denis]

Graham,
www.businessprocessincubator.com provides a collection of web services to verify and validate various BPM standards.
You could verify your generated BPMN or XPDL files there.
There is also a colection of services to go from standards to standrads.
As contributing partner To Business Process Incubator, Petalslink is entitle to having direct feeds of these web services.
Talk to Jean-Pierre about it and lets get in touch.

Cheers!
Denis