Workflow deployment question

[Jim Nuzzi]

I'm just getting started with copper and have some questions.

1. Do the workflows get compiled into class files before they are deployed?
2. Do the workflows need to be deployed into a directory on the file system (not inside a JAR file)?
3. In the best practices guide, it says to have a few sub-projects.  Should each of these sub-projects become it's own JAR/WAR file, or can they all be in one?

Thanks for helping, and thanks for the great workflow engine.

[Michael Austermann]

1.,2.:

This depends on the used WorkflowRepository.

Copper comes with two of them:

a) FileBasedWorkflowRepository

Workflow classes have to be deployed as Java files. They have to reside in one ore more directories or/and in one or more jarfiles.

On system startup these Java files are automatically compiled and instrumented by this repository.

It offers hot deployment by observing the Java files in the configured directories. In case of modifications, all Java files are compiled and instrumented again.

b) ClasspathWorkflowRepository

From the javadoc:

Easy to use implementation of the WorkflowRepository interface. This workflow repository looks for its workflows in the normal classpath, just one or more package names of those packages containing the workflow classes need to be configured.

Compared to the FileBasedWorkflowRepository this is quite easy to use, because workflows do not need to reside in a dedicated source folder, they don't need to be deployed as java source files and no java compiler (JDK) is needed to run the application.

On the other hand there is no hot deployment feature and the JMX interface does not show the java source code of the deployed workflows. Anyhow, this workflow repo is probably suitable for most simple COPPER applications.

3.:

This also depends on the used Repository. If you use the FileBasedWorkflowRepository, then at least the workflow classes (Java files) have to be in a extra folder or jarfile.

If you use ClasspathWorkflowRepository it does not matter.

---

Von: "Jim Nuzzi" <nuzz...@apps.disney.com>
An: "COPPER Engine" <copper...@googlegroups.com>
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 31. August 2016 20:33:28
Betreff: [COPPER Users] Workflow deployment question

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "COPPER Engine" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to copper-engin...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to copper...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/copper-engine/01c7e984-2abc-4998-86ab-ed19bbd8322b%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Jim Nuzzi]

Thanks for your response.  I didn't even realize that there was a ClasspathWorkflowRepository.  :-)

When you say that the "JMX interface does not show the java source code of the deployed workflows", what does this mean?  What functionality will be unavailable?

[Michael Austermann]

Well, the JMX interface of the FileBasedWorkflowRepo just offers a function to show the Java source code of its workflow classes.

This is not used by copper itself. Its just a feature that you can use, e.g. if you want to build your own monitoring tool based on that JMX interface.

---

Von: "Jim Nuzzi" <nuzz...@apps.disney.com>
An: "COPPER Engine" <copper...@googlegroups.com>

CC: "michael austermann" <michael.a...@scoop-software.de>
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 1. September 2016 14:26:23
Betreff: Re: [COPPER Users] Workflow deployment question

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/copper-engine/0592c624-31b5-4076-81e4-f946f69c3359%40googlegroups.com.