Getting Started With Oracle BPM 11g

In a previous blog post I wrote a step by step guide on how to install Oracle BPM 11g. That was all good and well, but now what? The first thing I would suggest you do is go and by the book Getting Started with Oracle BPM Suite 11gR1 – A Hands-On Tutorial. Read that book cover to cover and go through the labs. It provides very good information and a great sample application that you build from scratch throughout the book. If you’re like me and you want to first play with the software a little bit before you go reading a 500 and some-odd page book, Oracle allows you download the same application that you create in the book.

To download the sample application, go to:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bpm/learnmore/index.html

Browse down to the Samples and Demos section for the link. The sample application is called the Sales Quote Demo and is a BPM process where sales people enter in a quote into the process system, have the quote go through approvals and reviews, perform some automated routing, and finalize the quote.

Once you download the sample application and unzip it there are two documents to help you set up and run it. The first doc is the ‘Setup Instructions’, it takes you step by step through prepping your environment for the application. It walks you through the steps of creating your schema, setting up the WebLogic server, seeding the LDAP, connecting JDeveloper (or BPM studio if you prefer) to the MDS, deploying the project, setting up the groups, and mapping the LDAP users to the process roles. The guide is very good and I didn’t have any problems following through it step by step and deploying the application.

The second document is the ‘Understand and Run’ guide. This document has two sections. The first section goes through the process design and describes the logic behind it. The second section walks you through actually running the application and the end-user experience. Just like the Setup document, this guide is pretty straightforward and easy to follow. Unlike the Setup document, when you go through this guide you actually learn a little bit about Oracle BPM 11g and how it works.

Downloading the Sales Quote Demo and deploying it isn’t a replacement for reading the book I mentioned above or going to a training course, but it is a very good jumping off point. If you like dry reads you can download the various guides that Oracle has for BPM. The guides are all located at:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17904_01/nav/portal_booklist.htm

The guides are actually invaluable and for Oracle BPM 11g I would recommend downloading the following and putting them into your library:

• Quick Installation Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite
• Installation Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite
• Modeling and Implementation Guide for Oracle Business Process Management
• Administrator’s Guide for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite
• User’s Guide for Oracle Business Rules
• Business Process Composer User’s Guide for Oracle Business Process Management
• User’s Guide for Oracle Business Process Management

Going through these steps, setting up the Sales Quote Demo application, and reviewing it is a great way to start off learning BPM and I highly suggest it. Good luck!

 

John Linehan

ImageSource, Inc.

www.imagesourceinc.com

Fusion Middleware Patchset 5 in the Wild

Oracle slipped out the fifth patchset release for the Fusion Middleware products during the middle of the night on the 22nd of February.  For the most part things will be very familiar to longtime users.  One of the most visible changes is that the branding has caught up with the software.  Oracle Content Server is now Webcenter Content,  Imaging and Process Management is now Webcenter Imaging.  It feels like an end of an era!

ImageSource has a customer that was entering an upgrade project for their Fusion Middleware based solution.  After two surprisingly easy days I got their development and test environments up and running with this new release.  Oracle has stated this released isn’t focused on adding lots of new features but they have rolled up a lot of bug fixes and patches that previously had to be installed separately into this release.  This is by far the best release of this platform ever.

That’s not to say Oracle didn’t sneak in some great new features.  Folks who haven’t got to try out the Oracle Business Process Management feature back in PR4 will find huge improvements in this release.  One of the Webcenter Imaging additions I appreciate is a built-in configuration editor for any Oracle solution accelerators installed in the environment.  Most folks probably haven’t had to work with those much but as one of the few who have let me tell you it’s a breath of fresh air to start seeing official Oracle tooling support and documentation for those things.

The folks at AMIS have a good write up with lots of reference links and general impressions of the release.  All in all,  I’m really excited to see what the future brings.  Oracle has come a long way since the initial release of the 11g platform as a whole.  Even from PS2 this seems like lightyears ahead.

Les Harris
Systems Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.

IPM 10g is Going Away, Now What?

Earlier this month ImageSource hosted our annual ECM conference Nexus.  I had the chance to meet with many of our customers and have some really great conversations.  Many of these folks are running IPM 10g as a core component of their enterprise and since that product is being end of life’d they are taking a long hard look at their installations.  Everyone wanted to know what options they had and to talk about the best way for them to move forward.  The 11g version of IPM was frequently a core topic of conversation and everybody wanted to hear how to get from here to there.

This turns out to be a hard question to answer! There is no single bullet-proof solution that you can just pull the trigger on and have everything completed.  (Sorry, we’re still working on the ILINX® Magic Wand)   Depending on your environment and your goals there are different considerations.  Let’s take a look at a few common scenarios.

IPM 10g, Imaging Only

So in your environment you’re using IPM to store and retrieve images.  You’re not using workflow, you don’t have many complex integrations, IPM is basically acting solely as a repository.  You are in a great position for an upgrade to IPM 11g.  Unlike folks with workflows and complex integrations there is a clear and defined upgrade path for an Imaging-only IPM 10g system.  Oracle provides a migration tool that performs the actual transfer of documents (with annotations!) from 10g to 11g.  The upgrade is mostly a matter of setting the applications and searches up in 11g and letting this tool move the content over.

IPM 10g, Process

Your environment utilizes workflows to streamline your business processes.  All your content can be moved over no problem as described previously in the Imaging-only section but what about all these workflows?  Sadly there is no way to directly move these from 10g to 11g.  11g workflows utilizes technologies like BPM and BPEL which are architecturally far-removed from the Process engine in 10g.

Not all is lost however.  While not being built on the same technology, there is a strong mapping between the older 10g workflow and 11g workflow (especially when using BPM).  The workflows won’t have to be redesigned just reimplemented.  Much of the work in creating workflow is capturing the business process in the first place, implementing the design is in many ways easier.  Plus, this is a great time to take a look at your workflows and see which ones you are still using and which ones could do with some updates.  IPM 11g offers much more advanced workflow functionality and this is also the perfect time to add modern workflow features into your own workflows.

I’ve talked a great deal at Nexus and with customers about the benefits of 11g workflow.  If you’d like to learn more leave a comment or email me and we can talk about some of the features that can really add alot of value to your workflow business process.

Migration to Another Platform

Lastly since the switch to 11g is more of a migration rather than an upgrade now is a time to consider implementing other systems.  Many of our current IPM 10g customers are looking at a product of ours called ILINX Content Store as a replacement option.  IPM 11g is really geared towards the enterprise and everything from server hardware to licensing is based on that assumption.  But if you are using IPM 10g at a departmental level, or just as an imaging repository 11g is in many ways overkill for your needs.

ILINX Content Store is focused on easy and effective content management  with strong Microsoft Windows integration.  It’s built on modern technologies and  encapsulates our years of experience in the ECM space to provide an intuitive, easy to use and administer solution.  It is a natural replacement for an imaging only IPM 10g system and most end-users find Content Store’s user experience easier and just as powerful.

If you’re using a lot of workflow though your options drift back towards the enterprise.  Many of our customers are making Sharepoint a core component of their workflow strategy.  We are also exploring IBM’s P8 family of products (which live in their FileNet umbrella).

Wrapping Up

These three scenarios are the ones that I see come up again and again.  But every environment is different.  Your needs and requirements are going to be different.  If you have further questions I encourage you to leave a comment or email me and we can have a great discussion about where you are today and where you want to be.

Les Harris
Systems Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.

Oracle BPM 11g Install for a Development Environment

Who is finally ready to get off their laurels and start looking at Oracle BPM 11g? I knew I was, the question I had was: where do I start? I figured the best place to start would be to actually install the software. A special thanks to one of our Systems Engineer, Les Harris who helped in getting me going on installing the software. I installed the entire Oracle BPM 11g stack on my laptop and documented the procedure. The following outline is not for a production install, but rather for getting a development environment up and running. A production install would be different and require different install packages as well as a few more steps. This install is strictly for setting up a development environment which is why I used the versions of the software listed below. Sorry I didn’t take screenshots, but I documented everything I did and using these steps I have been able to install multiple environments without issue.

The first thing I had to do was go and download all of the different install packages that comprise the Oracle BPM stack, those are:

• JRockit (JDK R28.1.4)
• Oracle Database (10G Express Edition – Universal)
• Oracle Repository Creation Utility (version 11.1.1.5.0)
• Oracle Web Logic Server (version 10.3.5)
• Oracle SOA Suite (version 11.1.1.5.0)
• Oracle JDeveloper Studio Edition (version 11.1.1.5)

Next I had to unzip all the packages that came zipped up. I recommend 7-zip or pretty much anything else that isn’t the built in Windows utility, that thing is just too slow for these large files.

Now it’s time to start installing.

1. Install JRockit. Since I’ll need to type the path a lot I installed it to C:\Java.
2. Install the database server. It’s a very typical install, I used all the defaults. Be sure to write down the sys account password.

a. After installed launch SQL plus and run the following commands to up the process count:

i.      Connect
ii.      Enter the credentials (username: sys as sydba, password: whatever you specified during your database install)
iii.      alter system reset sessions scope=spfile sid=’*';
iv.      alter system set processes=400 scope=spfile;
v.      shutdown immediate
vi.      startup
vii.      exit

3. Install the RCU utility. This creates all the necessary components in the database.

a. This must be done from the command line. Install as follows:

i.      Cd:\<path to RCU install>rcuhome\bin
ii.      Set RCU_JDBC_TRIM_BLOCKS=TRUE
iii.      Rcu.bat

b. Use all the defaults, pointing it to the database server that was just installed (hostname = localhost, port = 1521, servicename = xe,)

i.      You will see an error message about the database not being supported. Ignore it, this isn’t a production install.When prompted for which components to install select SOA at the top level in order to get all the other necessary requirements.

4. Install Web Logic Server. This is the underlying foundation upon which the application runs.

a. This must be done from the command line. Install as follows:

i.      Cd:\<path to weblogic install>\
ii.      C:\Java\Bin\Java.exe – jar wls1035_generic.jar

b. Select a custom install but choose all the defaults when prompted.

5. Install SOA. This is the meatiest part of the Fusion Middleware stack.

a. This must be done from the command line. Install as follows:

i.      Cd:\ path to RCU install>\Disk1\
ii.      Setup.exe –jreLoc c:\Java

b. Select all the defaults.

6. Create the SOA domain.

a. This must be done from the command line. Install as follows:

i.      Cd:\oracle\middleware\oracle_SOA1\common\bin
ii.      Config.cmd

b. When prompted select the ‘Create domain’ option

i.      Select the BPM Suite for Development and Enterprise Manager option
ii.      Select the Admin Server, Managed Servers, and Deployments options

7. Now it’s time to test the install out (this may take a while, be patient).

a. This must be done from the command line.

i.      Cd:\ oracle\middleware\user_projects\domains\base_domain\
ii.      Startweblogic.cmd

b. When the server is all done with its first start-up the command window should say something like: ‘SOA platform is now running and accepting requests’)
c. You can now close out the WebLogic server (CTRL+C)

8. Install JDeveloper

a. Use all the defaults
b. Once installed, launch JDeveloper Studio from the start menu (it will be under Oracle WebLogic)
c. Go to Help|Check for Updates

i.      Select Next on the Source
ii.      In the search box type in SOA and select the SOA update, then type in BPM and select the BPM update.
iii.      Select Next, then Finish. When it is done, close out of JDeveloper.

9. Now it is time to create your very first BPM 11g project.

a. Launch JDeveloper Studio.

i.      Select File|New
ii.      In the prompt select Applications in the left pane and BPM Application in the right pane.
iii.      Select OK
iv.      Now you’ll be prompted to give your application a name, name it whatever you want or leave it default and select Next.
v.      Now you’ll be prompted to give your Project a name, name it whatever you want or leave it default. Make sure BPM and SOA are selected form the list of available technologies. Select Next.
vi.      Select the Composite with BPMN Process option and select Finish.
vii.      You should now be prompted to create a BPMN process, just select Finish and you can start from there.

You should now be looking at an empty project with a Start and an End event. Here is where the fun begins…

John Linehan

Sr. Systems Engineer
ImageSource Inc.