Oracle BPM and Open Data integration development
- by drrwebber
Rapidly developing Oracle BPM application solutions with data source integration previously required significant Java and JDeveloper skills. Now using open source tools for open data development significantly reduces the coding needed. Key tasks can be performed with visual drag and drop designing combined with menu selections entry and automatic form generation directly from XSD schema definitions.
The architecture used is extremely lightweight, portable, open platform and scalable allowing integration with a variety of Oracle and non-Oracle data sources and systems.
Two videos available on YouTube walk through the process at both an introductory conceptual level and then a deep dive into the programming needed using JDeveloper, Oracle BPM composer and Oracle WLS (WebLogic Server) along with the CAM editor and Open-XDX open source tools.
Also available are coding samples and resources from the GitHub project page, along with working online demonstration resources on the VerifyXML site.
Combining Oracle BPM with these open source tools provides a comprehensive simple and elegant solution set. Development times are slashed and rapid prototyping is enabled. Also existing data sources can be integrated using open data formats with either XML or JSON along with CRUD accessing via the Open-XDX Java component. The Open-XDX tool is a code-free approach where data mapping is configured as templates using visual drag and drop in the CAM Editor open source tool. XML or JSON is then automatically generated or processed (output or input) and appropriate SQL statements created to support the data accessing.
Also included is the ability to integrate with fillable PDF forms via the XML templates and the Java PDF form filling library. Again minimal Java coding is needed to associate the XML source content with the PDF named fields.
The Oracle BPM forms can be automatically generated from XSD schema definitions that are built from the data mapping templates. This dramatically simplifies development work as all the integration artifacts needed are created by the open source editor toolset.
The developer level video is designed as a tutorial with segments, hands-on demonstrations and reviews. This allows developers to learn the techniques and approaches used in incremental steps. The intended audience ranges from data analysts to developers and assumes only entry level Java skills and knowledge. Most actions are menu driven while Java coding is limited to simply configuring values and parameters along with performing builds and deployments from JDeveloper and Oracle WLS.
Additional existing Oracle online training resources can be referenced on Oracle BPM and WLS that cover other normal delivery aspects such as user management and application deployment.