Prozess Implementation: Starting the process | webMethods vs. Intalio

As you can see in the BPM graph, I have finished the little HelloWorld example. The input parameter for the process is one String, which gets stored in the step 'PersistText', afterwards the inputtext is presented to a user who can change the text and then submit it. The ouput of the process is the text which the user has submitted. Additionally, I added a gateway which adds an alternative path around the user interface.

Today I want to have a look only at the start event of the process and compare it to a webMethods process.

Let's start with Intalio this time.When you deploy the process onto the BPM Server (which is built upon a tomcat server) you can find some artifacts in the Axis2 container. Among schema files and the bpel file, you can find wsdl files. For every step in your process, Intalio generates an Axis2 webservice. And of course you can find a webservice for the start event.


That is a very convenient way to start your process. Just import the wsdl file into SoapUI and you are ready to test the process.


Now, how do you start a process in webMethods? You create a document type, make it publishable and syncronize it with webMethods Broker. Then you can just drag and drop this document onto your start event. That automatically generates a subscription onto this document type in webMethods Broker.




Then, you can publlish a document of this document type through the Designer to test your process.





That are two different approaches, but both work fine.
You start an Intalio process by calling a webservice, the webMethods process by publishing a document.
But I see two advantages for the webMethods way:

1. One Event can trigger several different processes.
2. How do you wait for the output of a long running process? That is no problem with the publish -and-wait implementation of webMethods. But I can't see how this could work for the http session of a SOAP Request. That much I still have to find out.