Introduction

This Process Manager Programmer's Guide provides information for Java programmers who want do the following tasks:

• Define custom activities

• Define custom data fields

• Write customized end-user interfaces for interacting with processes

• Programmatically administer Process Manager clusters

This preface has the following sections:

• About This Book

• Assumptions

• Conventions Used in This Guide

• Viewing Documentation Online

• For More Information

About This Book

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This book is intended for use by Java programmers who need to extend Process Manager 6.0 functionality, either for developing applications or for accessing deployed applications.

There are two main kinds of situations when you might want to use Java to do stuff:

• developing applications

• interacting with deployed applications

Developing Process Manager Applications

For many applications, you'll find that using Process Builder allows you to do everything you want to do in the way of building applications to control the flow of processes. You can can create process maps that route the flow of control of a process from assignee to assignee. The process can include tasks that are performed manually or automatically, in parallel or in sequentially. In many cases, you will never need to go outside the Process Builder to build your application.

However, in some cases you may have the need to tweak applications further. You may want your process to use a data field that is different from any of the built in data fields. You may want to define activities in Java that integrate with external data sources. In these cases, you can create custom data fields and custom activities in Java, and then bring them into the Process Builder to use as if they were builtin.

Relevant chapters are:

• Chapter 1 "Writing Custom Activities," discusses how to write custom activities in Java and bring them into the Process Builder.

• Chapter 2 "Writing Custom Data Fields," discusses how to write custom data fields in Java and bring them into the Process Builder.

Interacting with Clusters and Deployed Applications

The standard way for users to interact with deployed applications is through the Process Express. However, there may be situations when you need to interact programmatically with deployed applications or you want to programmatically perform cluster administration tasks, for example if you want to embed Process Manager functionality inside another application. In this case you can write Java applications that use the Process Manager Engine and Cluster API. In other situations, you might want to write your own front-end to the PAE Engine rather than have your users use the Process Express.

Relevant chapters are:

• Chapter 3 "Cluster Management," discusses the classes for programmatically interacting with Process Manager clusters.

• Chapter 4 "Deployment Manager," discusses the classes for programmatically accessing deployment descriptors.

• Chapter 5 "Working with Applications, Process Instances and Work Items," discusses the classes for programmatically interacting with applications, process instances and work items.

Assumptions

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This guide assumes you are familiar with using Process Manager 6.0 and with using the Java language. This guide does not attempt to teach Java.

To get started learning Java, see the online Java Tutorial at:

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/

Conventions Used in This Guide

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File and directory paths are given in Windows format (with backslashes separating directory names). For Unix versions, the directory paths are the same, except slashes are used instead of backslashes to separate directories.

This guide uses URLs of the form:

http://server.domain/path/file.html

In these URLs, server is the name of server on which you run your application; domain is your Internet domain name; path is the directory structure on the server; and file is an individual filename. Italic items in URLs are placeholders.

This guide uses the following font conventions:

• The monospace font is used for sample code and code listings, API and language elements (such as function names), file names, path names, directory names, and HTML tags.

• Italic type is used for book titles, emphasis, variables and placeholders, and words used in the literal sense.

Viewing Documentation Online

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For the Beta release of PAE 6.0, the manuals are only available in HTML format. You can download zip files of the HTML documentation from the Beta download site.

For More Information

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To get started learning Java, see the online Java Tutorial at:

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/

For information about using the Process Builder to develop PAE applications, see the Process Builder's Guide.

For information about using the Process Express, see the Process Express User's Guide.

For information about using the Process Administrator to administer deployed applications and for information about using the Process Business Manager for administering process instances and work items, see the Process Administrator and Business Manager's Guide.