The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Rules and Processes

As seen online at KieLive episode #14

There are so many ways and so much content out there to get you started with open source rules and process automation tooling by Red Hat, so where do you start? 

The goal of this guide is to provide you with a learning path through this content as a way to get started from download, to installation, to quick starts, to hands-on workshops, and all the way to using this technology for your cloud-native development projects.

You'll walk away from this guide with a learning path mapped out through content that's enjoyable to work with and can help you get started on your rules and process automation projects today.

KieLive: The ultimate beginners guide to rules and processes (episode 14)

 I've been invited to join the KieLives series online for episode 14 of live streaming around how to get started with rules and processes on Tuesday, November 10th 2002.

What is KieLives? 

The KIE Live Series is composed of live streamings that bring technical information and updates about business automation delivered by the projects under the KIE umbrella: Drools, jBPM, OptaPlanner, and Kogito.

Problems like process automation, decision automation, resource planning solution are the main topics, and of course, we always have in mind recent technology concepts like cloud-native application target for any type of cloud (private/public/hybrid/edge). You can expect to hear from business automation experts who code or/and deliver business automation within big enterprises across the world.

It's one thing to dive into rules and another to dive into process automation, but what about bringing them both together in a getting started learning path?

Join me and the hosts for an hour session online, free of charge, for a learning tour de force.

DevConf.US 2019 - 7 Steps to Expanding Your AppDev Toolbox (slides)

Previously I talked about submitting to DevConf.us in Boston.

This week I was in Boston presenting three talks that got accepted.

It was a lot of fun and happy to see so many faces of friend, to meet so many eager new developers, and to share the stories I have to tell.

Below are the slides from the talk I gave on 7 steps to expanding your application development toolbox.

DevConf.US 2019 - How to Jump Start Your Career in Open Source (slides)

Previously I talked about submitting to DevConf.us in Boston.

This week I was in Boston presenting three talks that got accepted.

It was a lot of fun and happy to see so many faces of friend, to meet so many eager new developers, and to share the stories I have to tell.

Below are the slides from the talk I gave on how to jump start your career in open source.

DevConf.US 2019 - 3 Pitfalls Everyone Ignores with Microservices (slides)

Previously I talked about submitting to DevConf.us in Boston.

This week I was in Boston presenting three talks that got accepted.

It was a lot of fun and happy to see so many faces of friend, to meet so many eager new developers, and to share the stories I have to tell.

Below are the slides from the talk I gave on 3 pitfalls everyone ignores with microservices.

DevConf.US 2019 - Open Source Career with Automation Integration Acceptances

Previously I talked about submitting to DevConf.us in Boston.

After submitting I was asked to help chair the Application Development and Containers track, so told the organizers we would not be selecting any of my talks for our track.

I kind of assumed I would just be attending as a track chair to assist the speakers in presenting smoothly through the entire conference. Then last week the acceptance letters arrived and all three talks have been chosen.

Gonna be busy time but fun week in Boston, MA from Aug 17 - 19, so hope to see you at one of these talks or just for a chat in the halls.

DevConf.US 2019 - Open Source Career with Automation Integration

Last year I submitted to this great conference, but for the first time since I've been doing conference submissions, I had to pull out due to unforeseen  circumstances.

I really wanted to make a point of returning to support this event, so I have put in three of my best talks. I hope the committee gives this another chance, as I've cleared my schedule for this event and can't wait to meet everyone at Boston University on 15-17 August.

Here's my list of submissions, fingers crossed:

Beginners Guide: How to Configure an Email Service Task for Red Hat Process Automation Manager

Recently I've been updating my free online workshops, specifically the series based on JBoss BPM Suite so that you can get started with the newer Red Hat Process Automation Manager.

In this article I'm sharing something that I've stumbled on while trying to use email notifications in my automation project.

I discovered while updating this project that the email service task, a task type that should allow you to send emails from a process, is not pre-configured out of the box. Not only that, I'm unable to find the solution online for Red Hat Process Automation Manager.

Let's fix that shall we and take a look at what's needed to get our emails flowing in our processes?

Get a Signed Copy of Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM

As mentioned previously, a few weeks ago in San Francisco, CA I spent some time signing copies of my book Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM for attendees of the Red Hat Summit.

Since the book was launched as a free ebook download on Red Hat Developers, it was not really possible to get your hands on a real paper copy of the book.

Until now.

With over 200 put in print for Red Hat Summit, it was amazing to see the lines of people wanting to meet, greet and obtain their signed copies.

If you would like to receive a copy, possibly signed by me, read further.

Book Signing: Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM

Early this year the book Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM launched a free ebook on Red Hat Developers that you can download.

Next week I'll be at the Red Hat Summit 2018 conference in San Francisco, CA, at the Moscone Center speaking and presenting a hands-on lab.

The surprise event is that Red Hat authors will be spending time at the booth where we'll be signing copies of our respective books.

Look for me at the following times at the section labeled DevZone ready to give you and sign a copy of Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM:

• Tuesday, 8 May: 12:00 - 13:00
• Thursday, 10 May: 13:00 - 13:45

Book Launched - Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM

Are you interested in an introduction to the concepts of process management (BPM)?

Do you want to learn how your business can leverage process driven application delivery?

Are you looking for an easy to understand guide to mastering Red Hat JBoss BPM Suite tooling?

Do you want a step-by-step introduction to setting up JBoss BPM Suite, then coverage of practical and important topics like data modeling, designing business rules and processes,  detailed real world examples, and tips for testing?

For the last few years I've been working on putting years of working with JBoss BPM Suite, community projects Drools and jBPM together in one easy to understand book.

In 2017, Red Hat put the first chapter online for free and literally thousands downloaded it starting their journey on the road to delivering process driven application with JBoss BPM Suite. Many of you have reached out over the years to ask about the completion of this book and where you can get it.

The good news isthat the book is available and Red Hat's providing ebook downloads for free!

Let's look at how this works, shall we?

AppDev in the Cloud with Baggage Delivery Solutions

Back in March 2015 the JBoss BPM Baggage Delivery application demo project was launched based on work by a North American Solution Architect, Jason Milliron at Red Hat.

It consisted of a local installation and demo instructions to run this on your own local machine.

After languishing for over two years now, in dire need of updating, it's been brought forward in to the age of cloud, containers, and modernized application delivery.

The local installation remains an option, but now it's enhanced with an installation on a private cloud on your laptop with the OpenShift Container Platform so why not push this baggage delivery example in to the clouds?

What's been done to bring this application up to date:

1. Updated existing JBoss Demo Central Baggage Delivery project.
2. Create the AppDev in the Cloud project providing Baggage Delivery application delivered in a container on OpenShift Container Platform.
3. Added link to Red Hat Demo Central for container deployment, listed as option two.

Let's take a closer look at how to get started with AppDev in the Cloud and the Baggage Delivery project.

How To Setup BPM and Rules Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 11

The release of the latest JBoss Developer Studio (JBDS) brings with it the questions around how to get started with the various JBoss Integration and BPM product tool sets that are not installed out of the box.

In this series of articles we will outline for you how to install each set of tools and explain which products they are supporting.

This should help you in making an informed decision about what tooling you might want to install before embarking on your next JBoss integration project.

There are three different software packs that offer tooling for various JBoss integration products:

1. JBoss Fuse Development
2. JBoss Business Process and Rules Development
3. JBoss Integration and SOA Development

This article will outline how to get started with the JBoss BPM and Rules Development tooling with any of the JBDS 11 series of releases.

Select JBoss BPM & Rules Development tooling.

How To Setup Fuse Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 11

The release of the latest JBoss Developer Studio (JBDS) brings with it the questions around how to get started with the various JBoss Integration and BPM product tool sets that are not installed out of the box.

In this series of articles we will outline for you how to install each set of tools and explain which products they are supporting.

This should help you in making an informed decision about what tooling you might want to install before embarking on your next JBoss integration project.

There are three different software packs that offer tooling for various JBoss integration products:

1. JBoss Fuse Development
2. JBoss Business Process and Rules Development
3. JBoss Integration and SOA Development

This article will outline how to get started with the JBoss Fuse Development tooling and any of the JBDS 11 series of releases.

Financial AppDev in the Cloud with Generic Loan Demo

Previously you received a containerized financial application as a demonstration for application development in the Cloud.

This was intended to showcase a generic loan process based application running in a container on the Container Development Kit (CDK).

Multiple demo projects installed on OCP.

Times have changed, the products showcased move forward and this is an update to take the Generic Loan demo application in to the future with JBoss EAP 7.0 and JBoss BPM Suite 6.4 on OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) 3.5.

Updated generic loan project

Today the updated financial (FSI) generic loan example that can be installed on any OpenShift Container Platform layer of your stack.

Other improvements include the ability to clone the project from inside the container and to install this demo project alongside any of the others found in Red Hat Demo Central in a single OCP instance.

AppDev in the Cloud - HR Employee Rewards Application on OpenShift

Over the holiday break I noticed an old favorite BPM example project, maybe one of the first ones I ever created in my BPM career, the JBoss BPM Rewards application was being neglected and no longer deemed worthy of updates.

It has been a part of the learning path for many beginners to the JBoss BPM space, including an integral role in the long running free online BPM workshop that I have shared around the world at Red Hat Summit, JUGs, meetups and JBUG conferences.

With my focus shifting last year to a more Cloud centric application development story I have taken this example project and enabled it for most OpenShift Cloud installation, fully containerizing the example in the easy to use demo format I always provide.

Instead of letting this project deteriorate in the annals of history, I took the project and updated it with the following:

• Updated to use JBoss BPM Suite 6.4.0
• Updated to use JBoss EAP 7.0.0
• Installs locally on your machine
• Installs containerized
• Installs to any OpenShift installation

To achieve all this I forked the original project and updated the Cloud based project over on Red Hat Demo Central. To install locally or in a container on your own container platform, you use the forked project I will keep on my own Github:

JBoss BPM Suite Rewards Demo

This is the HR employee rewards demo that provides examples of human task integration, form designer and a custom email work item handler.

There are several options available to you for using this demo; local, containerized or on any OpenShift installation.

Can be found on https://github.com/eschabell/bpms-rewards-demo.

The second project can be found on Red Hat Demo Central and hosts the install to any OpenShift installation, but we suggest you use the OpenShift Container Platform Install Demo:

App Dev Cloud with JBoss Rewards Demo

This demo is to install JBoss BPM Suite Rewards Demo in the Cloud based on leveraging the Red Hat Container Development Kit (CDK) and the provided OpenShift Enterprise (OSE) image. It delivers a fully functioning JBoss BPM Mortgage example containerized on OSE.

This is the HR employee rewards demo that provides examples of human task integration, form designer and a custom email work item handler.

Can be found on https://github.com/redhatdemocentral/rhcs-rewards-demo.

Enjoy and keep an eye on this site for more updates soon.

Codemotion Rome 2017: Last try for Containers, JBoss BPM and Monkeys

I have spoken in the past at Codemotion Rome, and in Denmark,  so this year I have submitted a few talks in hopes of spending a few days with the good people that host these conferences.

From my new position at Red Hat I have a broader reach on the topics and technology that I can choose from to submit, so the sessions below you will find are pretty far apart on the technology spectrum.

Fingers crossed and maybe I will see you at Codemotion Rome on  24-25th of March 2017 for any of the following talks.

Painless containerization in your very own Private Cloud

As application developers we are coming to grips with new technology all the time. Containerizing what we do is becoming the standard as our applications are delivered into the Cloud. Let me show you a painless way to easily install a private Cloud in just minutes, one that leverages today's docker based container technologies from & wrapped in a developer friendly self-service OpenShift platform. 

Join me for an hour of power where you will walk away with the ability to leverage real hands-on example applications of painless containerization in your very own private OpenShift Cloud platform.

App Dev in the Cloud: Not my circus, not my monkeys...

When faced with all the hype around Cloud, most application developers are not really all that excited. Maybe you get that feeling that it isn't your problem, just leave me to my applications. Let me show you why, as an application developer, you can't ignore your Cloud stack anymore. 

We will examine your Cloud stack anxieties and provide you with a solutions to ease you into your first private PaaS on your own local machine that you can install in just minutes. Finally you will be given a myriad of examples to take home with you to take control of this circus and own the monkeys!

Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM

When getting started with JBoss BPM you are often looking for a reference to help you on your journey, something that will make you an effective member of your project team that is developing process applications. 

I will present an overview of how to get started, where you can find the help you need and leave you a collection of example projects that you can install locally on your development machine or in the Cloud. 

Join us for an hour of power that will turn you into a productive BPM'er and send you home with early access to the publication of the same name.

How To get your hands on JBoss BPM book as Deal of the Day

Since launching the Early Access Program for my latest publication, Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM, I have been busy pushing out chapters that you can preview.

This provides you with a chance to purchase, at reduced rates, access to the first chapters that are available now in electronic format. You can interact with the author, that's me, in the authors online forum and give direct feedback on the content.

I have had change to produce over half of the book so far, reviews are coming in and I am constantly reworking past chapters to make them sound based on the feedback received.

So what is this thing called Deal of the Day?

Modeling Your Business Process Data

(This article was excerpted from the book Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM by Eric D. Schabell.)

One of the most important building blocks for a process project is data. It could be argued that this is a fact for any application development project, but it’s essential for a process project because, by definition, a process is receiving, acting on, moving, manipulating and modifying data constantly during its lifecycle. This data needs to be in a form that can be easily understood by all involved in designing and building the process project. The form the data is put into is called a Data Model, which is a part of every computer science student’s education, learning how to formally model data.

The actual discovery of data that’s part of the process you’re implementing, as well as the structuring of this into a form that can be considered a data model, is outside the scope of this article. I start at the point that you’ve a completed data model delivered to you for implementation and you need to make this model available to applications and processes from within the JBoss BPM Suite.

Let’s imagine you’re part of a project team automating a process that determines if a customer of your financial institution has the right income and age to be considered for a car loan. There has already been a round of discovery workshops to uncover the process steps, which uncovers the data needed to complete the process. This data is modeled by someone in the project team and delivered to you as the project team member responsible for implementing this data model.

At this point, with your data model in hand, you’ll start the journey of implementing data objects for your process projects.

How To Setup Fuse Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 10

The release of the latest JBoss Developer Studio (JBDS) brings with it the questions around how to get started with the various JBoss Integration and BPM product tool sets that are not installed out of the box.

In this series of articles we will outline for you how to install each set of tools and explain which products they are supporting.

This should help you in making an informed decision about what tooling you might want to install before embarking on your next JBoss integration project.

There are four different software packs that offer tooling for various JBoss integration products:

1. JBoss Fuse Development
2. JBoss Business Process and Rules Development
3. JBoss Data Virtualization Development
4. JBoss Integration and SOA Development

Tooling is available under software updates
with early access enabled.

This article will outline how to get started with the JBoss Fues Development tooling and any of the JBDS 10 series of releases.

Installation

JBDS 10 can be obtained through the Customer Portal or via the early access downloads on jboss.org. After installing JBDS, start it up and you will see a welcoming JBoss Central tab with at the bottom a tab to look at the available tool sets labeled Software/Update. 

You will notice at the time of this writing that there are no other JBoss Integration stacks offered to install upon first inspection. This is due to the other integration stacks being early access.

Select JBoss Fuse Development.

Eventually they will be shown by default once testing finished and they release, but for now you can obtain them by checking the Early Access box in the bottom right corner. 

This will reveal the integration stack tooling offerings and we will select JBoss Fuse Development.

Click on the Install/Update button to start the installation and restart at the end to complete the process.

If you are interested in what is being installed, it can be examined by examining the pop-up listing of components and versions. Note this will change as the early access progresses towards final releases.

Examine components and versions to be installed.

Stay tuned for more articles in this series that will detail the installation of the remaining JBoss Integration Stack tools.

Other options

In the past we have outlined the use of JBoss BPM and rules tooling for other versions of JBDS:

• How To Setup Process Automation Tooling for CodeReady Studio 12
• How To Setup Data Virtualization Tooling for CodeReady Studio 12
• How To Setup Integration Tooling for CodeReady Studio 12
• How To Setup Fuse Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 11
• How To Setup BPM and Rules Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 11
• How To Setup Integration and SOA Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 11
• How To Setup Fuse Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 10
• How To Setup BPM and Rules Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 10
• How To Setup Data Virtualization Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 10
• How To Setup Integration and SOA Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 10
• How To Setup Fuse Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 9 
• How To Setup BPM and Rules Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 9
• How To Setup Big Data Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 9
• How To Setup SOA 5.x Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 9
• How To Setup Integration & SOA Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 9
• How To Setup BPM and Rules Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 8
• How To Setup Big Data Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 8
• How To Setup Integration & SOA Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 8
• How To Setup SOA 5.x Tooling For JBoss Developer Studio 8
• JBoss Developer Studio 7 - how to setup SOA Tools (BRMS example)
• JBoss Developer Studio 6 - how to setup SOA Tools (BRMS example)
• JBoss Developer Studio 5 - how to add Eclipse BPMN2 Modeler as jBPM designer
• JBoss Developer Studio 5 - how to setup SOA Tools (BRMS example)
• JBoss Developer Studio 4.0 - how to add native BPMN2 editor
• JBoss Developer Studio 4.0 - how to add native BPMN editor / Enterprise Architect Savara tooling
• JBoss Developer Studio 4.0 - how to add tech preview BPEL tooling

[Note: This post was originally published on Red Hat Developers, the community to learn, code, and share faster. Original article here.]