topic Re: Should this code stay procedural or use process flows? in Alfresco Archive

Should this code stay procedural or use process flows?

jasonw — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 18:53:00 GMT

I am new to BPMS and so this is a question on whether or not Activiti process flow is a better way to re-do my current logic.We have a system that communicates asynchronously with 'devices' of all kinds (e.g., non-standard thingies).We currently track each communication request with a device in a "I

Re: Should this code stay procedural or use process flows?

jbarrez — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 09:24:04 GMT

It sounds to me like a fit. The load should be ok on decent hardware.

What's the reason for wanting to migrate? Do you anticipate changes in the logic later on? Or do you feel you're writing your own state machine now?

Re: Should this code stay procedural or use process flows?

jasonw — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 16:28:29 GMT

Reasons I'm thinking about converting our current approach to a BMP process flow
====================================================
- I'd rather not continue to maintain custom code that is essentially done (and done better) by a product.

- I'd like to have 'trace-ability' of the process from start to finish. Currently, our technical solution is essentially fire-and-forget. Once the instruction has gone asynchronous, we kind of lose what happened to it downstream of it. We track state changes, but we don't track information about each state change to really understand it.
- I'd like to take advantage of some things offered out-of-the-box by Activiti BPM like 'simulation/replay' where we can re-play a scenario. The instructions flow would be a sub-process, kicked off from other processes. For instance, what "incident" triggered the instructions to the devices? A bad accident? A delayed flight/bus?, etc. What devices were contacted, what information was displayed on them, for how long, and how Operators of the system interacted with the devices.

thanks

Re: Should this code stay procedural or use process flows?

martin_grofcik — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 04:54:47 GMT

Hi,

'simulation/replay'

Please let me know the results. (If you would need any help….)

Regards
Martin

Re: Should this code stay procedural or use process flows?

jbarrez — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 16:26:51 GMT

<quote>
- I'd like to have 'trace-ability' of the process from start to finish. Currently, our technical solution is essentially fire-and-forget. Once the instruction has gone asynchronous, we kind of lose what happened to it downstream of it. We track state changes, but we don't track information about each state change to really understand it.
</quote>

If you dont have that in the current system, then indeed Activiti will serve that need