topic Re: Layout of BPMNDiagram in activiti different to eclipse in Alfresco Archive

Layout of BPMNDiagram in activiti different to eclipse

thilka — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:44:06 GMT

Hello,I designed a process in eclipse using the designer. Then I uploaded the file to our activiti instance and looked at the generated png file.It seems that the layout information written to the bpmn.xml file is wrong. The image is attached. In the editor, the image looks perfect.If I arrange the

Re: Layout of BPMNDiagram in activiti different to eclipse

trademak — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:02:08 GMT

Hi Tobias,

The problem is that the sequence flows in the process diagram don't contain good x, y positions due to the way the Graphiti framework is designed.
When we export the BPMN DI information from the Activiti Designer we have to execute some logic to calculate the x and y positions.
For diagrams that are modeled from "left to right" this works pretty well, but obviously for "top to down" diagrams it doesn't work that well.
I'll look into this. Thanks for reporting!

Best regards,

Re: Layout of BPMNDiagram in activiti different to eclipse

thilka — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:09:48 GMT

Thanks for the quick reply. I will try to fix the issue by directly manipulating the bpmn.xml. But maybe you find another quick fix…

Tobias

Re: Layout of BPMNDiagram in activiti different to eclipse

trademak — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:17:26 GMT

Hi Tobias,

I'll make sure the diagram picture will be generated with the sequence flows in the right place.
So don't bother fixing this manually, because this will be a quick fix.

Best regards,

Re: Layout of BPMNDiagram in activiti different to eclipse

trademak — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:22:24 GMT

Consider it fixed 😉
It's solved in the trunk of the Activiti Designer.
Creating the plugin is explained on the wiki page –> http://docs.codehaus.org/display/ACT/Activiti+Designer+Developer+Guide

Best regards,

Re: Layout of BPMNDiagram in activiti different to eclipse

thilka — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:18:18 GMT

Thanks!
Is there any way to get a snapshot of the current version in trunk or do we have to do a manual build (don't have maven etc. installed yet)?

Tobias

Re: Layout of BPMNDiagram in activiti different to eclipse

trademak — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:58:58 GMT

Hi,

There's no continuous build, so I have to do it manually.
So if you can do it yourself that would be the preferred way.
If that's a problem, let me know and I'll create a build for you.

Best regards,

Re: Layout of BPMNDiagram in activiti different to eclipse

thilka — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 07:14:49 GMT

I just finished installing a new eclipse and maven and all the other stuff.

Seems to work. Only took me 45 minutes to setup the whole dev environment. Great documentation!

Thanks
Tobias

Re: Layout of BPMNDiagram in activiti different to eclipse

thilka — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:24:57 GMT

Hello,

the fix improved the situation. At least for direct flows. But as soon as there are bendpoints or diagonal lines involved, the layout gets mixed up.

Attached a small example (result.png) with the original layout from eclipse (original.png).

Tobias

Re: Layout of BPMNDiagram in activiti different to eclipse

trademak — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 14:22:26 GMT

Hi,

I've implemented another fix that should solve this.

Best regards,

Re: Layout of BPMNDiagram in activiti different to eclipse

thilka — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:29:58 GMT

Hello,

thank you for the fix. This solved our issues.

The diagram still does not look exactly the same as in the editor, but for now it's fine.

Thanks again.

Tobias

Re: Layout of BPMNDiagram in activiti different to eclipse

jjfutt — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 19:41:36 GMT

Hello:

I am posting my question to an existing thread since I ran into the same problem that had been apparently been solved, but the solution actually only improves the situation and additional enhancements may be needed. As shown in the attached diagram below, we have observed that when a process is created in Eclipse, and then deployed to a Runtime engine, the positioning of the sequence lines is not exported correctly to the bpmn file. As a result, any diagrams generated by calling the Activiti APIs is slightly different from the Eclipse version, and depending on the complexity of the diagram, they may or may not have significant impact on readibility.

The example I am posting below is relatively simple, created solely to highlight the types of variations in sequence line positioning. Kindly advise if this is something that is planned to be addressed soon:

[img]http://i45.tinypic.com/xgcn4n.png[/img]