Activiti Designer 5.9.0 released

[trademak]

Hi all,

I've released a new Activiti Designer version (5.9.0).
This is not just an upgrade with new features and bug fixes, we've also made a couple of changes to the core.
First, we don't have separate .activiti and bpmn20.xml files anymore. We now have one .bpmn file that contains the BPMN 2.0 XML information that's used to create a graphical diagram.
So any previous issues with the synchronization between the .activiti and the .bpmn20.xml file are gone.
Note that we changed the file extension to .bpmn. This has two reasons, first this is a default file extension for BPMN XML files. Second we need to have unique file extension for Activiti Designer diagrams, so .bpmn20.xml doesn't work, because this is seen as a XML file. To migrate your current diagrams to the new Activiti Designer release you only have to copy the .bpmn20.xml file and rename it to a .bpmn file. So actually there's no migration. Also note that this version of the Activiti Designer needs an Eclipse Indigo environment, so Helios is not supported.

Activiti Designer 5.9.0 highlights:

- Only one model file (with .bpmn extension), so no .activiti and .bpmn20.xml synchronization needed anymore.
- Support for nested sub processes.
- Support for signal events and event sub processes
- Improved the movement of boundary events and boundary events are now also moved with its parent.
- Upgrade to Graphiti 0.9.
- Lots of bug fixes.

So we welcome all users to try-out this new version of the Activiti Designer.
To get started copy one of your created .bpmn20.xml files to an Activiti project in the the new Activiti Designer and rename it with a .bpmn extension.
So you don't need the .activiti file at all.

For the next version we are looking at the implementation of the following features:

- Pools and lanes
- Text annotation
- Transaction and compensation support

But we welcome other requests for new features!

Best regards and enjoy,

[trademak]

Hi,

It's very simple to build a version from trunk that already includes this. Is that a good temporary solution.
The trunk is stable so that shouldn't cause you any problems.

Best regards,

[ronald_van_kuij]

For me te only thing was tat if you channge the node type via the 'circular menu' it leaves the old node present, hidden behind the new one.

Oh and maybe a small cosmetic/usability one. If you have a node selected and you open/select the properties pane, you have to reselect the node to to actually see the properties

[finns]

Dear Tijs

It would be great of you updating the User Guide http://activiti.org/userguide/index.html#eclipseDesignerInstallation with according Menu images and remarks (no more *.bpnm20.xml and *.png generated, mo nore "Import BPMN 2.0 file" Menu point).

I wonder how many new user have been mislead and did question their installation/your product. I did.

Many thanks

Luca

[trademak]

Hi,

Yes the documentation should be updated. Because we normally do this with an Activiti release I have to see how soon I can do this, but thanks for pointing this out.
And yes the BPMN import without DI is mentioned in the user guide. To my experience most people use the Designer in combination with the Modeler or another BPMN 2.0 DI capable tool.
So BPMN models with DI information are imported as expected, only the BPMN model without DI are not imported.
I've heard from 2 or 3 people who would like this feature to come back again and if this number is growing I'm certainly willing to add it again.

Best regards,

[jcavezian]

Hi,

Yes the documentation should be updated. Because we normally do this with an Activiti release I have to see how soon I can do this, but thanks for pointing this out.
And yes the BPMN import without DI is mentioned in the user guide. To my experience most people use the Designer in combination with the Modeler or another BPMN 2.0 DI capable tool.
So BPMN models with DI information are imported as expected, only the BPMN model without DI are not imported.
I've heard from 2 or 3 people who would like this feature to come back again and if this number is growing I'm certainly willing to add it again.

Best regards,

Hi,

Could you also update details concerning Eclipse Indigo support only ?

Thank you.
Regards, Jerome

[pitagoras]

+1 to bring the import feature back…

[wfloyd]

Can you explain how we should add the new .bpmn files to Alfresco as custom workflows? Should we simply rename them to .bmpn20.xml ?

[htmfilho]

I was trying to install Activiti Designer 5.9 and I got a conflict with the Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse. Look at the details:
Cannot complete the install because of a conflicting dependency.
  Software being installed: Activiti Eclipse BPMN 2.0 Designer 5.9.1 (org.activiti.designer.feature.feature.group 5.9.1)
  Software currently installed: Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse 2.0.1.201203120349 (oracle.eclipse.tools.indigo.oepe.product.feature.group 2.0.1.201203120349)
  Only one of the following can be installed at once:
    Graphiti Pattern (Incubation) 0.8.2.v20120215-0845 (org.eclipse.graphiti.pattern 0.8.2.v20120215-0845)
    Graphiti Pattern (Incubation) 0.9.0.v20120321-0814 (org.eclipse.graphiti.pattern 0.9.0.v20120321-0814)
    Graphiti Pattern (Incubation) 0.8.0.v20110516-1053 (org.eclipse.graphiti.pattern 0.8.0.v20110516-1053)
    Graphiti Pattern (Incubation) 0.8.1.v20110829-1438 (org.eclipse.graphiti.pattern 0.8.1.v20110829-1438)
  Cannot satisfy dependency:
    From: Oracle ADF Controller UI 4.2.1.201203120349 (oracle.eclipse.tools.adf.controller.ui 4.2.1.201203120349)
    To: bundle org.eclipse.graphiti.pattern [0.8.0,0.9.0)
  Cannot satisfy dependency:
    From: Oracle ADF Tools 2.0.1.201203120349 (oracle.eclipse.tools.indigo.adf.feature.group 2.0.1.201203120349)
    To: oracle.eclipse.tools.adf.controller.ui [4.2.1.201203120349]
  Cannot satisfy dependency:
    From: Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse 2.0.1.201203120349 (oracle.eclipse.tools.indigo.oepe.product.feature.group 2.0.1.201203120349)
    To: oracle.eclipse.tools.indigo.adf.feature.group [2.0.1.201203120349]
  Cannot satisfy dependency:
    From: Activiti Eclipse BPMN 2.0 Designer 5.9.1 (org.activiti.designer.feature.feature.group 5.9.1)
    To: org.eclipse.graphiti.pattern 0.9.0
Did someone face the same problem?

[trademak]

Hmm interesting, so the Oracle Enterprise pack is also using Graphiti, but a older version.
Then I think the only solution is to use a separate Eclipse instance for the Activiti Designer.

Best regards,

[htmfilho]

Hmm interesting, so the Oracle Enterprise pack is also using Graphiti, but a older version.
Then I think the only solution is to use a separate Eclipse instance for the Activiti Designer.

Are you sure that Activiti Designer needs the latest version of Graphiti? 🙂