Activiti process model interaction/global perspective (read content for clarification)

[jsmith6690]

Activiti Community,

I am exploring BPM capabilities for possible use in our small IT company. One of the features we would really like, but have not yet found, is the ability to render a process model and interact with it in a webapp.

Allow me to clarify:  I understand that in process execution, users are issued tasks that queue up, and that users a notified as to which step they are in a process, but, neither users nor administrators can *see* where they are in a given process from a "global" perspective.  The process model, while viewable in the Activiti webapp, appears completely static (Active Process vs. Active Process *instnace)

In conclusion, I have a question/suggestion: 

Does Activiti have a way of rendering a process model such that users can visualize the *entire* process, and not just "checkin" at each step?
…And, if not, perhaps Activiti should consider an interactive, dynamic process model in the webapp.

Answers, feedback, tips for rendering such a process model all appreciated.

Best,

Jeff

[jsmith6690]

Ah, I wish I could edit posts. I just want to emphasize that what we'd like is to be able to view, as a model or diagram, process *instances* that visually show which stage a given process is in.

[frederikherema1]

Activiti explorer now uses a javascript-based rendering of a process-model. Active steps can be highlighted if needed, and additional information about a step (description, …) is show when hovering an activity. You see the whole process-diagral this way. Take a look at org.activiti.explorer.ui.management.processinstance.ProcessInstanceDetailPanel:158 (addProcessImage) for an example of how a diagram-viewer URL is constructed.

An alternative is to have a static image (PNG) rendered which highlights the current active activities (based on an process-instance ID) using our API. For this approach, take a look at the org.activiti.engine.impl.bpmn.diagram.ProcessDiagramGenerator class and to org.activiti.rest.service.api.runtime.process.ProcessInstanceDiagramResource (REST-resource for getting this PNG image for a process-instance) to see how the generator can be used to create PNG's based on a process-instance ID. Or you can even just use this activiti-REST endpoint in your webapp instead…

[martin_grofcik]

Hello Jeff,

may be you will find following diagram generators useeful:
https://github.com/gro-mar/activiti-crystalball/wiki/Audit-trail-diagram
https://github.com/gro-mar/activiti-crystalball/wiki/DueDate-generator
https://github.com/gro-mar/activiti-crystalball/wiki/Getting-started

Regards
Martin