Graphical Representation, Signavio Activity, Activiti Explor

[activiti-admin]

The more complex - respectively, long-running - processes are, the more end users (actors) want to be informed about the current process' state. They need detailed information about which activities are to be resolved, which actors will be responsible for progressing a critical process (in order to talk to them in the real world), and they need to estimate when a process might be finished.

In other words: Formalized business processes also need to assist in managing informal aspects. - A graphical process overview - with detail information as onmouseover tooltips - might be indeed helpful.

- The Signavio folks, that are partnering with Activiti by providing Activiti Modeler, already have a solution at their fingertips (well, almost): The Signavio Modeler is a derivate of the Oryx Edtitor, and the latter does provide a specialized API for visualizing a process model:
http://bpt.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/Oryx/MOVISightings

The next question was, would the Signavio folks be willing to engage in that topic? - From an end user's point of view, this feature would be really central and hot.

However, there's already been a milestone in Activiti's roadmap that Activiti hasn't been able to reach, that "BPMN import" feature: It's simply not implemented in the current Activiti / Signavio Modeler release.
Looking at Signavio's ancestor, the Oryx editor, that feature is already implemented, but more than buggy (doesn't work at all, even with simplicistic process models).

I wonder if the Signavio folks should engage more, and contribute back to their roots (Oryx), and to Activiti.

- Another issue, concerning the practice, I'm wondering about, is Activiti Explorer. - That's a really smart application in terms of AJAX integration and cursory user experience.

However, in real applications, in real life, that application would need to be extended and customized by software providers. There'd be requests for features like "who's to be kicked in the ass in order to get some progress to this freaking process", or, "what does my subordinate currently do".

While Activiti Explorer would - surely - need to be customized in real-life applications, there's absolutely no documentation on that. - There's a mixture of JavaScript, an Activiti REST API, and a Java server backend, - however, that domain is not documented, at all.

- In my own small imagination, the modeler and, of course, the process engine are basics (that just need to work, no need for a discussion). They don't need to provide all possible features (as there are so many), but should be consistent with the basic features. (For example, we don't urgently need a "Java Task" as this could be accomplished by implementing ActivityBehavior, as well.)

In contrast, to me, it appears crucial to implement (a) importing plain BPMN files into the Signavio Modeler, and (b) providing documentation and plugin APIs for Activiti modeler.

Thanks

[activiti-admin]

and (b) providing documentation and plugin APIs for Activiti modeler.

Sorry, typo. - Not Actititi Modeler needs to be documented for that matter, but Activiti Explorer.

That's because almost any software provider that's using Activiti Explorer will want to customize that application.

Thanks

[tombaeyens]

There are a lot of interesting suggestions here.  Can you share the background of your interest in Activiti?

[wir33658]

As I asked in another post already, I totally agree with the guest to have a graphical representation of the the actual running process state is extremly crucial.

My background is from the automation in semiconductor industries, where processes running quite some time and the process engineers NEED to know at which state the process is at the moment. It does not help them to say, "well, its somewhere but we cannot not see it".

So, I am pretty sure to have this feature available with Activit would lift it up a lot (because imagine you are able to model it graphically but being not able to see the recent process state graphically; its not possible to sell — actually I am wondering, since some of you guys come from the jBPM background, where it was possible, to a certain degree, to do this).

Cheers, Rob.

[bernd_ruecker]

Hey Rob.

Maybe you got the wqrong impression. This feature is for sure on the roadmap of activiti! I see it crucial as well. So don't worry, just give us some time 😉

Cheers
Bernd

[wir33658]

Hey Rob.

Maybe you got the wqrong impression. This feature is for sure on the roadmap of activiti! I see it crucial as well. So don't worry, just give us some time 😉

Cheers
Bernd

Bernd, sounds great, do you have any idea when this might be happening ?

[activiti-admin]

Soon, I'd suppose. :mrgreen:

[tombaeyens]

Definitely soon!  😉
We should have this in the next 2 months.

[activiti-admin]

Great news between the roadmap's lines.

When do you expect the "graphical process status" feature to become documented then? - In other threads, they're currently wondering about "how to implement something like Activiti Explorer myself", not to mention "how to customize Activiti Explorer".

There's absolutely no documentation on all that. - The problem there is, the different pieces of logic for a single process are dispersed in different layers, including Java, AJAX, and JavaScript. And therefore, those layer's interactions would really need to be documented. For a start, an overview in 200 words and a couple of links to external documentation might do that.

[wir33658]

Definitely soon!  😉
We should have this in the next 2 months.

Tom, that sounds promising. Keep on rocking ;-).

Cheers, Rob.