Running shell script from Activiti

[alexbt]

What is the best way to run a ksh or bash script (instead of a Java class) from within a script task?
Or the only way is to wrap it with a Java class and use ProcessBuilder to run ksh/bash script?
Maybe it's better to use Groovy to start ksh/bash script?
Any ideas?

One more question. Can I use jython instead of Groovy as a script implementation?

Thanks in advance,
Alex

[jbarrez]

Alex,

You can use any JSR-223 compliant language. So if JYthon supports that spec, just add it to the classpath and change the 'scriptFormat' value.

I don't have a best practice on how to start a shell script, so I dont see any other solution than doing as you say.

[alexbt]

Thanks for your quick reply.

Alex

[tombaeyens]

I think starting a command line process is a great idea for an activity type.  Created http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/ACT-461 so that we don't forget about this idea

[alexbt]

Yes, I totally agree with it. This is actually my case - to start a ksh  (on HP-UX or AIX servers) and bash (on Linux ones) scripts.

Alex

[alexbt]

I also have 2 ideas for UI part of the system.
Where should I post them?

Regards,
Alex

[jbarrez]

Depends on what you mean with 'ui'. We have separate forums for each Activiti component now, see http://forums.activiti.org/en/index.php

[ronald_van_kuij]

We started working on this one… An important question is how the parameters to commands should be passed on. (java exec does not match to os level)
We could do two things. String parsing of a full command and params. Or a separte command field and one or more param fields.
If we go for the former, I propose to use something like
- a space is a separator between params
- " or ' around something means it may contain spaces
- \ before a space means it should be treated as part of a parameter

Some other questions:
- do we need the ability to set environment properties?
- do we do someting with the return value?
- do we do something with the output of the command (if at stdout)

[jbarrez]

Ronald, could you give some examples of how the xml would look like?

I think capturing the return result is valid, as it allows to check on success or failure.
Capturing the output doesnt seem very important to me.

[smirzai]

what happened to this topic  ? Is it implemented, forgotten or impossible ?