Unable to use Activiti template for new process

[mwelter]

Good morning all,

I've noticed a few problems with using Activiti designer.  I'm using Eclipse Indigo & installed JDK 1.8.0_25 on a Windows 7 laptop.  I am creating a new workflow process & would like to use one of the default workflows as a starting point.  I created a new Kickstart Project & selected File -> new -> Other -> Kickstart Process diagram.  When I "Select the initial content for the new diagram".  I have a selection of default workflows that I can choose.  I selected the "Review & Approve Activiti Process" it throws an error in my error log in Eclipse that says "unhandled event loop exception". I have included the log error below.

Can someone explain why this error is occurring?  with my limited understanding……. I believe NullPointerException errors occur when it is looking for something that doesn't exist.  Is there some problem with my development environment that would cause this ?

java.lang.NullPointerException
   at org.activiti.designer.kickstart.eclipse.ui.wizard.diagram.CreateDefaultKickstartDiagramWizard.performFinish(CreateDefaultKickstartDiagramWizard.java:107)
   at org.eclipse.jface.wizard.WizardDialog.finishPressed(WizardDialog.java:827)
   at org.eclipse.jface.wizard.WizardDialog.buttonPressed(WizardDialog.java:432)
   at org.eclipse.jface.dialogs.Dialog$2.widgetSelected(Dialog.java:624)
   at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.TypedListener.handleEvent(TypedListener.java:240)
   at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.EventTable.sendEvent(EventTable.java:84)
   at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:1053)
   at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.runDeferredEvents(Display.java:4165)
   at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.readAndDispatch(Display.java:3754)
   at org.eclipse.jface.window.Window.runEventLoop(Window.java:825)
   at org.eclipse.jface.window.Window.open(Window.java:801)
   at org.eclipse.ui.internal.handlers.WizardHandler$New.executeHandler(WizardHandler.java:257)
   at org.eclipse.ui.internal.handlers.WizardHandler.execute(WizardHandler.java:277)
   at org.eclipse.ui.internal.handlers.HandlerProxy.execute(HandlerProxy.java:293)
   at org.eclipse.core.commands.Command.executeWithChecks(Command.java:476)
   at org.eclipse.core.commands.ParameterizedCommand.executeWithChecks(ParameterizedCommand.java:508)
   at org.eclipse.ui.internal.handlers.HandlerService.executeCommand(HandlerService.java:169)
   at org.eclipse.ui.internal.handlers.SlaveHandlerService.executeCommand(SlaveHandlerService.java:241)
   at org.eclipse.ui.internal.actions.CommandAction.runWithEvent(CommandAction.java:157)
   at org.eclipse.jface.action.ActionContributionItem.handleWidgetSelection(ActionContributionItem.java:584)
   at org.eclipse.jface.action.ActionContributionItem.access$2(ActionContributionItem.java:501)
   at org.eclipse.jface.action.ActionContributionItem$5.handleEvent(ActionContributionItem.java:411)
   at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.EventTable.sendEvent(EventTable.java:84)
   at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:1053)
   at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.runDeferredEvents(Display.java:4165)
   at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.readAndDispatch(Display.java:3754)
   at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runEventLoop(Workbench.java:2701)
   at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runUI(Workbench.java:2665)
   at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.access$4(Workbench.java:2499)
   at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench$7.run(Workbench.java:679)
   at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:332)
   at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:668)
   at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:149)
   at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.application.IDEApplication.start(IDEApplication.java:123)
   at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:196)
   at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:110)
   at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:79)
   at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:344)
   at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:179)
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
   at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
   at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:622)
   at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:577)
   at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1410)

[mwelter]

I have also noticed some other anomalies…… I have used a dropdown list control in one of my forms, but it doesn't show as a dropdown field once I have imported it into Alfresco.  I opened up the XML file to search for the values that I added to this field & I can't see any of them in the file - this would suggest that it isn't exporting the XML file correctly.  I can see the field name in the "LeaveProcessing-model.xml" file with the following XML code.  But it appears to be of <type>d:text</type>…. Does this mean it is being exported as a plain text field ?

-<aspect name="leaveprocessing:typeofleave"> -<properties> -<property name="leaveprocessing:typeofleave"> <type>d:text</type> <protected>false</protected> <mandatory>true</mandatory> <multiple>false</multiple> </property> </properties> </aspect>

[jbarrez]

Any reason why using Indigo? Luna is already out now … Indigo is getting quite old.

Regarding your other question, I'm not sure. It has been a long while since I looked into that code….
It should have the dropdown values in the content model to work correctly.

[mwelter]

Hi Joram,

The Activiti 5.16.4 user guide specifies either Indigo or Juno & I've tried both  (http://activiti.org/userguide/index.html#eclipseDesignerInstallation)

[mwelter]

Hi Joram,

I've also noticed the following error on startup from Eclipse:

Warnings while parsing the commands from the 'org.eclipse.ui.commands' and 'org.eclipse.ui.actionDefinitions' extension points.
Commands should really have a category: plug-in='org.activiti.designer.kickstart.eclipse', id='org.activiti.designer.kickstart.command.refreshCmisNavigator', categoryId='org.activiti.designer.kickstart.eclipse.categor'

[trademak]

Hi,

For Kickstart choosing an initial template from the "New process" wizard is not supported.
We should obviously handle this in a more user friendly way.
The errors you mention are warnings which you can ignore.

Best regards,