Activiti 6 is on the Way

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Activiti 6 is on the Way

salaboy
Senior Member
3 6 6,103

Activiti 6.0 Final release is around the corner, and I’m super excited of being part of this release because it is the first step towards a bright future. I’m looking forward to working with the community to shape up the next releases of the project to make sure that we push BPM to the next level.

On the Activiti 6.0 release you will find:

  • A new refactored Process Engine optimized and battle tested by several community users and organizations. The introduction of native BPMN support instead of the Process Virtual Machines offers better performance. This builds on top of Activiti’s stateless architecture to bring even higher levels of performance and scalability.
  • The only Open Source BPM framework with the potential and plan for further bringing Content and Process together. Content enriches process management making it true context-aware digital flow rather than just state transitions and service orchestrations. Knowledge and context become the driver for semi-autonomous process.
  • Improved & flexible persistence mechanism which give us the right tools to move highly distributed environments. We are actively working on solutions that when combined with stateless architecture of Activiti’s process engine create new-infinite linear scalability. With Activiti’s small footprint this is ideal for cloud-era on-demand architectures. We are also supporting this direction with our first take in modularizing Activiti’s process services
  • Support for ad-hoc BPMN activities that combined with our Content roots broaden the scope and depth of unstructured and dynamic processes
  • Introduction of modern App Design modeller web app that offers in addition to BPMN modelling, forms, decision tables, granular capability-driven identity management, as well as the ability to bundle models into deployable model-driven process applications

I’ve joined Alfresco almost 4 months ago after being for more than 10 years contributing with several Open Source projects on the BPM and Model Driven Frameworks landscape. (You can find my articles, tutorials, books and my thoughts about BPM, Case Management, Rule Engines and AI in my personal blog: http://salaboy.com). I truly believe that we can simplify users experiences by providing the right tools for the job. Also, Developers and DevOps experiences can be simplified by making Activiti project even more ready for the Cloud and continuously updating to the latest standard technologies. I’m looking forward to help the Activiti community to evolve beyond traditional BPM Process Engines to a full-fledged Cloud Ready Business Automation Platform.

When I joined Alfresco, I realized the importance of completing the Activiti v6 work already in progress. You’ll see more innovation beyond the original v6 scope in the near future. In contrast with the how the Open Source project was previously organized, I’m committed to make sure that the next releases are built collaboratively between partners, community members and companies that are already using it.

Going forward, you will be see me around a lot in the community (http://github.com/salaboy, http://salaboy.com and http://twitter.com/salaboy) and conferences spreading the word. Please get in touch if you want to get involved.

About the Author
Open Source, Java, BPM and Rule Engine enthusiast and promoter. Writer of 4 books about BPM & Rule Engines, now Principal Software Engineer @ Alfresco.
6 Comments
douglascrp
Advanced II

How about the integration between Activiti 6 and Alfresco, both Community Edition?

May we wait for something on this?

Are you planning to replace the current Activiti engine embedded in Alfresco?

And how about Activiti Community support with ADF?

Being able to use ADF with Alfresco Community but not with Activiti Community is bad.

mme
Established Member

Any answers? Smiley Happy For me it´s unclear, if Alfresco Process Servcices 1.9 ist  integrated in Alfresco 6 Community or if APS is a part of Activti 6 or if APS is a "stand alone" SW. 

salaboy
Senior Member

This is a 2 years old blog post, we are heavily working on Activiti 7 Community Edition and a product on top of that. If you take a look at the all the blog post here in about Activiti 7 you will see the direction that we are taking, and yes it will provide integration with the Alfresco Content Repository.

mme
Established Member

Thank you, I just read this : Planing to upgrade Activiti 5.15, which is the latest stable one 6 or 7 ? Your answer: @ Paresh Modi am 11.04.2019 09:09 .

"If you are planning to work with Activiti Core, you should be fine by using the Activiti 6.x app to model your processes. "

So I re-acualized this thread. Because it isn´t trivial to start up Activiti 7 with kubernetes and stuff. Or is there an easy way? Activiti 6 is easy to install - tomcat - webapps - ready.

salaboy
Senior Member

As I mention in that answer, we are full on the cloud approach. We know that it is not trivial, but if we want to go cloud, there are no easy ways besides using Docker Compose for some local installation. Going to cloud is a long journey and there are organizations that are already very advanced on that journey that require frameworks like Activiti to move forward fast. I recommend you our GitBook which is being updated by the community team and external contributors: https://activiti.gitbook.io/activiti-7-developers-guide/getting-started

Do not expect a simple installation, cloud is really hard from a Java Developer point of view, but the progress these last couple of years is quite amazing. I recommend you to invest time looking into these tools, because the next 5 years the industry is going to be completely changed by these tools. 

Right now Activiti 7 is divided in Core and Cloud, the core Part is just libraries(frameworks), no WebApplications or installers. You can always build your own applications using Spring Boot and standard frameworks that you are probably already using in your company. 

Hope this helps. 

mme
Established Member

Thank you for your quick answer. hm, Activiti + Alfresco are new themes for me. I ve to look, if these both platforms fit our needs. So I need a fast way to check out.  And more important than to have the best solution is: having working experiences with these platforms. Because with those experiences I can convince to get more ressources. I looked at Activiti7 and yes, I am sure, that there are things possible, that I can´t even imagine. But, as I said: in the moment Activiti 7 needs too much time to get that in a productive way. For convincing I have to show:

 Process1: Request for Change/Feature etc.Process2 Request for Change/Feature etc.Process3 Request for Change/Feature etc.
Step1Customer: webformularCustomer: webformularCustomer: Alfresco Document from template in a doc lib.
Step2To Manager: add informations webformularTo Database: Manager can have a look to all Requests f.e. to connect requests, add informations webformularTo Database: Manager can have a look to all Requests f.e. to connect requests, add informations webformular/Metadata
Step3To Evaluator: add informations webformularTo Database: Evaluator can have a look to all Requests f.e. to connect requests, add informations webformularTo Database: Evaluator can have a look to all Requests f.e. to connect requests, add informations webformular/Metadata
Step4To Manager: add informations webformularTo Database: Manager can have a look to all Requests f.e. to connect requests, add informations webformularTo Database: Manager can have a look to all Requests f.e. to connect requests, add informations webformular/Metadata
Step5To Customer: Feedback via EmailTo Customer: Feedback via EmailTo Customer: Feedback via Email and saving the edited documents to another Alfresco site doc lib.

You see: I´am in the beginning and for now I ve to show quickly, if and how Activiti and Alfresco come together. And the working plan could be: As long as I have enough expericences in connecting Activiti 6 with Alfresco 6 (and I had success in convincing ), then I will have a look to Activiti 7 and I will be excited about Activiti 8 for sure. Every hint for my challenges is welcome. I hope, I could point out my motivation for re-actualizing this thread. And: as long as there is no simple way to set up Activiti 7 you can expect, that Activti 6 is a good way to look around, what Process Management can mean.