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Workflow Integration

Ken Kema
2010-04-26
2012-11-26
  • Ken Kema

    Ken Kema - 2010-04-26

    Hi,

    I have recently started evaluating open xava for use in my company. However there are certain gray areas i need clarification on:

    1. I gathered that open xava is a framework especially for business applications. For most business applications, Workflow is used intensively. How easy is it to integrate a workflow framework like jboss jBPM into open xava.

    2. Some people have insinuated that open xava is ok for simple applications but becomes difficult for more complex applications and is very difficult to customise the end product. How true is this?

    Thanks.

     
  • Javier Paniza

    Javier Paniza - 2010-04-27

    Hi Ken,

    How easy is it to integrate a workflow framework like jboss jBPM into open xava

    You can use jBPM from OpenXava in the same way you would do it from a standard Java Web application. The people of these thread has integrated successfully OpenXava with jBPM. Ask them!

    Some people have insinuated that open xava is ok for simple applications but becomes difficult for more complex applications

    An OpenXava application is an standard Java Web application, so anything you can do from a Java Web applicacion, you can do from OpenXava too. OpenXava only generates the user interface for your POJOs, and add a convenient behavior to the application. This is only a starting point, you can refine the way OX  behaves or the way the user interface is generated.
    Moreover you can integrate OX with any Java framework or tool you wish, including Spring, Seam o JSF.

    Surely part of the OX community uses OpenXava to create simple applications. This is not my case. In the company I work we develop with OX critical applications (those that was written originally in RPG for AS/400). Applications such as
    # City cencus management.
    # Personnel and payroll management.
    # Inventory and wealth managament for spanish public sector.
    # Local police management.
    # File workflow managament for city hall.
    # Record of input and output document in a city hall.
    # Traffic fine managament.
    # etc


    Learn OpenXava by examplesGet the book

     
  • Ken Kema

    Ken Kema - 2010-04-27

    Hi Javier,

    Thanks for getting back to me. I have just downloaded the framework and playing around with it and i must say quite an exciting stuff you have put together.

    I have earlier looked at the thread you talked about with regards to jBPM integration and its actually in spanish so didnt make much out of it. I have always loved the spanish language but unfortunately i cant speak it :-). I would be grateful if anybody can point me to an article, thread in this forum or anything that can explain the integration process of jBPM with open xava preferably in english. I need it to be able to prepare some POC for my company before decision is made on adopting open xava.

    Another question i have is that i have earlier read in this forum that open xava has no security but insteads inherits security from containing portal. If that is the case, how can i write applications that depends on security e.g i need to display a list of invoices created by a user when he or she logs in. And to do this i need the user id of the currently logged in user. How would i do this in open xava since open xava does not have security/authentication.

    Thanks for your help.

     
  • Roy Hellinga

    Roy Hellinga - 2010-04-28

    You didn't mention whether you intend to run your application on a portal server or not, so that is going to impact how to secure the application. If you are running outside a portal, this article in the How To directs you a forum post about implementing basic authentication in Tomcat.

    Regardless of how you secure the application, to obtain the current user, you can use the standard approach of obtaining the user from the request: request.getRemoteUser() . You can also get access to role information using request.isUserInRole(String).

    Hope that helps.
    Roy.

     
  • Ken Kema

    Ken Kema - 2010-04-28

    Thanks Roy for your reply. I will be hoping to deploy in liferay. How can i do this in liferay? Is request.isUserInRole or request.getRemoteUser() usable in liferay? I know there are some libraries in liferay which you can use to obtain the current user. Are such things usable from within open xava? Any ideas would be very much welcomed. I am just totally green on OX and just looking for a head start. I hope to grab the book this evening.

     
  • Ken Kema

    Ken Kema - 2010-04-28

    I have also noticed the Users class in OX and it also has methods like getCurrentUserInfo(). How does this work and where does it get the current user info from? If i deploy in a portal like liferay, would it get the user info from the portal's security infrastructure?

    Thanks.

     
  • Javier Paniza

    Javier Paniza - 2010-04-28

    Hi Ken,

    getCurrentUserInfo() …  If i deploy in a portal like liferay, would it get the user info from the portal's security infrastructure?

    Yes


    Learn OpenXava by examplesGet the book

     

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