Managing projects in Business Central

Red Hat Process Automation Manager 7.5

Red Hat Customer Content Services

Abstract

This document describes how to manage new, sample, or imported projects in Business Central, and how to utilize multiple branches for project modifications.

Preface

As a process administrator, you can use Business Central in Red Hat Process Automation Manager to manage new, sample, and imported projects on a single or multiple branches.

Prerequisites

Chapter 1. Red Hat Process Automation Manager projects

Red Hat Process Automation Manager projects contain the business assets that you develop in Red Hat Process Automation Manager and are assigned to a space (for example, MyProject within MySpace). Projects also contain configuration files such as a Maven project object model file (pom.xml), which contains build, environment, and other information about the project, and a KIE module descriptor file (kmodule.xml), which contains the KIE Base and KIE Session configurations for the assets in the project.

Chapter 2. Migrating business processes to the new process designer

The legacy process designer in Business Central is deprecated in Red Hat Process Automation Manager 7.5.1. It will be removed in a future Red Hat Process Automation Manager release. The legacy process designer will not receive any new enhancements or features. If you intend to use the new process designer, start migrating your processes to the new designer. Create all new processes in the new process designer.

Note

The process engine will continue to support the execution and deployment of business processes generated with the legacy designer in to the Process Server. If you have a legacy business process that is functioning and that you do not intend to change, it is not mandatory to migrate to the new designer at this time.

You can only migrate business processes that contain supported business process nodes in the new designer. More nodes will be added in future versions of Red Hat Process Automation Manager.

Note

To enable or disable the legacy process designer in Business Central, in the upper-right corner of the window click SettingsRoles, select a role from the left panel, click Editors → Select Editor → (Legacy) Process Designer → Read, and then click Save to save the changes.

Prerequisites

  • You have an existing project that contains a business process asset that was created with the legacy process designer.

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, click MenuDesignProjects.
  2. Click the project you want to migrate, for example Mortgage_Process.
  3. Click Ok to open the project’s asset list.
  4. Click the project’s Business Process asset to open it in the legacy process designer.
  5. Click MigrateMigrate Diagram.

    Figure 2.1. Migration confirmation message

    Migration confirmation message
  6. Select Yes or No to confirm if you made changes. This option is only available if you have made changes to your legacy business process.

    Figure 2.2. Save diagram changes confirmation

    Save diagram changes confirmation

If the migration is successful, the business process opens in the new process designer and the business process name’s extension changes from *.bpmn2 to *.bpmn.

If the migration is unsuccessful due to an unsupported node type, Business Central displays the following error message:

Figure 2.3. Migration failure message

Migration failure message

Chapter 3. Modifying existing projects in Business Central

Business Central includes a number of sample projects that you can use to get familiar with the product and its features. The sample projects have been designed and created to demonstrate a variety of business scenarios. You can modify the sample projects to meet your specific business needs. For example, Red Hat Process Automation Manager 7.5 contains the Mortgage_Process sample project, which consists of predefined data objects, guided decision tables, guided rules, forms, and a business process. You can edit the sample to refine your business process.

If none of the existing Business Central project samples align with your requirements, you can create a new project or import one from a Git repository. For more information, see Chapter 5, Importing projects from Git repositories. You can import any other project from Git. For example, a project that was developed in another Business Central instance.

Chapter 4. Creating a project

A project can contain data models, business processes, business rules, forms or any other assets that are specific to your project’s requirements. When you create a project in Business Central it is added to the Git repository that is connected to your Red Hat Process Automation Manager installation.

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to MenuDesignProjects.
  2. Click Add Project.
  3. Type anyName in the Name field of the Add Project window and click Add. Where anyName is any name that you want to name the new project.

    Figure 4.1. Add the anyName project

    Adding the `anyName` project window

The Assets view of the project opens when you successfully create the project.

4.1. Modifying the Mortgage_Process sample project

The Mortgage_Process sample project consists of predefined data objects, guided decision tables, guided rules, forms, and a business process. Using the sample project provides a quick way to get acclimated with Red Hat Process Automation Manager. In a real business scenario, you would create all of the assets by providing data that is specific to your business requirements.

Navigate to the Mortgage_Process sample project to view the predefined assets.

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to MenuDesignProjects.
  2. Click dots in the upper-right corner of the screen and select Try Samples.
  3. Select Mortgage_Process and click Ok. The Assets view of the project opens.
  4. Click an asset that you want to modify. All of the assets can be edited to meet your project requirements.

Chapter 5. Importing projects from Git repositories

Git is a distributed version control system. It implements revisions as commit objects. When you save your changes to a repository, a new commit object in the Git repository is created.

Business Central uses Git to store project data, including assets such as rules and processes. When you create a project in Business Central, it is added to a Git repository that is connected to Business Central. If you have projects in Git repositories, you can import the project’s master branch or import the master branch along with other specific branches into the Business Central Git repository through Business Central spaces.

Prerequisites

  • Red Hat Process Automation Manager projects exist in an external Git repository.
  • You have the credentials required for read access to that external Git repository.

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to MenuDesignProjects.
  2. Select or create the space into which you want to import the projects. The default space is MySpace.
  3. Click the three dots dots icon on the right side of the screen and select Import Project.
  4. In the Import Project window, enter the URL and credentials for the Git repository that contains the project that you want to import and click Import. The Import Projects page is displayed.
  5. Optional: To import master and specific branches, do the following tasks:

    1. On the Import Projects page, click the branches branch icon icon.
    2. In the Branches to be imported window, select branches from the list.

      Note

      You must select the master branch as a minimum.

    3. Click Ok.
  6. On the Import Projects page, ensure the project is highlighted and click Ok.

Chapter 6. Revising project versions

You can revise the version number of a project in Red Hat Process Automation Manager before you build and deploy a new instance of the project. Creating a new version of a project preserves the old version in case there is a problem with the new one and you need to revert back.

Prerequisites

  • Process Server is deployed and connected to Business Central.

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to MenuDesignProjects.
  2. Click the project you want to deploy, for example Mortgage_Process.
  3. Click Deploy.

    • If there is no container with the project name, a container with default values is automatically created.
    • If an older version of the project is already deployed, go to the project settings and change the project version. When finished, save the change and click Deploy. This will deploy a new version of the same project with the latest changes in place, alongside the older version(s).

      Note

      You can also select the Build & Install option to build the project and publish the KJAR file to the configured Maven repository without deploying to a Process Server. In a development environment, you can click Deploy to deploy the built KJAR file to a Process Server without stopping any running instances (if applicable), or click Redeploy to deploy the built KJAR file and replace all instances. The next time you deploy or redeploy the built KJAR, the previous deployment unit (KIE container) is automatically updated in the same target Process Server. In a production environment, the Redeploy option is disabled and you can click Deploy only to deploy the built KJAR file to a new deployment unit (KIE container) on a Process Server.

      To configure the Process Server environment mode, set the org.kie.server.mode system property to org.kie.server.mode=development or org.kie.server.mode=production. To configure the deployment behavior for a corresponding project in Business Central, go to project SettingsGeneral SettingsVersion and toggle the Development Mode option. By default, Process Server and all new projects in Business Central are in development mode. You cannot deploy a project with Development Mode turned on or with a manually added SNAPSHOT version suffix to a Process Server that is in production mode.

  4. To verify the deployment, click MenuManageProcess Definitions, and click btn refresh .
  5. Click dots in the Actions column and select Start to start a new instance of the process.

Chapter 7. Configuring project settings

Starting with Red Hat Process Automation Manager 7.5, Business Central contains additional project setting categories in the new process designer.

Prerequisites

  • You have created a Business Central project.

Procedure

  1. To access the project Settings tab, in Business Central go to MenuDesignProjects.
  2. Click the project name.
  3. Click Settings to view or modify the following project settings:

    • General Settings - Enables users to set the project’s Name, Description, Group ID, Artifact ID, Version (GAV), and Development Mode attributes. It also includes the following options:

      • URL - Use to specify a read-only URL for cloning a project as a git repository.
      • Disable GAV conflict check - Determines whether to enable or disable the GAV conflict check. Disabling this feature enables projects to have the same GAV values.
      • Allow child GAV edition - Allows GAV editions for sub-projects.
    • Dependencies - Used to add dependencies either manually, by entering the Group ID, Artifact ID, and Version or from a repository project in Business Central. For each dependency, set select All or None for the Package white list option.
    • KIE Bases - The new name for what was previously called Knowledge bases. You must specify a KIE base as the default. Provide the following details to add a Kie base:

      • Name
      • Included KIE bases
      • Package
      • Equal Behavior - Identity or Equality
      • Event Processing Model - Stream or Cloud
      • KIE sessions
    • External Data Objects - Data objects are not explicitly defined within a project or project dependencies that a rule author may require. External data objects are usually provided by the Java runtime, for example, java.util.List.
    • Validation - Maven repositories that are used to check the uniqueness of a project’s GAV when creating a new project or module or when installing or deploying a project to a Maven repository.
    • Service Tasks - The following service tasks can be added to a project:

      • BusinessRuleTask - Execute a business rule task
      • Decision Task - Execute a DMN decision task
      • Email - Send email
      • JMSSendTask - Send JMS Message
      • Rest - Perform a Rest call
      • ServiceTask - Execute a service task
      • WebService - Perform a web service call
    • Deployments - Deployments are divided in to the following categories:

      • General Settings - Runtime Strategy, Persistence Unit Name, Persistence Mode, Audit Persistence Unit Name, and Audit Mode
      • Marshalling strategies
      • Global
      • Event listeners
      • Required roles
      • Remoteable classes
      • Task event listeners
      • Configuration
      • Environment entries
      • Work item hanlders
    • Persistence - Persistence is divided in to the following categories:

      • Persistence Unit
      • Persistence Provider
      • Data Source
      • Properties - Used to set values for the following properties and also to create new properties:

        • hibernate.dialect
        • hibernate.max_fetch_depth
        • hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto
        • hibernate.show_sql
        • hibernate.id.new_generator_mappings
        • hibernate.transaction.jta.platform
      • Project Persistable Data Objects
    • Branch Management - Provides branch role access based on the branch name and assigned user roles.
  4. Click Save.

Chapter 8. Multiple branches in Business Central

Multiple branches support in Business Central provides the ability to create a new branch based on an existing one, including all of its assets. All new, imported, and sample projects open in the default master branch. You can create as many branches as you need and can work on multiple branches interchangeably without impacting the original project on the master branch.

Red Hat Process Automation Manager 7.5 includes support for persisting branches, which means that Business Central remembers the last branch used and will open in that branch when you log back in.

8.1. Creating branches

You can create new branches in Business Central and name them whatever you like. Initially, you will only have the default master branch. When you create a new branch for a project, you are making a copy of the selected branch. You can make changes to the project on the new branch without impacting the original master branch version.

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to MenuDesignProjects.
  2. Click the project to create the new branch, for example the Mortgage_Process sample project.
  3. Click masterAdd Branch.

    Figure 8.1. Create the new branch menu

    Creating the new branch menu
  4. Type testBranch1 in the Name field and select master from the Add Branch window. Where testBranch1 is any name that you want to name the new branch.
  5. Select the branch that will be the base for the new branch from the Add Branch window. This can be any existing branch.
  6. Click Add.

    Figure 8.2. Add the new branch window

    Adding the new branch testBranch1

After adding the new branch, you will be redirected to it, and it will contain all of the assets that you had in your project in the master branch.

8.2. Selecting branches

You can switch between branches to make modifications to project assets and test the revised functionality.

Procedure

  1. Click the current branch name and select the desired project branch from the drop-down list.

    Figure 8.3. Select a branch menu

    Selecting a branch menu

After selecting the branch, you are redirected to that branch containing the project and all of the assets that you had defined.

8.3. Deleting branches

You can delete any branch except for the master branch. Business Central does not allow you to delete the master branch to avoid corrupting your environment. You must be in any branch other than master for the following procedure to work.

Procedure

  1. Click dots in the upper-right corner of the screen and select Delete Branch.

    Figure 8.4. Delete a branch

    Delete a branch
  2. In the Delete Branch window, enter the name of the branch you want to delete.
  3. Click Delete Branch.

8.4. Building and deploying projects

After your project is developed, you can build the project from the specified branch in Business Central and deploy it to the configured Process Server.

Procedure

  1. In Business Central, go to MenuDesignProjects and click the project name.
  2. In the upper-right corner, click Deploy to build the project and deploy it to Process Server. If the build fails, address any problems described in the Alerts panel at the bottom of the screen. For more information about project deployment options, see Packaging and deploying a Red Hat Process Automation Manager project.

    Note

    You can also select the Build & Install option to build the project and publish the KJAR file to the configured Maven repository without deploying to a Process Server. In a development environment, you can click Deploy to deploy the built KJAR file to a Process Server without stopping any running instances (if applicable), or click Redeploy to deploy the built KJAR file and replace all instances. The next time you deploy or redeploy the built KJAR, the previous deployment unit (KIE container) is automatically updated in the same target Process Server. In a production environment, the Redeploy option is disabled and you can click Deploy only to deploy the built KJAR file to a new deployment unit (KIE container) on a Process Server.

    To configure the Process Server environment mode, set the org.kie.server.mode system property to org.kie.server.mode=development or org.kie.server.mode=production. To configure the deployment behavior for a corresponding project in Business Central, go to project SettingsGeneral SettingsVersion and toggle the Development Mode option. By default, Process Server and all new projects in Business Central are in development mode. You cannot deploy a project with Development Mode turned on or with a manually added SNAPSHOT version suffix to a Process Server that is in production mode.

Appendix A. Versioning information

Documentation last updated on Thursday, October 31, 2019.

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