The easiest way to get started is by installing the Guide Designer Host Provider sample project provided with the Process Developer and which runs sin the Process Designer environment. The Process Developer has an orchestration project template sample for creating a Host Provider. Simply select
File > New Project > Orchestration Project,
enter a project name, and then select
Guide Designer Host Provider Template
to set up the project in your workspace.
Sample Project Contents
The sample project contains resources that illustrate how to use an SQL database as the host application on which Process Designer will operate. All screens operate on one or more entities that are contained within a database table. Internally, this sample uses the Data Access system service provided by Process Server to connect to the database with a JDBC connection configured in JNDI.
BPEL Folder
The
bpel
folder contains the following resources:
dbHostEnvironmentRuntime.bpel
: A single entry point that Process Designer can use to interact with the entities on the host platform. The interface for this process defines five basic operations: Create, Read, Update, Delete (CRUD) and an advanced Query operation.
dbCreateAnyEntityService.bpel
: A simple conversion process that maps service call step requests for creating any entity to the
dbHostEnvironmentRuntime
.
dbDeleteAnyEntityService.bpel
: A simple conversion process that maps service call step requests for deleting any entity to the
dbHostEnvironmentRuntime
.
The deployment artifacts for each of these BPEL process are in the
deploy
directory.
Config Folder
The
config
folder contains resources typically found in many projects:
aeiHolidayCalendar.xml
: Names holidays. This is used by date data types.
app-config.xml
: Configuration file that specifies design time and run time properties for the host provider that are paired with Process Designer. This configuration defines features supported by the host platform as well as possible overrides to Process Designer.
custom-services.xml
: Details for custom service call steps that all guide designers can access.>
custom-types.avcconfig
: Process Central configuration file for deploying custom Guide Designer custom JavaScript renderers, i18n properties, and the request forms used in the sample that are embedded in the runtime in Process Central.
You can override Process Designer messages by creating a new
messages.properties
file. After creating this file, make sure that the
avcconfig
file that refers to this
messages.properties
file comes later than built-in
avcconfig
file when they are sorted alphabetically. For example, you could update
custom-types.avcconfig
to include a line such as
<tns:i18n location="messages.properties"/>
.
You can see what the order is by selecting
Catalog | Resources | Central Configs
from within the Process Console. If one of your files is inadvertently overriding another, you will need to change the file's name to change the execution order.
custom-types.xml
: Custom data types and their corresponding JavaScript renderers.
MapItRenderer.js:
A simple example of a JavaScript renderer that puts a link on a guide screen that links to a mapping service such as Google Maps.
Stage_picklist.xml:
The definition of the values to which a variable can be set. These values are displayed as a picklist.
db_schema Database Artifacts Folder
The
db_schema
folder in the sample project provides the DDL for some common databases that creates the tables required by the guides packaged with the sample. The included Derby database is prepopulated with a schema and sample data.
Forms
This sample has two folders:
guide_explorer
: This folder contains the implementation for the guide explorer within the Forms pane of Process Central. This code, if you like, can be the basis for changing the way the explorer displays.
request
: This folder contains the implementation for the guide viewer. Similar to the way you can use files in the
guide_explorer
folder, use this file as the basis for changing the way in which the guide viewer displays.
Guides
Sample guides are in the
guides
folder. These are imported and published during when the sample is deployed.
host_env Environment Definition Folder
The
host_env
folder contains the definitions of all entities used by the host application. In this sample, each table in the database schema is mapped to a single entity in this folder. For example, the
contacts
table is represented by the
contacts_detail.xml
file. In addition, the
entityList.xml
file is a master index of all entities that will be deployed.
Other Resources
The
icons
folder has images that guide designers can use and which are used by published guides. Other folders containing data are