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The IBM FileNet P8 Business Process Management (BPM) product uses the XML Process Definition Language (XPDL) V2.0 as a file format to store processes. XPDL is a standard process definition file format developed by the Workflow Management Coalition (www.wfmc.org) and used by a large group of products. The XPDL standard describes a process interchange language that can be extended.The IBM FileNet P8 BPM product extends XPDL 2.0 to make it executable in the P8 BPM Process Engine. This article documents the P8 BPM XPDL 2.0 extensions.
An XPDL file can store one or more process definitions. Each process definition is composed of a set of activities, activity sets, and transitions. The P8 BPM product uses activities to represent steps, activity sets to represent maps, and transitions to represent routes. This allows the P8 BPM product to interchange process definitions, using XPDL, with other products.
P8 BPM can read any file that complies with the XPDL 2.0 schema, and will extract the process definition information that it can process. XPDL 2.0 includes XPDL 1.0, and so P8 BPM is able to read both XPDL 1.0 and XPDL 2.0, but it always writes XPDL 2.0 with the extensions described in this article. All the extensions described here are optional and use the following namespace:
xmlns:fn=http://www.filenet.com/ns/fnpe/2005/07/pe/schema/XPDLExtensions |
The attached XSD file describes the schema for the XPDL extensions, and can be used to validate P8 BPM XPDL files.
| Description | Name | Size | Download method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Article in PDF format | P8_BPM_XPDL_2_0_Extensions.pdf | 201KB | HTTP |
| XSD file | FileNetXPDL20Extensions.xsd | 37.4KB | HTTP |
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Darik Siegfried is a Software Engineer in the IBM Software Group working with the IBM FileNet Business Process team. Darik has more than seventeen years of experience designing and developing software applications. He has spent the last ten years developing BPM and workflow products.
Mike Marin is a Senior Technical Staff Member at IBM Software Group and the architect for the IBM FileNet Business Process technology. Marin has a MSCS in Artificial Intelligence. He has more than twenty years of experience designing and developing system software. The last eleven years, he has been developing BPM and workflow products, and participating in standard organizations including OMG, OASIS, and WfMC working on BPM and workflow standards. He has edited and contributed to the definition several workflow and BPM standards; is a Fellow of the WfMC and has received the WfMC Excellence Award for his technical contributions to the WfMC standardization efforts.
