This topic applies only to the IBM Business Automation Workflow Advanced configuration.

Developing web applications for BPEL processes and human tasks by using JSF components

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This topic only applies to BAW, and is located in the BAW repository. Last updated on 2025-03-13 12:15
Business Process Choreographer provides several JavaServer Faces (JSF) components. You can extend and integrate these components to add business-process and human-task functionality to web applications.

About this task

You can use IBM® Integration Designer to build your web application. For applications that include human tasks, you can generate a JSF custom client. For more information on generating a JSF client, go to the documentation for Integration Designer.

You can also develop your web client using the JSF components provided by Business Process Choreographer.

Procedure

  1. Create a dynamic project and change the web Project Features properties to include the JSF base components.

    For more information on creating a web project, go to the documentation for Integration Designer.

  2. Add the prerequisite Business Process Choreographer Explorer Java™ archive (JAR files).
    Add the following files to the WEB-INF/lib directory of your project:
    • bpcclientcore.jar
    • bfmclientmodel.jar
    • htmclientmodel.jar
    • bpcjsfcomponents.jar
    In IBM Business Automation Workflow, all of these files are in the following directory:
    • For Windows operating systemOn Windows platforms: install_root\ProcessChoreographer\client
    • For Linux operating systemFor UNIX operating systemOn Linux®and UNIX platforms: install_root/ProcessChoreographer/client
  3. Add the EJB references that you need to the web application deployment descriptor, web.xml file. 
      <ejb-ref id="EjbRef_1">
    <ejb-ref-name>ejb/BusinessProcessHome</ejb-ref-name>
    <ejb-ref-type>Session</ejb-ref-type>
    <home>com.ibm.bpe.api.BusinessFlowManagerHome</home>
    <remote>com.ibm.bpe.api.BusinessFlowManager</remote>
  </ejb-ref>  
  <ejb-ref id="EjbRef_2">
    <ejb-ref-name>ejb/HumanTaskManagerEJB</ejb-ref-name>
    <ejb-ref-type>Session</ejb-ref-type>
    <home>com.ibm.task.api.HumanTaskManagerHome</home>
    <remote>com.ibm.task.api.HumanTaskManager</remote>
  </ejb-ref>
  <ejb-local-ref id="EjbLocalRef_1">
    <ejb-ref-name>ejb/LocalBusinessProcessHome</ejb-ref-name>
    <ejb-ref-type>Session</ejb-ref-type>
    <local-home>com.ibm.bpe.api.LocalBusinessFlowManagerHome</local-home>
    <local>com.ibm.bpe.api.LocalBusinessFlowManager</local>
  </ejb-local-ref>
  <ejb-local-ref id="EjbLocalRef_2">
    <ejb-ref-name>ejb/LocalHumanTaskManagerEJB</ejb-ref-name>
    <ejb-ref-type>Session</ejb-ref-type>
    <local-home>com.ibm.task.api.LocalHumanTaskManagerHome</local-home>
    <local>com.ibm.task.api.LocalHumanTaskManager</local>
  </ejb-local-ref>
  4. Add the Business Process Choreographer Explorer JSF components to the JSF application.
    1. Add the tag library references that you need for your applications to the JavaServer Pages (JSP) files.
      Typically, you need the JSF and HTML tag libraries, and the tag library required by the JSF components.
      • <%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core" prefix="f" %>
      • <%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html" prefix="h" %>
      • <%@ taglib uri="http://com.ibm.bpe.jsf/taglib" prefix="bpe" %>
    2. Add an <f:view> tag to the body of the JSP page, and an <h:form> tag to the <f:view> tag.
    3. Add the JSF components to the JSP files.

      Depending on your application, add the List component, the Details component, the CommandBar component, or the Message component to the JSP files. You can add multiple instances of each component.

    4. Configure the managed beans in the JSF configuration file.

      By default, the configuration file is the faces-config.xml file. This file is in the WEB-INF directory of the web application.

      Depending on the component that you add to your JSP file, you also need to add the references to the query and other wrapper objects to the JSF configuration file. To ensure correct error handling, you also need to define both an error bean and a navigation target for the error page in the JSF configuration file. Ensure that you use BPCError for the name of the error bean and error for the name of the navigation target of the error page.
      <faces-config>
...
<managed-bean>
  <managed-bean-name>BPCError</managed-bean-name> 
  <managed-bean-class>com.ibm.bpc.clientcore.util.ErrorBeanImpl
  </managed-bean-class> 
  <managed-bean-scope>session</managed-bean-scope>
</managed-bean>

...
<navigation-rule>
...
<navigation-case>
<description>
The general error page. 
</description>
<from-outcome>error</from-outcome>
<to-view-id>/Error.jsp</to-view-id>
</navigation-case> 
...
</navigation-rule>
</faces-config>
      In error situations that trigger the error page, the exception is set on the error bean.
    5. Implement the custom code that you need to support the JSF components.
  5. Deploy the application.
    If you are deploying the application in a network deployment environment, change the target resource Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) names to values where the Business Flow Manager and Human Task Manager APIs can be found in your cell. If your process containers are configured on a cluster named clusterName in the same cell, the names have the following structure:
    cell/clusters/clusterName/com/ibm/bpe/api/BusinessFlowManagerHome
cell/clusters/clustername/com/ibm/task/api/HumanTaskManagerHome

    Map the EJB references to the JNDI names or manually add the references to the ibm-web-bnd.xmi file.

    The following table lists the reference bindings and their default mappings.

    Table 1. Mapping of the reference bindings to JNDI names
    Reference binding JNDI name Comments
    ejb/BusinessProcessHome com/ibm/bpe/api/BusinessFlowManagerHome Remote session bean
    ejb/LocalBusinessProcessHome com/ibm/bpe/api/BusinessFlowManagerHome Local session bean
    ejb/HumanTaskManagerEJB com/ibm/task/api/HumanTaskManagerHome Remote session bean
    ejb/LocalHumanTaskManagerEJB com/ibm/task/api/HumanTaskManagerHome Local session bean

Results

Your deployed web application contains the functionality provided by the Business Process Choreographer Explorer components.

What to do next

If you are using custom JSPs for the process and task messages, you must map the web modules that are used to deploy the JSPs to the same servers that the custom JSF client is mapped to.