Web based Work flow framework in Java

Question

We are planning to develop a Web based work flow tool using Java. We are planning to use Spring as our development framework . Are there any open source work flow framework that is integrated with Spring which will allow the user to do the following

1) Define work flows by dragging and dropping activities

2) Allows the user to select and execute a work flow

Any help is appreciated

Regards

Answer 1

Better late than never, however another contender worth mentioning is Activiti. (www.activiti.org)

• Very clean and tidy API.
• Integrates perfectly with Spring (and is contributed to by SpringSource).
• Its engine is fast and is BPMN 2.0 compliant.
• Light weight, doesn't require EE servers (can run on tomcat, etc.).
• Apache License.

Regarding the specific requirements:

1) Define work flows by dragging and dropping activities: Yes

2) Allows the user to select and execute a work flow: Yes

Answer 2

In fact as already recommended Bonita Open Solution (BOS) provide a tool (Bonita Studio) to graphically design workflow. BOS also include a Java web application to deploy and run your process. End user are able to execute tasks using this web application.

Also note that the workflow engine provided by Bonita include some APIs that helps to integrate the solution in existing application (allow to start a new workflow instance, execute task...).

Regards

Antoine Mottier - BonitaSoft technical consultant

Answer 3

Have you thought to develop with Grails and integrate with BOS or JBPM or SpringWebflow?

Answer 4

There are few

Bonita http://www.bonitasoft.com/

Spring batch is you may look at

http://static.springsource.org/spring-batch/

JBPM is a nice too. It has the parallel processing for workflow. and - BPMN 2.0

If you need commercial tool go for Appian