BPEL Extensibility

Since BPEL 2.0 it is possible to extend the language by user-defined activities and custom variable assignment mechanisms.

Apache ODE (>= 2.0) supports these extensibility mechanisms and provides a plug-in architecture that allows for registering third-party extensions.

BPEL extensions must be declared for use in the process preamble to tell the engine which extensions must be available and which are optional. This can be done by adding an <extension> element to your BPEL process model:

<bpel:process...>

    <bpel:extensions>
        <bpel:extension namespace="#extension-namespace#" 
                        mustUnderstand="#yes|no#"/>
    </bpel:extensions>

...
</bpel:process>

This snippet declares the given extension namespace and tells the engine what to do if no extension bundle is registered for this namespace. If mustUnderstand is yes and no extension bundle is registered the engine complains during the deployment of the process model and refuses the execution of the process model. If mustUnderstand is no the engine logs a warning but continuous with deployment and execution. Unregistered extension activities are then executed like an <empty> activity.

Extension Activities

<extensionActivity>
    <anyElementQName standard-attributes>
        standard-elements
    </anyElementQName>
</extensionActivity>

Extensible Assign Operations

<assign validate="yes|no"? standard-attributes>
    standard-elements
    <extensionAssignOperation>
        assign-element-of-other-namespace
    </extensionAssignOperation>
</assign>

Using BPEL Extensibility in Apache ODE

Warning: ODE version These extension points are only available on Ode 2.x

In ODE extension activities and extension assign operations are grouped into so called Extension Bundles. Extension bundles are associated with an extension namespace and may provide several Extension Operations. Extension operations are the actual implementations of extension code and can be used for both, extension activities and extension assign operations.

Installation of extensions (WAR - Axis2 deployable)

1. Copy the extension
   The extension bundle and its dependencies must be part of the class path. The easiest way to achieve this is to copy the extension jar to /WEB-INF/lib.
2. Register the extension
   Open /WEB-INF/conf/ode-axis2.properties and add/uncomment the following lines:

           
   ode-axis2.extension.bundles.runtime = fqcn.to.extension.bundle
   ode-axis2.extension.bundles.validation = fqcn.to.extension.bundle
   

   The validation entry is only necessary if the extension bundle also provides compile-time validators

3. Start/Restart Apache ODE

Installation of extensions (JBI)

1. Embed the extension
   The extension bundle and its dependencies must be part of the class path. The easiest way is to add the extension jar to the JBI deployable.
2. Register the extension
   Extract and open ode-jbi.properties from ODE SE and add/uncomment the following lines:

   ode-jbi.extension.bundles.runtime = fqcn.to.extension.bundle
   ode-jbi.extension.bundles.validation = fqcn.to.extension.bundle
   

   The validation entry is only necessary if your extension bundle
   also provides compile-time validators.

3. Re-add the properties file to the service engine archive and deploy it to the JBI container of choice.

Developing Extension Bundles

TBC...