Hello

I would like to aske, what happens if a process gets stopped in the middle of it's execution, and the operator wanted to resume the execution next day from the point it stopped at and not from the beginng (trying to finish the life cycle of this instance and not start another instance.). Is there some kind of break points to mark where the process has stopped?.


How can this situation be translated into BPEL?
Best,

Please explain what you mean by " stopped" ...
The BPMS server or software crashes,
the process instance fails,
or what?

For events external to the process like the BPMS failing, the 'state' of all processes is retained in the database and is subject to normal database recovery. A process instance will continue according to the recovered state and no operator action is required or practical.

If the process instance fails, and the failure is not trapped by the transaction and compensation logic designed into the process, the instance cannot be restarted by operator action.

David

Hello again

I mean by stopping that the user decides to stop the process temporarily and go home for example or check books, then he wants to resume execution next day (resume means continue from the place he stopped at, and not invoke the process again). more clearly resume the unexecuted tasks remaining for this instance.

How can such a situation be modelled?


Best,

Sure , that is the normal workflow behaviour.
The process stops waiting for the task to be claimed (the task shows up on the list of all eligible users based on role and user name) and then again waiting for it to be completed (by the user that claimed it). The inbound messages to the process start it up again.

This solution is valid for tasks that are included in human interaction, What happens if we want to stop a task that is not part of human interaction, a task that comes after the human interaction. Is there any kind of control?

Assume that you have a process with long life, and you need to stop it dynamically, meaning in the periods that suits the operatore, and stopping times are not previously specified (random).

Can we do this in BPEL

Best,

A specific example of your problem may help others understand.

I do not think that there is anything inherent in BPEL or any implementation that I am aware of , that allows an interrupt action on an individual business process that has not been pre-defined.

You can define a signal (a sort of broadcast message) in BPMN1.1 and use that to communicate across a business process. I guess that you could develop a pattern to cause a" wait until I say go" behaviour. I do not think that the BPMN1.1 bits have made it to the Intalio community edition yet.

That said, I cannot understand your requirement for the 'stop'. If a human is not contributing to the process then their presence is not relevant to the execution. Business Processes are event driven and spend most of the time waiting on messages from services or human interactions, so the place to do the interrupt is outside the business process. If the interrupt is key to the operation of the business process, it should be explicit in the expression of the process (ie in the BPMN)

David