Java Step Processor Development Procedure
Developing a custom Java Step Processor can range from a few simple modifications
to the user interface of the sample Step Processor provided with your installation
to a fairly complex development process. The procedure in this topic is designed
to provide a step-by-step procedure as an overall guide and check list for developers.
This procedure assumes that you have a basic understanding of Process applications
(for information, see Introduction to
Process Applications), that you have to some degree familiarized yourself
with the Process Java APIs. For information on these APIs, see the topics: Working
with Process Java API Classes, Process
Java API Class Relationships (calling sequences), and the Process
API Samples Overview (describes the Process API samples provided with the
Process Development Environment).
In addition, this procedure assumes that you have already:
To develop and deploy a custom Java Step Processor, use the following procedure:
Note For information specific to developing an HTML Step Processor or
Launch Step Processor, see the Developing
HTML and Java Step Processors topic in this guide and also general information
on developing web applications in the Help
for Web Application Toolkit Developer's Guide documentation. In addition,
the FileNet eXtra Web
site provides a sample HTML Step Processor you can download, as well as
other samples that illustrate a broader range of Web Application Toolkit functionality.
- Plan your Step Processor in terms of its user interface, its business processes,
how it fits into the workflow definition (designed using the FileNet
Process Designer), and the operations to be performed for this step. It
is recommended that before you start that you review the topics: What
to Customize and How and Basic Step
Processor Operations.
- Determine whether to deploy the Step
Processor as a Java application or applet, what elements need to be provided
as work items (for example, Step elements, work objects, etc.), whether to
customize the Step Processor by extending the existing sample Java Step Processor
(using the Java Step
Processor UI Toolkit provided with the Process Development Environment)
or to develop your own custom Step Processor from scratch. If you need to
retrieve objects from or interface with a non-FileNet system, application,
or data source, you may wish to set up and configure the Process Engine EAI
connector; for information on this and related topics, see Help
for Process Engine Administration.
- As indicated in the previous step, you can either copy, deploy, and modify
the sample Java Step Processor application/applet provided with the Process
Development Environment (for details see the Building
a Java Step Processor with the Java Step Processor UI Toolkit topic) or
you can develop your own from scratch. If you are modifying the sample Step
Processor application or applet, go to the next step. If you are developing
your own custom Java Step Processor from scratch, skip to Step 6 below.
- Compile, deploy, and run the sample Java Step Processor and/or Launch Step
Processor to verify that they work correctly in your development environment.
For details, see the Building
and Deploying the Sample Java Processors topic.
- Customize a copy of the sample Java Step or Launch Step Processor. This
consists of creating a new version of the sample Processor and then using
the Java Step Processor UI Toolkit to help in customizing the code. For details,
see the Customize
the Sample Java Step Processor topic. Once you have customized the user
interface, content integration, and operations, you are ready to compile your
Java classes (skip to Step 7).
- If you are building your own custom Step Processor:
- Customize the user interface, such as modifying graphics, layout,
user controls, etc. Using your IDE (such as JBuilder, etc.) or text editor,
you can copy and modify the sample Java Step Processor application/applet
provided with the Process Development Environment, or develop your own.
To add new User controls, modify, or hide existing controls, you may use
standard Java Swing controls (e.g., JButton, etc.), or you can use the
sample controls provided with the Java
Step Processor UI Toolkit, or your own Swing-based or AWT-based controls,
or you can mix and match as you wish. If you wish to use the sample controls
provided with the Java Step Processor UI Toolkit, be sure to add the
vwpanel.jar file (provided with your Process Development Environment)
to your IDE panel container (for details see Building
a Java Step Processor with the Java Step Processor UI Toolkit). When
a workflow user opens a step assignment that references a Step Processor,
the user is presented with a popup window containing the Step Processor
user interface. For information on the algorithm used to determine which
application to select for this step, see the Opening
Step Processors topic.
- Create the Step Processor class. When building the Step Processor,
use the Process Java APIs to:
- Login to the Process Engine and establish a Process session (use
the VWSession API).
- Query User and Work queues for work items (for example, Step Elements),
query rosters and retrieve information about users, etc.
- Lock retrieved objects.
- Update workflow data.
- Complete the step (such as, doing a Save/Complete/MoveToQueue),
etc.
Be sure to include all operations needed to update workflow data and
complete the workflow step. For an overview on using these APIs, see
Working with Process Java
API Classes. For information on API calling sequences used to query
a queue, retrieve Step Elements, etc., see Runtime
API Relationships. For information on developing the actions described
in this substep, see Basic Step Processor
Operations.
- Use the Content Java APIs to integrate with the Content Engine.
If you are using an IDE, you can use the VWTabbedPane control and the
VWAttachmentPanel beans (included with the vwpanel.jar provided
with your Process Development Environment) to access attachments stored
in Content Engine Object or File Stores; otherwise, you can use the VWAttachmentPanel
bean in a manner similar to that used with the Java
Step Processor UI Toolkit to access Content Engine attachments; for
information on this approach, see Working
with the VWAttachmentPanel. For information on using the Content Java
APIs, see the Content
Java Developer's Guide.
- Compile your customized Java Step Processor in a manner similar to the way
you would compile the sample Java Step or Launch Step Processor. For details,
see the Compile
the Sample Processors topic.
- Create a JAR file that includes the customized Java Step Processor. For
details, see the Create
a Java Archive (JAR) File topic.
- Sign the JAR file in a manner similar to the way you would sign the JAR
file for the sample Java Processor. For details, see the Signing
a JAR File topic.
- Deploy the JAR file on the Application Engine server. Once deployed, you
will need to create a JSP event page to make the Processor available to the
Process Engine server. In addition, you will need to create a JSP view (UI)
page. For details on these steps, see the
Deploying
Java Applications (Step Processors) topic.
- Using the Process
Configuration Console, register your custom Java Step or Launch Step Processor.
For details, see the Adding a Custom Processor
to the Workflow topic.
- Once the Processor has been registered, using the Process Designer, add
the Step Processor to the workflow (unless the Processor has been registered,
it will not be available in the Process Designer). For details, see the Adding
a Custom Processor to the Workflow topic.