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fLowRider,
a JAVA™ implementation of a WSFL flow engine with an
easy to use graphical user interface, is currently available
in its premier usable version 0.7. Able to call web services
based on either SOAP or XML-RPC, it can be used in a wide
variety of workflow and web services conscious environments.
Current
limitations include a limited variety of control link
evaluation operations, lacking support for multi-threaded
flows and support for only a subset of the WSFL specification.
In its current version, fLowRider is only able to interpret
WSFL flow models, ignoring global models.
Further, fLowRider uses a customized dialect of WSFL
and supports sequential message layout only.
But nevertheless all basic functionality required in
the WSFL standard proposal has been implemented and
fLowRider's open, object-oriented architecture, besides
the fact that it was published under the terms of the
GNU General Public License (GPL),
makes it easy for any interested programmer to add the
missing features and tailor the engine to one's specific
needs.
May the
source be with you...
Christian W. Günther [flowrider.info@deckfour.com]
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| Screenshot
of fLowRider: Flow Graph view with dialog, showing properties
of activity clicked on in graph [click to enlarge]. |
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Background
Information:
To get
into the subject of Web Services Orchestration and WSFL in
particular, you can read a paper I wrote about this subject
and, last but not least, IBM's WSFL 1.0 specification by Frank
Leyman. To grasp fLowRider's abilities and its limitations,
you might want to take a look at the sample WSFL document
provided, describing a simple flow currently used to test
fLowRider.
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WSFL
1.0 draft specification
Premier
standard specification by IBM's Frank Leyman |
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Implementing
Interorganizational Workflows via Web Services Orchestration
The
paper that triggered development of fLowRider, by Christian
W. Guenther |
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WSFL
sample flow 'creditPointsInformation'
Sample
WSFL document used in testing the fLowRider engine.
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Call
for participation:
Are you
interested in the subject or just the next episode java grandmaster?
If you are or if you ain't, your participation in the fLowRider
project appreciated and more than welcome.
This project covers emerging technologies and not only therefore,
it is always high time to start working, before other players
step in and take over the market ;)
C'mon, there's nothing to it: Get an account
at sourceforge.net and post
us a note [flowrider@deckfour.com],
after a maximum of 48 hrs (i bet there won't be more than
5 hrs) you'll be in, given the fact you mean it!
You should be either interested in the subject to perform
administrative and promotional tasks, or be a skilled Java
programmer, but after all any participation is welcome!
Download:
Use sourceforge
file overview pages to obtain the fLowRider source and binaries
[click
here].
Alternatively
you can check out the latest source tree via CVS
access.
Dependencies
and prerequisites:
Please
notice that, in order to run fLowRider, you will need following
extra packages:
Overview
about the project services provided:
© 2002
by Christian W. Günther / deckfour.com
resources
provided courtesy by:
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