This document describes how to deploy a BPEL process so the ActiveBPEL™ engine can execute it. For information about installing the engine, see Installing and Configuring the ActiveBPEL Engine.
To deploy a BPEL process, you must create and install a deployment archive containing your BPEL process files. To do this, you will use the jar utility, which means you will need a Java SDK. Any version of the JDK should work. BPEL processes deployment has been tested using the 1.4.1 SDK.
Deploying Your BPEL Process
Deploying a BPEL process involves creating a deployment archive file (a JAR with an extension of ".bpr") and copying that to your servlet container. To create this archive, you need to organize your files into a particular directory structure, create one or two configuration files, and then create an archive from that directory.
Create a directory for your deployment files; we'll name it mybpel in this example. Create the subdirectories
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bpel
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META-INF
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wsdl
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partners (optional)
The WSDL catalog (wsdlCatalog.xml) file, partner definition (.pdef) files, and process deployment descriptor (.pdd) files are described in ActiveBPEL Engine File Formats.
As an example, let's say you have one BPEL file my_process.bpel and two WSDL files service1.wsdl and service2.wsdl. Your directory structure would look something like this:
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Figure 1. Process deployment directory structure |
The partners directory is not necessary unless you have .pdef files.
Using this directory structure, create the archive and copy it to your servlet container. Here's how you would deploy your BPEL process to Tomcat (remove "partners" from the jar command if you don't have a partners directory):
Windows:
C:/> cd mybpel C:/mybpel> jar cf mybpel.bpr *.pdd META-INF bpel partners wsdl C:/mybpel> copy mybpel.bpr $CATALINA_HOME/bpr |
Unix:
% cd mybpel % jar cf mybpel.bpr *.pdd META-INF bpel partners wsdl % cp mybpel.bpr $CATALINA_HOME/bpr |
It is fine for more than one .bpel file or .pdd file to live in the same .bpr deployment archive.
Your WSDL files could live anywhere, even on another machine. Packaging them inside the .pdd lets the ActiveBPEL engine get to them quicker.
The Engine
If the ActiveBPEL engine is running, soon after you deploy your BPEL process the ActiveBPEL engine will notice the .bpr file and read it. Your BPEL process is ready to use.
See Starting the ActiveBPEL Engine for instructions on starting and stopping the engine.
Engine Status Information describes how to view the runtime status of Web services, the engine, and BPEL processes.