Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) is part of a long history of defining Web services-based business processes. This tutorial from SearchSOA.com dives deep into the features of BPEL and how it fits with related standards such as REST, WSDL, and BPMN. In this BPEL tutorial you will find articles, tips, expert advice, white papers and more that explain how BPEL fits into the world of Web services.
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ContentsIntroduction
What is BPEL?
BPEL tips and expert advice
How is BPEL used?
BPEL products
Introduction
Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), short for Web Services Business Process Execution
Language (WS-BPEL), is an executable dialect of XML that allows
for the modeling of interactions between Web services on the cloud.
Such modeling is valuable for successful business process management (BPM) and service-oriented
architecture (SOA) implementation. BPEL was standardized by OASIS in 2004, after collaborative
efforts to create the language by Microsoft, IBM, and other companies.
In order to streamline the BPM modeling process, BPEL uses easy-to-understand commands that perform complex functions. Because BPEL is human-readable it allows for collaboration between business people and developers.
One of BPEL's primary uses is to model Web service interactions on a distributed system. BPEL allows for complex orchestrations of multiple service applications through a single controller service. When described in a corresponding WSDL contract, that process can be seen as a service in and of itself. If you want to describe a BPEL process in WSDL, there are important considerations and steps to take.
Before it's written in WSDL, though, a BPEL process must work properly. Because many BPEL processes use multiple applications, many of which are often written in different languages and located on distributed systems, proper end-to-end testing is paramount. Several new SOA governance products and product updates recently came out that address that challenge with BPEL in mind, including 3 new editions of Sparx's Enterprise Architect 7.5.
BPEL is often associated with Business Process Management Notation (BPMN), which also seeks to streamline the BPM modeling process. Unlike BPEL, BPMN is not executable and so is mostly used for planning and design. BPMN, though, has a visual component that makes it easier to understand for business people not familiar with programming. Many companies have developed their own visual notation for BPEL to further simplify the language.
BPEL and BPMN have grown in popularity together over the last few years as each seeks to simplify business process management and encourage collaboration between business people and developers. But translating from one to the other remains a challenge. The co-evolution of BPEL and BPMN continues to drive BPM and SOA settings.
Alternatively, you may choose to not use BPEL at all. Some have accused BPEL of being "overly
complex," and seek a different approach to business process integration. Thrift,
an open-source project formally under the guidance of Facebook and now housed with Apache, eases
cross-language services development in a dozen supported languages.
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What is BPEL?
BPEL defintion
BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) for Web services is an XML-based language designed to
enable task-sharing for a distributed computing or grid computing environment.
BPEL best
practices
Find BPEL basics, best practices and tutorials for software architecture developers and IT
management working on service-oriented architecture and Web services projects. This topics page is
filled with the latest articles, tips, expert advice, and tutorials on SearchSOA.com.
WS-Coordination
WS-Coordination (Web Services Coordination) is an IT industry standard for how individual Web
services can interact in order to accomplish an application task. WS-Coordination can be used with
BPEL to help coordinate a transaction.
WS-Transaction
The WS-Transaction (Web services Transaction) interface defines what constitutes a transaction and
what will determine when it has completed successfully. WS-Transaction can be used with BPEL to
help contextualize a transaction.
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BPEL
tips and expert advice
BPMN:
The less collaboration, the better?
BPMN 2.0 came about to bridge the divide between business and development architects—but what
is the key to effective cross-team architecture? Active Endpoints CTO Michael Rowley claims that
constant collaboration between business and IT has its costs. Read his expert advice in this SOA
Talk blog post about BPM, BPMN, SOA and BPEL.
BPMN
with BPEL, an ongoing debate
Bruce Silver has made some strong points on why Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) does not
make modeling with Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) simpler. Active Endpoints CTO Michael
Rowley, though, claims that BPMN2.0 with BPEL is simpler than the new BPMN execution language. Read
the two sides of the debate.
Service contracts
for BPEL 2.0
The BPEL orchestration standard allows for contract-first Web services design inside an SOA. This
tip identifies best practices for using BPEL and WSDL for service contracts.
Co-evolution
of BPMN and BPEL drives BPM in SOA settings
The SOA industry often likes to pit standards against each other in "standards wars." Learn why BPMN vs
BPEL seems to be a case where co-evolution and collaboration might be the rule.
MiniGuide:
End-to-end testing for SOA and enterprise transactions
Now, increasingly, it is held that the best way now to understand the behavior of a complex
distributed system is by ''following the transaction.'' This mini-guide provides articles with tips
and advice for end-to-end testing of transactions, and how BPEL can help.
BPEL vs. workflow
foundation
Sri Nagabhirava discusses the differences between BPEL and workflow foundation and which is best at
building a composite Web service.
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How is BPEL
used?
Where does BPEL fit
in?
BPEL is part of a long history of defining Web services-based business processes. In this tip,
discover the features of BPEL and how it fits with related standards such as REST, WSDL, and BPMN.
Also, examine some of the trends which provide the background for languages like BPEL, such as
coordinating complex systems and diagramming processes.
With
MDM, BPM and BPEL, business users may become data stewards
Just as order entry has largely become the province of the end user, front-line business people may
someday take on a greater role as data stewards. With widely deployed MDM, this may happen, and it
may be monitored by BPM-oriented Business Process Execution Language-authored (BPEL-authored)
business rules.
Online
real estate SOA moves into BPEL
Read how Move Inc., an online real estate services provider, uses BPEL in the integration of legacy
systems and new CRM and ERP products as the first step in an incremental "pragmatic SOA"
implementation.
Verizon
uses BPEL app to cut down on code, check for fraud, and go green
Verizon Wireless employed Oracle BPEL Manager with a rules engine to study call patterns. Learn how
that led to a reduction in lines of Java code for an app that provides fraud detection teams with
better information for decision making. It also used less hardware, reducing IT energy
consumption.
SOA,
BPEL working on the railroad
Commuter trains in the San Francisco, California area will soon be issuing tickets from a new
SOA-based ticketing system, which combines BPEL, wireless handheld devices and a legacy data
center.
Thrift:
A pragmatic approach to service integration
Establishing communication between disparate technology platforms is one of the holy grails in
enterprise computing. Thrift seeks to ease cross-language services development in an effort to
alleviate that problem, perhaps as an alternative to BPEL.
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BPEL products
Sparx
Systems upgrades Enterprise Architect 7.5
Sparx Systems recently announced the release of three new editions and an upgrade of its Unified
Modeling Language (UML) based modeling and design tool, Enterprise Architect 7.5, which includes
new tools for BPEL users.
WSO2
launches Carbon modular SOA framework with OSGi flavor
Open-source specialist WSO2 has recast its core software offerings as the "Carbon," which uses OSGi
to achieve a more modular service-oriented architecture (SOA) framework.
BPEL4People
and WS-HumanTask get reference implementation
Although BPEL4People and WS-HT aren't fully ratified standards, Active EndPoints Inc., one of the
leaders of the standards effort, is incorporating them into its new tools for BPM and SOA design
and development.
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This was first published in December 2009
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