TIBCO iProcess Engine

Description

The TIBCO iProcess Engine is the core of iProcess and is responsible for the execution of business processes. In response to input, for example, case start, completion of steps, events being triggered, deadlines expiring, and data being modified, coupled with knowledge of the business process, it makes the next activity or step in the process available for execution. This process might involve dispatching a work item to a user queue, or invoking an application or task through an EAI step.

When a case of a procedure is started by an individual from a TIBCO iProcess Workspace (Windows) computer, a number of processes are used to process the information contained in one step before the next step can be performed.

The TIBCO iProcess Engine maintains the list of work items in a user’s work queue for all the active cases to be processed. If the first step was opened, completed and released, the TIBCO iProcess Engine determines the subsequent actions for the step and updates the necessary case data in the database.

The iProcess Engine enables dynamic processing and knowledge-based interaction with iProcess procedures. This means, iProcess procedures can be processed based on events as they occur and that may not be known about at procedure definition time. This feature is available using graft steps. A graft step enables an external application to graft (attach) one or more sub-procedures to a particular point in your procedure at run-time. Therefore, when a case of the main procedure is started, the external application can start a number of sub-processes that are attached to the main procedure via the graft step. For example, a financial application determines whether a credit check and a transfer of funds are required as part of the main procedure. When another case is started, it determines that only a transfer of funds is required. This means that the procedure is dynamic and cannot be decided at procedure definition time. One of the processes is an iProcess sub-procedure and the other is a process run by the financial system.

iProcess procedures can be defined in TIBCO Business Studio or TIBCO iProcess Modeler.

All the TIBCO iProcess Engine case data such as fields and their values are stored in a TIBCO iProcess Engine database instance. An iProcess Engine database instance can be an SQL Server, Oracle, or DB2 database.

The iProcess Engine (in conjunction with other iProcess products, for example, the iProcess Technology Plug-ins, iProcess Server Objects, and iProcess Web Services Plug-in) enables connectivity to external applications. This means that iProcess procedures can integrate with other systems in your business process. iProcess case data can be sent to external applications using a suitable communication method. Data can also be passed back from the application to iProcess.

The iProcess Engine comes with a web-based console, the TIBCO iProcess Administration Console that facilitates performing administrative tasks:

  • Control process operations (start, stop, pause, enable/disable, and delete),

  • Configure resources (like process attributes, MBox queues, databases, port ranges, debug settings, and so on),

  • Monitoring information (such as processes, queue information, logs, and so on), and

  • Monitoring performance (based on CPU usage, memory usage, and so on.)

References

For information about the TIBCO iProcess Engine, see the following guides:

• TIBCO iProcess Engine: Architecture Guide
• TIBCO iProcess Engine Administrator's Guide
• TIBCO iProcess Engine (SQL) Administrator's Guide
• TIBCO iProcess Engine (Oracle) Administrator's Guide
• TIBCO iProcess Engine (DB2) Administrator's Guide
• TIBCO iProcess swutil and swbatch Reference Guide
• TIBCO iProcess Engine System Messages Guide
• TIBCO iProcess Engine Administration Console User Guide
• TIBCO iProcess User Validation API: Reference Guide