Relationship between JBPM, KIE Server, KIE Workbench and JBoss EAP

Question

I want to know what is the difference between jbpm, kie server and kie workbench. I am working on jbpm tutorial now and so I downloaded the full installer. However, I read that: 1. jbpm could be distribuited as different jars. 2. kie server is distributed as a war.

so what is the relationship between them? do they integrate together? are they same same thing?

And how is that all integrated/related with/to Jboss EAP?

Answer 1

In a nutshell, they are not the same thing and yes they can integrate together but is not required:

• KIE WorkBench is for user rule authoring; it's a web app
• JBPM is for business process modeling authoring; it's a web app and/or Eclipse IDE environment
• KIE Execution Server is for running the rules and BPMs; it's web service with JSON/REST and a XML/SOAP interfaces for receiving and responding to requests.

Answer 2

I have been using jBPM since 2 years ago.

here is my experience : kie-workbench is used to model your process, business rules, etc. Then, you have an option, which is recommended, to deploy a container of your model to kie-server.

Next, kie-server will be used for your runtime process. the full documentation of kie-server rest generally is {server}:{port}/kie-server/docs

this kie-server allow you to start your process which is designed in the workbench, start tasks, complete, etc.

as far as I know they have just released version 7.3.0. Version 7 introduces a new concept which is called case management. I suggest you to read this to have better understanding:

http://docs.jboss.org/jbpm/release/7.3.0.Final/jbpm-docs/html_single/

Answer 3

Regarding your question

And how is that all integrated/related with/to Jboss EAP?

What you will need to do is deploy a) workbench and b) kie execution server on servers to make it work.

Current versions work on WildFly 10, JBoss EAP7 and TomCat8, with, in my experience, the easiest installations on the two JBoss application servers.

You will need to deploy the workbench on a server so you can create rules.

You will need to deploy your project on the execution server so an application can access and execute your rules.

In production environments workbench and execution servers normally are deployed on two different servers, for local development and exploration it is possible to publish this all on one local server. It will not be an easy process though, but you can find some good information here and here.

However, good luck is what you will need most.