IBM FileNet P8 Platform
FileNet is a company that developed software to help enterprises manage their content and business processes. The FileNet P8 platform is a framework for developing custom enterprise systems. FileNet combines enterprise content management reference architecture with comprehensive business process management and compliance capabilities. The FileNet P8 platform is a key element in creating an agile, adaptable Enterprise Content Management (ECM) environment necessary to support a dynamic organization that must respond quickly to change.
You can use the workflow software to create, modify, manage, analyze, and simulate workflows (also referred to as business processes) that are performed by applications, enterprise users, and external users such as partners and customers. The functionality to define your workflows extends from the integrated expression builder, which provides a means of associating complex business rules with various routes between workflow steps
Examples of automated processes:
Use FileNet Process software to automate the flow of work to complete a structured business process. Examples of automated processes include:
- Circulating documents for a systematic review and approval process
- Processing new employee paperwork
- Submitting travel expense reports for approvals and payment
- Handling customer queries
Starting with FileNet Process Applications:
Multi-step business processes centre on the systematic routing of documents and information, with each step completed by the appropriate participant or an automated program. An individual workflow automates the routing and processing of a particular type of document, or set of documents, for a specific business process.
In a process system, different users perform different activities:
Participant: Participate in a workflow and Launch a workflow
Workflow Administrator: Manage work in progress
Workflow author: Design a workflow
System Administrator: Set up and maintain a Process system
Developer: Develop custom applications
Integrating business rules
Workflow authors and business analysts can create and add business rules to individual steps of a workflow definition. You can use third party rules software to separate the business rules from the process, making it easier for a business analyst to independently manage the process and the rules behind the process, rather than modifying a workflow definition.
To implement rules functionality in a workflow, the workflow author and the business analyst work together to determine how rules will be used in the workflow, what decisions will be controlled by rules, what workflow data will be required, appropriate names for the rule sets, and the steps in a workflow where the rules will execute.
Rules integration using web services
A business rules management system leverages industry standard web services as a communication
mechanism for invoking business rules. FileNet P8 Business Process Manager provides the ability to
configure and invoke web services from within a workflow. Steps:
- Author a rule
- Deploy it to the business rules management system
- Generate a Web Service Definition Language (WSDL)
- Import the WSDL into the Process Engine
- The business rule is then available to use within a workflow
- The final step is to configure calls to the rules engine to execute the business rules as part of a workflow
Rules Integration using the Rules Connectivity Framework
The Process Engine server uses TCP/IP to communicate with the Rules Listener. The Rules Listener is
implemented in Java as a multi-threaded process. It hosts the rules vendor JAR file that implements the
rules vendor functionality. The rules vendor must provide a JAR file that contains an implementation of the
IFNRule listener interface in order for to be invoked from the RCF. The IFNRule listener Java interface is
defined by IBM FileNet. The Rules Listener looks for the rules vendor JAR file and if it is present, loads it
and enable the rules functionality. The following figure provides a graphical high level view of the rules
integration
Enterprise Content Management: Is a formalized means of organizing and storing an organization's documents, and other content, that relate to the organization's processes.
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