This guide gives an introduction to CadenzaFlow Run, a pre-packaged, lightweight distribution of CadenzaFlow. CadenzaFlow Run is easy to configure and does not require Java knowledge.

Prerequisites and audience

To use this guide, you should at least know what CadenzaFlow is and what it does. Check out the Get Started guides if you have never used CadenzaFlow before. The Installation guide is also worth looking at if you are completely new to CadenzaFlow.

This guide will teach you about CadenzaFlow Run and how to configure it. It can serve as a reference page for configuration and operation options. It will not give you a step-by-step guide on how to install CadenzaFlow Run. Head over to the Installation guide for details on how to install and start CadenzaFlow Run.

What is CadenzaFlow Run?

CadenzaFlow Run is a full distribution of CadenzaFlow. It includes:

• CadenzaFlow web applications
  • Cockpit
  • Tasklist
  • Admin
• REST API
• An example application

Starting with CadenzaFlow Run

To start with CadenzaFlow Run, download the distribution (enterprise) and unpacking it. You will find the following structure:

cadenzaflow-bpm-run
├── configuration/
│   ├── keystore/
│   │   └── put your SSL key store here if you want to use HTTPS
│   ├── resources/
│   │   └── put your BPMN files, forms and scripts here
│   ├── sql/
│   │   └── necessary SQL scripts to prepare your database system
│   ├── userlib/
│   │   └── put your database driver and other required JARs here
│   ├── default.yml
│   └── production.yml
├── internal/
├── start.bat
└── start.sh
└── shutdown.sh
└── shutdown.bat

Execute one of the two start scripts (start.bat for Windows, start.sh for Linux/Mac). After a few seconds, you can access the CadenzaFlow web apps via http://localhost:8080/cadenzaflow/app/, the REST API via http://localhost:8080/engine-rest/.

When executing one of the two start scripts without any arguments, CadenzaFlow Run will start with a default configuration as a detached process. To shut down CadenzaFlow Run in “detached” mode, use one of the two shutdown scripts (shutdown.bat for Windows, shutdown.sh for Linux/Mac).

By explicitly passing arguments to one of the two CadenzaFlow Run start scripts, the default detached mode is disabled and you can configure CadenzaFlow Run according to your needs. Furthermore, CadenzaFlow Run will start as a foreground process unless the --detached argument is explicitly passed to the start.bat or start.sh script.

Start script arguments

The start scripts (start.bat for Windows, start.sh for Linux/Mac) accept the following arguments:

Starting CadenzaFlow Run using Docker

CadenzaFlow Run is also available as a Docker image. Please see the CadenzaFlow Run section of the CadenzaFlow Docker documentation here for more details.

Optional components

By default, CadenzaFlow Run launches with the web apps, REST API and example modules. If you want to enable only a subset of them, execute the start script through a command-line interface with any of the --webapps, --rest or --example properties to enable the specific modules.

Example application

By default, CadenzaFlow Run deploys and launches an example application on startup. When launched, this application creates deployments with multiple BPMN and DMN definitions as well as form resources and starts instances of the defined processes.

You can disable the deployment of the example application itself by enabling any combination of the other modules with the --webapps and --rest properties of the start script. That way, the example application will not be launched and its resources will not be present on the classpath of CadenzaFlow Run.

You can also disable the launch of the example application by setting the application property cadenzaflow.bpm.run.example.enabled to false or removing it from the application properties. That way, the example application and its resources will be present on the classpath of CadenzaFlow Run. However, the example application will not be started.

Disabling the example application with any of those mechanisms will NOT delete any deployments or process instances from CadenzaFlow Run once they are created. You have to delete this data manually through the web apps, the REST API, or by cleaning the database configured in the application properties.

Choose between default and production configuration

CadenzaFlow Run ships with two different configuration files which are both located in the configuration folder.

• The default.yml configuration only contains necessary configuration like the H2 database, a demo user and CORS for REST calls from a client application.
• The production.yml configuration is intended to provide the recommended properties according to the Security Instructions. When using CadenzaFlow Run in a production environment, make sure to base your custom configuration on this one and carefully read through the security instructions.

By default, Run launches with the default.yml configuration. To enable the production.yml configuration, execute the start script with the --production property. Using --production disables the example application. It can be enabled by explicitly passing --example to the start script. However, we do not recommended to use the example application in production.

Connect to a Database

CadenzaFlow Run is pre-configured to use a file-based H2 database for testing. The database schema and all required tables are automatically created when the engine starts up for the first time. If you want to use a custom standalone database, follow these steps:

1. Make sure your database is among the supported database systems.
2. Create a database schema for CadenzaFlow yourself.
3. Install the database schema to create all required tables and default indices using our database schema installation guide.
4. Drop a JDBC driver jar for your database system in the configuration/userlib folder.
5. Add the JDBC URL and login credentials to the configuration file like described below.
6. Restart CadenzaFlow Run

Deploy BPMN Models

In the unpacked distro, you will find a resources folder. All files (including BPMN, DMN, CMMN, form, and script files) will be deployed when you start CadenzaFlow Run.

You can reference forms and scripts in the BPMN diagram with embedded:deployment:/my-form.html, cadenzaflow-forms:deployment:/myform.form, or deployment:/my-script.js. The deployment requires adding an extra / as a prefix to the filename.

Deployments via the REST API are still possible.

Automatic License Pickup

If you downloaded the enterprise version of CadenzaFlow Run, you will need a license key to enable the enterprise features. Please see the dedicated License section of the docs, to learn more.

Configure CadenzaFlow Run

Just like all the other distros, you can tailor CadenzaFlow Run to your needs. To do this, you only have to edit one of the configuration files that you can find in the configuration folder.

Database

The distro comes with a file-based h2 database for testing. It is recommended to connect to a standalone database system for use in production.

Authentication

To add authentication to requests against the REST API, you can enable basic authentication.

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing

If you want to allow cross-origin requests to the REST API, you need to enable CORS.

REST

CadenzaFlow Run can be configured to disable the REST endpoint which exposes the WADL file via a property.

Deployment

CadenzaFlow Run also supports configuration options for customizing the deployment.

LDAP Identity Service

CadenzaFlow can manage users and authorizations on its own, but if you want to use an existing LDAP authentication database you can enable the LDAP Identity Service Plugin which provides read-only access to the LDAP repository.

Find all available configuration properties in the LDAP Plugin Guide

LDAP Administrator Authorization

You can also use the Administrator Authorization plugin to ensure the appropriate LDAP user or group gains administrative access. Review all the available configuration options in the Administrator Authorization plugin section of our documentation.

In the table below, observe the CadenzaFlow Run-specific properties for the Administrator Authorization plugin.

Plugin registration

CadenzaFlow Run supports two types of plugins.

• Process engine plugins can be used to extend the process engine configuration to add more functionality.
• Webapp plugins are used to extend one of the CadenzaFlow webapps (i.e. Cockpit, Tasklist, Admin, Welcome).

Both types of plugins are supported in CadenzaFlow Run but have to be registered differently.

Process engine plugin registration

CadenzaFlow provides a process engine plugin mechanism to enable users to add and adjust process engine features by extending the process engine configuration. You can use plugins developed by CadenzaFlow, or by third-party developers.

Get more details on how process engine plugins work on the dedicated process engine plugins documentation section.

In the table below, observe the CadenzaFlow Run-specific properties for registering process engine plugins.

Perform the following steps in CadenzaFlow Run to register process engine plugins:

1. Find and read the process engine plugin documentation.

• Find the canonical name of the process engine plugin Java class that implements the ProcessEnginePlugin interface.
• Find out if the process engine plugin provides any configuration parameters. You will be able to configure your plugin using those parameters. If the plugin does not provide any properties, skip this step.

1. Download the process engine plugin .jar file and place it to the ${RUN_HOME}/configuration/userlib/ directory.
2. In your CadenzaFlow Run configuration file, add the process engine plugin class and any configuration parameters as list items under the process-engine-plugins YAML property.

Once complete, your YAML configuration file should look similar to the following:

  cadenzaflow.bpm.run.process-engine-plugins:
    - plugin-class: canonical.name.of.the.PluginClass

Example process engine plugin registration

Let’s say that you want to register a process engine plugin called TestPlugin. The following information is available:

• The plugin is provided in a .jar archive called cadenzaflow-bpm-test-plugin.jar.
• The name of the Java class that implements the ProcessEnginePlugin interface is TestPlugin. The canonical name of this class is org.cadenzaflow.bpm.run.test.plugins.TestPlugin.
• The TestPlugin exposes the following two configuration parameters:
  • parameterOne - a String value
  • parameterTwo - a Boolean value

We’ll take the following steps:

1. Place the cadenzaflow-bpm-test-first-plugin.jar archive in the ${RUN_HOME}/configuration/userlib/ directory.

2. Add the following content to your CadenzaFlow Run YAML configuration file.

cadenzaflow.bpm.run.process-engine-plugins:
  - plugin-class: org.cadenzaflow.bpm.run.test.plugins.TestPlugin
    plugin-parameters:
      parameterOne: valueOne
      parameterTwo: true

In the example above, we use the TestPlugin canonical name as a YAML key. The YAML value consists of a collection of key-value pairs that represent the configuration parameters for the TestPlugin and their values. Some process engine plugins don’t have configuration parameters. For these, you only need to define the plugin-class YAML property, like so:

cadenzaflow.bpm.run.process-engine-plugins:
  - plugin-class: org.cadenzaflow.bpm.run.test.plugins.TestPlugin
  - plugin-class: org.cadenzaflow.bpm.run.test.plugins.AnotherPlugin

3. Start CadenzaFlow Run. The TestPlugin will be read from the YAML configuration and registered with the process engine.

Webapp plugin registration

CadenzaFlow provides a mechanism to extend the CadenzaFlow Webapps with your own functionality. You can add plugins at various plugin points. For example, the processes dashboard in Cockpit.

A webapp plugin is a maven jar project that provides a server-side and a client-side extension to the webapp. You can find more information about how to structure your plugins here.

To register a webapp plugin, simply drop the jar file into the configuration/userlib folder. See the Starting with CadenzaFlow Run section of this guide to find out how to navigate the directories of CadenzaFlow Run.

Example application launch

CadenzaFlow Run comes with a demo application that deploys resources and starts process instances. You can disable the start of that application so it does not create deployments and process instances. The resources of the application are however still accessible on the classpath of CadenzaFlow Run. Consult the example application section for further details.

HTTPS

CadenzaFlow Run supports HTTPS over SSL. To enable it, you will need a valid SSL certificate signed by a trusted provider and stored in a key store file (either .jks or .p12). For testing, we included a self-signed certificate. You should not use this in production. To enable it, add the following properties to your configuration file.

server:
  ssl:
    key-store: classpath:keystore.p12
    key-store-password: cadenzaflow
    key-store-type: pkcs12
    key-alias: cadenzaflow
    key-password: cadenzaflow
  port: 8443

After starting CadenzaFlow Run, you can access the webapps via https://localhost:8443/cadenzaflow/app/ and the REST API via https://localhost:8443/engine-rest/.

Logging

CadenzaFlow provides fine-grained and customizable logging. An overview of the available logging categories can be found in the Logging User Guide. To configure the logging behavior in CadenzaFlow Run, customize your configuration file with the following properties.

For more information on logging configuration visit the Spring Boot Logging Guide.