Building a Imixs Workflow Webapp - Part II.
In the first part of my tutorial I explained how you define a business model using the Imixs Workflow Modeler. This part concerns about the setup of your application server on which you can run the workflow application later. I will describe the setup of Suns Application Server Glassfish which is common running a JEE application. But you can also use a different JEE application server.
From the point of view of a workflow management system (WfMS) the application server is responsible for two important things: the authentication of a user and for saving workitems (a running process instance) into a database. As the Imixs JEE Workflow components are based on the JEE5 specification this can be configured outside of our application using the application servers admin console. Next I will describe the two configuration steps.
Setup a Security Realm
To authenticate and authorize users to work with the Workflow application it is necessary to define a Security configuration. This is also called a Security realm. You can use and configure any authentication framework supported by your application server environment. But for testing I use a simple file based security Realm. Follow the steps below to setup a new security realm named "imixsrealm" in your glassfish server:
- start admin console -> http://localhost:4848/asadmin
- navigate to Configuration->Security->realms
- add a new file realm named "imixsrealm"
- choose the class Name "com.sun.enterprese.security.auth.realm.file.FileRealm"
- Set the JAAS Context to "fileRealm"
- Set the Key File to a new File name. e.g. "imixskeyfile"
- press OK to create the new realm.
The name "imixsrealm" will be used by my workflow application to select the security configuration.
One part of the security realm is to authenticate a user who tries to access my application. The other part is to authorize a user and grant access to the workflow application. Therefor each user account needs to be owner of one of the Imixs security Roles defined by the Imixs JEE Workflow System. The security roles are mapped by a application to different access groups. So you need now to define different users assigned to different groups used by your application.
To add or mange a user open the new realm configuration and click on button "manage users"
I add the following test accounts and groups:
| UserID | Group | Description |
| Manfred | IMIXS-WORKFLOW-Manager | This user will have maximum access |
| Eddy | IMIXS-WORKFLOW-Editor | This user can edit allworkitems |
| Anna | IMIXS-WORKFLOW-Author | This user will be allowed to create workitems and edit his own |
| Ronny | IMIXS-WORKFLOW-Reader | This user will be only allowd to read workitems |
Setup a Database connection
The next step is to setup a Database connection which can be used by your workflow application to store the workitems created and modified by users into a database. Again - as the Imixs JEE Workflow depends on the JEE5 specification the application is independent form a specific database vendor. I mostly like the MySQL Database, but you can use any other database system. The JEE database connection is based on the JDBC standard and each connection defined by a server will be named unique by the JNDI Name. In my case my application expects a JDBC ressource with the name "jdbc/workflow-db".
To setup a new Database connection for MySQL in the glassfish server console follow these steps.
- start admin console -> http://localhost:4848/asadmin
- navigate to Application Server > Resources > JDBC > Connection Pools
- click "new" to create a new database source
- name: your database name (e.g. "workflowdb")
- resource type : javax.sql.DataSource
- Database Vendor : MySQL - click "next". Now you can configure necessary properties depending on your database setting:
- DatabaseName: "workflowdb"
- URL: "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/workflowdb"
- Password: "*****"
- User: "root" - click "finish" to create the new connection. You can test the connection using the "ping" button in the configuration page. (Note: it is necessary that if you use MySQL place the MySQL jdbc driver (mysql-connector-java-5.1.7-bin.jar) into the folder : [glassfish-install]/domains/domain1/lib/ext/ )
Now create a new JDBC Resource with the Name "jdbc/workflow-db"
- Navigate to "Application Server > Resources > JDBC > JDBC Resources"
- click "new" to create a new resource
- jndiName: jdbc/workflow-db
- PoolName: workflowdb (this is the name of the database connection created before)
Now that we have setup our application server I am ready to build and deploy my workflow application.
Posted at 01:06PM Sep 08, 2009
Posted by: Ralph
Category: Business
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