WSFL

What I offer below is just a cursory glance at some of the more important WSFL concepts.

What you need, then, is to understand how to translate a business process model diagram into a WSFL flow model.

In WSFL, this address is in the form of an operation on a given Web service interface and is communicated via a globalModel.

The flow between processes and applications is better handled with a WSFL flow engine and even best with BPEL, not with a state diagram.

WSFL, like workflow in general, has a vocabulary of its own; the key to mastering WSFL is to master this vocabulary.

With a static location, it is as simple as merely adding a direct link to your WSDL service definition to the WSFL global model.

In other words, you really don't have to know anything about WSFL to assume the role of a WSFL service provider.

By consuming WSFL, a workflow engine can walk through the business processes activity by activity, control point by control point.

The WSFL casts Web services into the role of implementing activities within an overall business process, or "flow" model.

WSFL builds heavily on the Web Services Description Language ( WSDL), an XML-grammar for describing individual Web Services.

And I really don't care what your WSFL flow model looks like, I just want to receive a purchase order from you so I can get things rolling.

My WSFL flow model can only be kicked off once a purchase order has been received.

In this installment, I'm going to take a much more in-depth look at becoming a WSFL service provider.

Figure 1 illustrates a simple business process model shamelessly copied from the WSFL specification.

Exporting a WSFL activity is roughly the equivalent of marking an operation on a Java class as public.

The WSFL is a tool to essentially model the exact same graph using an XML syntax that can be read by both humans and machines.

The service provider type is defined by a Web Service Interface document using WSDL.

For reference information about the syntax and the individual elements, see the WSFL specification (see Resources).

In the meantime, you may want to continue your education of business process modeling and WSFL by making use of the resources listed below.

The WSFL specification can provide more detail about local services (see Listing 3).

The workflow diagram in Figure 1 has the WSFL syntax shown in Listing 1.

The three remaining articles in the series will focus on actually using WSFL.

In this installment, I have provided a first look at WSFL, what it does, and a little about how it does it.

It is quite straightforward to then use the WSFL API to load this service at runtime and make the invocation.

Your WSFL flow model includes an activity for submitting the order to some company that is capable of processing the order.