Which Java based workflow engine should I use?

Question

I am looking for a off the shelf workflow engine to be used in my Java based web application. Following are my initial requirements -

The engine should have a nice UI to create/manage workflows.
Should work with Oracle database
Provides java api or web service api to interact with workflow from my application so that I can build logic on the workflow.
Ability to define custom business rules.

As of now I am looking at JBoss JBPM and Drools together. Do let me know if you have experience of this or other contenders which I should consider for evaluation?

[this response](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14474294/lightweight-workflow-engine-for-java/14829534) might help you! — Olimpiu POP, Jul 23 '14 at 07:06

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 04 '11 at 05:03

You could try Activiti. I am personally experimenting on that. It's really easy to install and use. It's similar to jBPM. So you would not have any difficulty if you are familiar to that.

You could also refer the comparison between them.

Hope this helps you.

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 04 '11 at 03:48

yes i agree with you, jBPM is a flexible Business Process Management (BPM) Suite. It makes the bridge between business analysts and developer

and

drools is good and well manged rule engine , i recommend these both to use, but you will not have ready functionality like work with oracle database its individual functionality independent from this

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 04 '11 at 03:46

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I'd encourage you to check this list of Open Source Workflow Engines in Java

answered Oct 04 '11 at 03:46

Nano Taboada

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thanks but I have already seen that huge list of options. That does not help me much that is the reason asked a little bit specific question on stackoverflow. – Sharad Yadav Oct 04 '11 at 15:43
no problem -- given that you asked for 'other contenders for evaluation' I thought you might find the resource useful as it highlights the key features of each. – Nano Taboada Oct 04 '11 at 16:41
Wow.. nice list. But the problem is to contrast and compare against each other. – Balaji Boggaram Ramanarayan Jun 05 '15 at 23:07

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 04 '11 at 03:49

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Scientific Workflows : Kepler, Taverna <--- these are both data intensive, and are easily distributable. They were designed to deal with genomics/planetary data, etc...

For business workflows, check out JBoss JBpm, which is transactional (i.e. its not optimized for massive computationally intense workflows, but rather, its written to support business workflows that need security, database transactions, etc.

answered Oct 04 '11 at 03:49

jayunit100

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The key difference is that scientific workflows _need_ to push very large amounts of data through the system, whereas business workflows _need_ to control what happens on failure of a step. This leads scientific workflow systems to focus on the data links and business workflow systems to focus on the control links, and gives the two very different flavors. – Donal Fellows May 10 '12 at 07:28
Yeah that's true - and also - workflow has a totally different meaning in the business world- optimization of a business "workflow" often involving concepts like streamlining emails , deliveries, and authorizations.... While in science, the focus is on defining data transformations and processes in a scalable way. – jayunit100 May 11 '12 at 09:30

Which Java based workflow engine should I use?

4 Answers4