Authenticating flowable-task from other application

akki · August 22, 2019, 1:07pm

I have downloaded the flowable 6.4.2 source code and I’m going to use 3 modules in my application.

flowable-ui-idm
flowable-ui-modeler
flowable-ui-task

I have created a small process, which involves a mail task.
I have a method which makes use of RuntimeService and it’s method startProcessInstanceByKey to start the process.

Problem comes when I try to call that method from another application,
I used below code to make a call and the method was GET as well.

ResponseEntity<String> triggerWorkFlow = mRestTemplate.getForEntity(
				"http://localhost:9999/flowable-task/app/rest/execution/start-process/"+processKey, 
				String.class);

Above call, doesn’t even reach the method which starts the process, however it does through java.net.ConnectException when flowable-task URL is not available.

Below is the value of triggerWorkFlow:

<200,<!doctype html>

<title>Flowable IDM</title>

<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180" href="images/apple-touch-icon.png?v=Om5N75Y123">
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="images/favicon-32x32.png?v=Om5N75Y123" sizes="32x32">
<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="images/favicon-16x16.png?v=Om5N75Y123" sizes="16x16">
<link rel="manifest" href="manifest.json">
<link rel="mask-icon" href="images/safari-pinned-tab.svg?v=Om5N75Y123" color="#506d75">
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico?v=Om5N75Y123">

<!-- build:css styles/common/3thparty.css -->
<link href="styles/common/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="libs/nvd3_1.1.15-beta/nvd3.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
<link href="libs/bootstrap-daterangepicker_1.3.7/daterangepicker-bs3.css" rel="stylesheet">
<!-- endbuild -->

<!-- build:css styles/style.css -->
<link href="styles/style-idm.css" rel="stylesheet">
<!-- endbuild -->

<!-- build:css styles/common/style.css -->
<link href="styles/common/style.css" rel="stylesheet">
<!-- endbuild -->

<div ng-if="!onLogin">

    <div class="navbar navbar-fixed-top navbar-inverse" role="navigation" id="main-nav" ng-show="authenticated">
        <div class="fixed-container">
            <div class="navbar-header">
                <a ng-click="backToLanding()" class="landing-logo" ng-if="account != null && account != undefined" title="{{'IDM.GENERAL.MAIN-TITLE' | translate}}">
                    <img ng-src="{{appResourceRoot}}images/flowable-logo.png" ng-srcset="{{appResourceRoot}}images/flowable-logo.png 1x, {{appResourceRoot}}images/flowable-logo@2x.png 2x">
                </a>
                <ul class="nav navbar-nav">
                    <li ng-repeat="item in mainNavigation"
                        id="{{item.id}}"
                        ng-show="(authenticated && !item.unauthenticated) || (item.unauthenticated && !authenticated)"
                        ng-class="{'active': item.id == mainPage.id}">
                        <a ng-click="setMainPage(item)">{{item.title | translate}}</a>
                    </li>
                </ul>
            </div>
            <div class="pull-right">
                <div class="dropdown btn-group btn-group-sm">
                    <button type="button" class="btn btn-default dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown">{{account.firstName}} {{account.lastName}}
                        <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-down" style="font-size: 10px" aria-hidden="true"></span>
                    </button>
                    <ul class="dropdown-menu pull-right">
                        <li><a ng-click="logout()" translate="IDM.GENERAL.ACTION.LOGOUT"></a></li>
                    </ul>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>


    <div class="wrapper clearfix" ng-view="" ng-cloak ng-style="{height: window.height + 'px'}">
    </div>

</div>

<div ng-if="onLogin">
    <div class="alert-wrapper" ng-cloak>
        <div class="alert {{alerts.current.type}}" ng-show="alerts.current" ng-click="dismissAlert()">
            <span>{{alerts.current.message}}</span>
            <span class="badge" ng-show="alerts.queue.length">{{alerts.queue.length + 1}}</span>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div ng-view="" ng-cloak ng-style="{height: window.height + 'px'}"></div>
</div>

<!--[if lt IE 9]>
<div class="unsupported-browser">
    <p class="alert error">You are using an unsupported browser. Please upgrade your browser in order to use the editor.</p>
</div>
<![endif]-->

<!--[if lt IE 9]>
<script src="libs/es5-shim-15.3.4.5/es5-shim.js"></script>
<script src="libs/json3_3.2.6/lib/json3.min.js"></script>
<![endif]-->

<!-- 3rd party libs -->
<script src="libs/jquery_1.11.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="libs/jquery-ui-1.10.3.custom.min.js"></script>

<script src="libs/angular_1.3.13/angular.js"></script>
<script src="libs/angular-animate_1.3.13/angular-animate.min.js"></script>
<script src="libs/bootstrap_3.1.1/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
<script src="libs/angular-resource_1.3.13/angular-resource.min.js"></script>
<script src="libs/angular-cookies_1.3.13/angular-cookies.min.js"></script>
<script src="libs/angular-sanitize_1.3.13/angular-sanitize.min.js"></script>
<script src="libs/angular-route_1.3.13/angular-route.min.js"></script>
<script src="libs/angular-translate_2.15.1/angular-translate.min.js"></script>
<script src="libs/angular-translate-storage-cookie/angular-translate-storage-cookie.js"></script>
<script src="libs/angular-translate-loader-static-files/angular-translate-loader-static-files.js"></script>
<script src="libs/angular-strap_2.1.6/angular-strap.min.js"></script>
<script src="libs/angular-strap_2.1.6/angular-strap.tpl.min.js"></script>
<script src="libs/ng-file-upload/ng-file-upload-shim.min.js"></script>
<script src="libs/ng-file-upload/ng-file-upload.min.js"></script>
<script src="libs/ui-grid_3.0.0/ui-grid.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="libs/autofill-events_1.0.0/autofill-event.js"></script>
<script src="libs/momentjs_2.18.1/momentjs.min.js"></script>

<!-- Configuration -->
<script src="scripts/app-cfg.js?v=2"></script>

<!-- build:js scripts/scripts.js -->
<script src="scripts/idm-app.js"></script>
<script src="scripts/idm-service.js"></script>
<script src="scripts/idm-user-mgmt-controller.js"></script>
<script src="scripts/idm-group-mgmt-controller.js"></script>
<script src="scripts/idm-profile-mgmt-controller.js"></script>
<script src="scripts/idm-privilege-mgmt-controller.js"></script>
<script src="scripts/common/services/authentication-service.js"></script>
<script src="scripts/common/directives.js"></script>
<script src="scripts/common/providers-config.js"></script>
<script src="scripts/common/services/user-service.js"></script>
<script src="scripts/common/services/group-service.js"></script>
<script src="scripts/controllers.js"></script>

<!-- endbuild -->

<!-- Integration extensions -->
<script src="scripts/resource-loader.js?v=2" app="landing"></script>

Method which is used to start Process is:

@RequestMapping(value = "/start-process/{processKey}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    public void startProcess(@PathVariable("processKey") String processKey) {
    	System.out.println("STARTING PROCESS");
    	mRuntimeService.startProcessInstanceByKey(processKey);
    }

I believe there is an issue with authentication but it doesn’t throw any exception anywhere.
So, how do I make this REST TEMPLATE CALL
Let me know if any details are required from my end.

wwitt · August 22, 2019, 2:36pm

The REST endpoint you’re looking for is http://localhost:9999/flowable-task/process-api/runtime/process-instances . You’ll POST a JSON object containing a processDefinitionKey to start the process using basic auth.

There is Swagger documentation available for the Flowable REST api as part of the flowable-rest WAR at /docs/. It’s the same API that’s available to you in flowable-task, but the paths are slightly different.

Will

akki · September 2, 2019, 7:03pm

Thanks Will !!
The REST endpoint which you provided : http://localhost:9999/flowable-task/process-api/runtime/process-instances worked fine.

And Yes, there is a similar API in flowable-task, used to start new Process Instance http://localhost:9999/flowable-task/app/rest/process-instances , which takes JSON object having value of processDefinitionId , which is again obtained from API http://localhost:9999/flowable-task/app/rest/process-definitions?latest=true , whose response is,

{
  "size": 1,
  "total": 1,
  "start": 0,
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "processdemo:2:b7e88899-c4c2-11e9-93d6-525349d6ad33",//processDefinitionId
      "name": "ProcessDemo",
      "description": null,
      "key": "processdemo",
      "category": "http://www.flowable.org/processdef",
      "version": 2,
      "deploymentId": "b7cb8ab6-c4c2-11e9-93d6-525349d6ad33",
      "tenantId": "",
      "hasStartForm": false
    }
  ]
}

When using above processDefinitionId as request body for API, http://localhost:9999/flowable-task/app/rest/process-instances , I am able to start the process from Swagger of flowable-ui-task, but if I try to start the process from POSTMAN, it behaves in the same way I described in my question. (process doesn’t get started and nothing happens in flowable-ui-task console in IDE)

I’m gonna use the endpoint which you provided, but I’m not sure why it doesn’t work

joram · September 10, 2019, 9:48am

What does Postman show when dong the call? It should show at least the status code
Are you sure you’re running all of the apps against the same database?

akki · September 12, 2019, 9:10am

Hi Joram,

I started using floowable as a dependency now and don’t remember now what was the status code and yes all flowable apps were using same database, which I changed in flowable-default.properties

joram · September 13, 2019, 7:22am

In that case I’m a bit puzzled … typically that’s the problem. Can you maybe check your database (e.g. the ACT_RU_EXECUTION) table to see if data gets actually added?

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Authenticating flowable-task from other application

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