Deploying an app using the rest interface

1

I have 2 issues.
Issue1:
I have a script that packages a process and forms into a zip.
I would like to deploy this zip in flowable-modeler but don’t find any documentation on what endpoint I should use.

Issue2:
When I use a get on flowable-modeler in postman I get redirected to the identity manager.
When I use the same URL in a browser that is authenticated it works as designed.
The URL I’m using is: https://flowable-dev/flowable-modeler/app/rest/models

How do I set authentication in postman?

2

I have the same issue and get solved, you can see my thread How to use rest api in docker

To use rest api you have to either setup flowable-rest or flowable-task, to pass http basic authentication you can use something like

curl -i 'http://admin:test@localhost:8080/flowable-task/process-api/repository/deployments'

or

curl -i --user admin:test 'http://localhost:8080/flowable-task/process-api/repository/deployments'

You got redirected because you are using the application api which require cookie based authentication

3

Hi xcapitain.

I did some experimenting this morning and now I’m even more confused…

I deploy an app using the following command:
The zip file is created by exporting an app in modeler.

curl -X POST
https://flowable-dev.newtec.eu/flowable-task/app-api/app-repository/deployments
-H ‘authorization: Basic c2xhZzpmbGF0ZWFydGhpc3ffffwu’
-H ‘cache-control: no-cache’
-H ‘content-type: multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW’
-F file=@test.zip

The result is

{
“id”: “404ee9c0-fe12-11e8-874a-0050569058ff”,
“name”: “test”,
“deploymentTime”: “2018-12-12T14:31:37.658+01:00”,
“category”: null,
“url”: “https://flowable-dev.newtec.eu/flowable-task/app-api/app-repository/deployments/404ee9c0-fe12-11e8-874a-0050569058ff”,
“tenantId”: “”
}

I use the following link to check if it is deployed.

https://flowable-dev.newtec.eu/flowable-task/app-api/app-repository/deployments?name=test
{
“data”: [
{
“id”: “404ee9c0-fe12-11e8-874a-0050569058ff”,
“name”: “test”,
“deploymentTime”: “2018-12-12T14:31:37.658+01:00”,
“category”: null,
“url”: “https://flowable-dev.newtec.eu/flowable-task/app-api/app-repository/deployments/404ee9c0-fe12-11e8-874a-0050569058ff”,
“tenantId”: “”
}
],
“total”: 1,
“start”: 0,
“sort”: “id”,
“order”: “asc”,
“size”: 1
}

Now when I go to flowable-modelere or flowable app the app or process doesn’t show up.
Any idea what I’m doing wrong?

4

Try

curl --user admin:test 'http://localhost:8080/flowable-task/process-api/repository/process-definitions'

Can you see the process definition list?

If not you can try to build app in flowable-modeler and then deploy to flowable task.

5

Using the following URl i can see my deployments:

https://flowable-dev.newtec.eu/flowable-task/process-api/repository/process-definitions?name=aaa

I don’t see the process in flowable task or flowable modeler.
I can however start the process using the following url:

https://flowable-dev.newtec.eu/flowable-rest/service/runtime/process-instances

This will create a task that is visible in flowable-task.

It’s almost like flowable rest and flowable task are using a different engine or database

6

I found an easy reproducible way

Start the docker container:

docker run -p 8080:8080 flowable/all-in-one

import the process:

curl -X POST
http://localhost:8080/flowable-task/app-api/app-repository/deployments
-H ‘authorization: Basic YWRtaW46dGVzdA==’
-H ‘cache-control: no-cache’
-H ‘content-type: multipart/form-data;’
-F file=@aaa.zip

Check modeler for the process, form or app. They aren’t there.

start the process:

curl -X POST
http://localhost:8080/flowable-task/process-api/runtime/process-instances
-H ‘authorization: Basic YWRtaW46dGVzdA==’
-H ‘cache-control: no-cache’
-H ‘content-type: application/json’
-d ‘{“processDefinitionKey”:“aaa”}’

Check task… there is your task, but the form is missing resulting in a nice dump.

The zip can be downloaded with the following sharepoint link

7

Hey,

I would like to clarify some things. The flowable-task and flowable-modeler application do not share the same DB tables. Which means that if you deploy an app only to flowable-task then you won’t see the models in flowable-modeler.

If flowable-rest and flowable-task are configured with the same DB, then they should have the exact same data, which means that if you deploy to flowable-rest then you should be able to see it in flowable-task.

Have a look at the Flowable UI Modeler section of our documentation. There are 2 ways to export an app. One export creates a zip which can be used for importing an app to other flowable-modeler application. And the second one exports a bar which should be used for deploying to the engines.

Cheers,
Filip

8

Right now my development flow is as folows.

I create a bpm drawing and forms in modeler. I download it and manually it in an eclipse project.

In eclipse I write some javascript in the bpmn file. Write some test code, maybe modify a form a bit.
Once I’m happy I deploy it to the task engine and start the process and test it manually.

Offcourse sometimes I want to make big changes and then I like a GUI. So I would like to import my process back into modeler.

This is an issue since I can’t import a bar file into modeler or a zip into flowable-task.

Is there an easy way to transform these?

One solution would be, uploading a zip to flowable-modeler and publishing it using the rest interface of modeler. Is this possible?

9

You can separately import BPMN and forms (in the upcoming release) in the modeler as well. Not sure if this is an option for you.

What exactly do you mean by this?

10

I noticed that when you import a process in modeler, the reference to the form is gone.

This question is has “changed” a bit.

The actual issue is although modeler is a nice graphical tool, it has it’s limits.
The modeler is easy to create a drawing, but once I start writing scripts and testclasses I switch to eclipse.

Although I do most of my work in eclipse, I sometimes want to modify the process or forms in flowable-modeler. Visualisation of the xml process flows and json forms can be handy :slight_smile:

When I change a form this is not pushed to flowable-task. For this I need to create an app and publish it.
This requires a lot of manual steps:

  • Import xml process into modeler
  • fix form references in the process flow.
  • modify form
  • publish app from modeler to task.
  • start the process in task
  • add process variables to startform

The last 2 steps can easily be scripted.
The issue is importing and publishing.