Flowable UI app maven repository does not have 7.0.0 support

Flowable Application
1

Hi, I noticed that flowable UI application did not get updated for 7.0.0 in Maven repository. Examples like

https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.flowable/flowable-spring-boot-starter-ui-admin

https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.flowable/flowable-spring-boot-starter-ui-modeler

Is there a plan to update these repositories?

Thanks

3 Likes
2

Hey @carbon_60,

Have a look at the forum announcement, our blog post and the release notes.

Cheers,
Filip

3

Thanks, Filip.

I did see flowable engine 7.0.0 release announcement and noticed that many flowable Maven repositories have been updated with version 7.0.0, but not all of them. The two particular ones I linked above still stay at version 6.8.0. I would like to know if these components will be updated with version 7.0.0 later or Flowable has no plan to continue supporting these components for 7.0.0?

1 Like
4

I think that you missed some parts of the Blog post. More specifically the paragraph that starts with:

Another change implemented in version 7, involves the exclusion of the Flowable UI applications.
…

The links you are referring to in your post are the Flowable UI applications. In the blog post (see quoted text above) we explained what is happening with them.

Cheers,
Filip

5

Thanks, Filip, for pointing it out.

I guess now the modeler is no longer open-source?

The modeler (web based/Eclipse plugin) for 6.8.0 would still be open source, but my guess is that those modelers may not be able to create process definitions compatible for future open-source Flowable engine although it might be compatible now. Is that a fair statement?

Obviously, without modeler compatible to future Flowable engine releases, one cannot effectively use the Flowable engine as open-source. Although technically Flowable engine is open-source for now and for the foreseeable future, it becomes difficult for anyone to really use it without the close-sourced web designer which also is not really free because there are limited number of free exports. So in a way, Flowable has scaled back its open-source commitment and makes the open-source part of the flowable engine effectively unusable unless also using closed-sourced commercial designer.

6 Likes
6

I agree with @carbon_60
Do we get desktop modeler like the way camunda provided the desktop modeler to model the process ?
We wont be able to use cloud to model our processes due to org security ploicy .
understand that operational capabilites can be managed via rest api’s i.e admin app is not required. Without modeler, flowable is not useful and we are forced to move on with alternative BPMN engine because had to use only complete open source tech stack .

Thanks

1 Like
7

Hi,

Flowable has invested a lot to develop a brand new editor and this is made available on cloud.flowable.com. If this doesn’t work because of company policies etc, there would be nothing against keeping to use the web based Modeler of Flowable 6.x. This creates proper BPMN and CMMN XML files for example, which will work with Flowable 7.x as well. But of course we recommend to use the new editor if possible.

Best regards

8

Thanks @tijs

Yes correct ,Modeler of Flowable 6.x and Flowable engine 7.x works well .

however in such case eventually will end up using old designer with upgraded engine .
we will not be able to use any new feature in the process model in case if anything is added and stuck with old modeler.

Thanks

1 Like
9

@tijs

My mistake ,Flowable 6.8.0 is only working with Flowable 7.0.0.M1 .
Moment upgrade to Flowable 7.0.0 .the values in the table ACT_GE_PROPERTY is getting updated with “7.0.0” .

Getting below error :

Caused by: org.flowable.common.engine.api.FlowableException: Could not update Flowable database schema: unknown version from database: '7.0.0.0’

However with Flowable 7.0.0.M1 the values in the table ACT_GE_PROPERTY table is not updated

thus not able work with modeler with latest version of Flowable 7.0.0

10

@hashdhi ,

If you run it on the same database then you are correct. But what I meant is that you can run the 6.x UI application on a separate database schema, and then export a BPMN XML file or App zip there and deploy that on a 7.x version. That should work fine.

Best regards

11

Thanks @tijs

However, if we use different schema then admin app wont work . Only we can model the workflow .

12

Although modeler might still work as @tijs suggested for 7.0.0, how about compatibility with future engine versions? I doubt flowable will commit to ensure the compatibility between 6.8.0 modeler and future engine releases.

13

Can someone answer it please.

(flowable will commit to ensure the compatibility between 6.8.0 modeler and future engine releases.)

14

Hey @hashdhi,

As Tijs said in Flowable UI app maven repository does not have 7.0.0 support - #10 by tijs using the 6.x UI modeler should work, but we cannot commit to anything here. In theory nothing should change, but committing to something means that we need to support it and we would not have removed it if we kept supporting it.

What you can do is to use the Flowable Design Cloud (Model in the cloud | Flowable Platform | Free). You get unlimited access to BPMN, CMMN, and DMN models.

Cheers,
Filip

15

Thank you so much for prompt reply .

Due to organizational security policy restrictions, we began using the 6.x UI modeler with the 7.x engine, and the team is working on upgrading the Angular version to the latest. We have implemented Flowable across multiple projects. The concern is that if, in the future, Flowable only supports BPMN files generated through Flowable Design Cloud, it would require a complete rework of our existing files.

16

We are not planning to support BPMN files generated only by the Flowable Design Cloud. What we support is the BPMN Specification. We also have custom extensions that are used by some of our tasks, as long as you generate BPMN XML files that are valid according to the specification and use the Flowable extensions (for some of the tasks), then it should work.

Cheers,
Filip

17

Thanks a lot Filip !!!

18

Very BAD and st???d policy to stop growing flowable UI app from 7.0！

Lots fo users choose flowable instead of other platforms from the beginning, due to the convenience of flowable UI。
From the entry point of flowable UI, they get to know flowable, then adopt the flowable solution later.

without flowable UI, you guys will lose lots of new users!