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BPEL Models

Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) is an Orchestration language, serialized in XML, which specifies an executable process that involves message exchanges with other systems. This messaging facility depends on the use of the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 1.1 to describe outgoing and incoming messages.

This text is derived from the BPEL entry in the online Wikipedia:

'Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), short for Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL), is an executable language for specifying interactions with Web Services. Processes in Business Process Execution Language export and import information by using Web Service interfaces exclusively.'

Web service interactions can be described in two ways:

  1. Executable business processes, which model the actual behavior of a participant in a business interaction.
  2. Abstract business processes, which are partially specified processes that are not intended to be executed. An Abstract Process might hide some of the required concrete operational details.

BPEL in Enterprise Architect:

Enterprise Architect supports generating BPEL from executable processes in the Unified and Ultimate editions. Although there is no standard graphical notation for WS-BPEL, Enterprise Architect uses BPMN profile as a graphical front-end to capture BPEL Process descriptions. Through the BPMN Profile, Enterprise Architect helps you to develop BPEL diagrams quickly and simply. While BPMN provides a graphical notation for visualizing business process, BPEL provides a way for visualizing this graphical business process in XML.

Enterprise Architect supports generating:

  • BPEL 2.0 from models created using constructs in BPMN 2.0 Profile

Notes

  • BPEL is supported in the Unified and Ultimate editions of Enterprise Architect
  • Enable BPMN 2.0 Technology for BPEL 2.0 modeling in the 'MDG Technologies' dialog ('Specialize > Technologies > Manage-Tech')

Learn more

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