Issue - 18 - BPEL Visual Binding

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Issue - 18 - BPEL Visual Binding

Origin: Extracted from email David Burdett, 22 May 2003
Date submitted: 22 May 2003
Submitter: David Burdett, CommerceOne
Description:
THE PROBLEM
The problem arises because of three assumptions that I believe are valid:

1. BPEL is an "execution only" language, i.e. it is desgined to be something that can be input into software and run, e.g. using some "BPEL Run Time" software

2. BPEL will often be defined and maintained with the aid of some GUI based "BPEL Design Time" software that allows the process to be visualised.

3. The BPEL Design Time software will contain additional positional and graphical information about the visual representation of the BPEL design that not contained in the BPEL XML definitions. The problem is that this means that exporting a BPEL definition from one BPEL Design Time for input into another will result in a BPEL definition that will not be easily editable as all the graphical information would be lost. In the extreme, for a complex design, it could mean that designer of business processes using BPEL is effectively locked into the BPEL Design Time software provider that they initially choose. This I don't think is a good idea. THE SOLUTION ? To solve this problem I would like to suggest the setting up of a sub-committe of the TC that has responsibilty for developing a "BPEL Visual Binding" specification which would contain the relevant visual information from the BPEL Design Time. The idea would be that the Visual Binding specification is a separate document to the main BPEL specification. Also BPEL Design Time Implementations could export either:

1. The BPEL XML Definition alone, or

2. The BPEL XML Definition PLUS the BPEL Visual Binding The former could be used for input to a BPEL Run Time and the latter could be input into some other BPEL Design Time. By creating a separate, but related, specification, it should be possible to carry out the work on the BPEL Visual Binding specifcation in parallel, without hindering any work on the main BPEL specification.

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