In this new InfoQ article, Paul Brown introduces Apache ODE, an open source implementation of the WS-BPEL 2.0 standard. ODE recently graduated from incubation to an Apache top-level project, and the first release since leaving incubation is now available. According to Paul, ODE differs from other BPEL engines in that it is delivered as a component rather than a framework for developers looking to add orchestration functionality to their systems.
After providing some background on WS-BPEL's long history, Paul introduces ODE's features by showing how to deploy and execute a simple process. The article includes step-by-step instructions on how to install and deploy the ODE runtime into a Jetty Web container, as well as how to deploy a very simple application created as a BPEL process into ODE. Apache Axis2's direct HTTP binding is then used to access the running process via HTTP issued via the curl command line tool.
The article is remarkably free of high-level buzzwords; as the author writes in the introduction,
After providing some background on WS-BPEL's long history, Paul introduces ODE's features by showing how to deploy and execute a simple process. The article includes step-by-step instructions on how to install and deploy the ODE runtime into a Jetty Web container, as well as how to deploy a very simple application created as a BPEL process into ODE. Apache Axis2's direct HTTP binding is then used to access the running process via HTTP issued via the curl command line tool.
The article is remarkably free of high-level buzzwords; as the author writes in the introduction,
The ODE philosophy on BPEL is that it is a language for describing how to implement a set of message-based communication capabilities in terms of state manipulation and messages exchanged with external services. Other than in this sentence and in the preceding paragraph, the word "business" will not appear, and there will be no talk of alignment with IT or other silliness — ODE is guilt-free (and gilt-free) technology like a web server or a database; what you do with it is up to you. No GUI, IDE, ESB, or other TLA (other than a little XML) is required.Read the full article to find out whether it lives up to Paul's promise.