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I wrote an entire BPM run-time automation in pl/pgsql. The BPs were stored as PG rows, the deciding data was in the PG DB, and PG triggers automated quite a bit

I wrote an entire BPM run-time automation in pl/pgsql. The BPs were stored as PG rows, the deciding data was in the PG DB, and PG triggers automated quite a bit, so the firt seemed perfect. The strong static typing was annoying (I am a Lisper) but did have the usual payoff: if it runs at all it is probably right. Debugging over a socket was rough, but I could take the failed query and drop it straight into a pgAdmin query and get back a very clear error. Guy building the BP front-end picked up what I had done in a few days, and he had never done pg/plsql before. It took a week to code up, another 2-3 for expressing the initial huge BP and a random BP test driver. Worked great. My only question is whether I would do it again the same way. I liked that there was not some external system that had to be running for the BP to run, but it is not hard to arrange that and then one gets a much more accessible programming environemnt (such as Lisp). I guess I will not know until I get to do it again.

mooreds 8y ago
How did you handle deployment and version control?
- kennytilton 8y ago
  I left before the system got much use, so grain of salt and all that. It was a Rails shop so deployment would have been by a migration. Not sure what you mean by version control. The source was in git. Had we refactored significantly we would have had to write a migration. But the system was in the end quite simple. I refer to it as "BPM" but real BPMN is a bloated monstrosity -- I just captured the essence, and that was dead simple. One fun thing I did not mention was implementing "funcall" in pgsql. That meant that edge cases could be covered by writing a custom pgsql function that would do exactly what was needed. That meant the rest of BPM could stay simple.
- combatentropy 8y ago
  Store the command to create the function in a file, and save the file in your version-control system. Make changes to the function only by first changing the file and then running the file through psql.

mooreds 8y ago

How did you handle deployment and version control?

kennytilton 8y ago
I left before the system got much use, so grain of salt and all that. It was a Rails shop so deployment would have been by a migration. Not sure what you mean by version control. The source was in git. Had we refactored significantly we would have had to write a migration. But the system was in the end quite simple. I refer to it as "BPM" but real BPMN is a bloated monstrosity -- I just captured the essence, and that was dead simple. One fun thing I did not mention was implementing "funcall" in pgsql. That meant that edge cases could be covered by writing a custom pgsql function that would do exactly what was needed. That meant the rest of BPM could stay simple.
combatentropy 8y ago
Store the command to create the function in a file, and save the file in your version-control system. Make changes to the function only by first changing the file and then running the file through psql.