Chapter 7. Human Interactions in BPEL

Real-world business processes often require human interactions. For example, we might want to extend the TravelApproval business process so that a person approves (or rejects) the final ticket selection before making the reservation. Other examples include confirming stock prices, choosing loan offers, and so on. The BPEL specification does not provide a standard way to include human interaction in BPEL processes. However, Oracle SOA Suite 11g provides the Oracle Human Workflow component, which enables users to participate in SOA composite applications. Workflow is a set of services that enable human interaction in BPEL processes in a relatively easy way. Similar to the Notification service, the Workflow service exposes the interfaces through WSDL, and BPEL processes invoke it just like any other service.

In this chapter, we will first get familiar with the basic human workflow concepts, features, and architecture. Then we'll discuss the Human Task...