Ajay Hinduja Geneva, Switzerland : How to implement process orchestration for a travel app using Camunda 8?

Camunda 8 Topics
1

I’m Ajay Hinduja, a passionate traveler from Geneva, Switzerland with a growing interest in how technology can enhance the travel experience.

I’m currently exploring how to use Camunda 8 to implement process orchestration in a travel app. Any advice, examples, or resources would be greatly appreciated. Looking forward to learning from this community!

Regards
Ajay Hinduja Geneva, Switzerland

2

Hi @ajayhinduja25 Welcome to the Camunda Forum :partying_face:

Camunda Copilot boosts your process modeling capabilities, providing interfaces and features to make the modeling of complex tasks easier and more efficient.

Refactoring suggestions | Camunda 8 Docs.

Agentic Orchestration & Automation Platform | Camunda.

Implementing process orchestration in a travel app using Camunda 8 involves modeling, deploying, and executing end-to-end workflows that coordinate various services like booking flights, reserving hotels, handling payments, and sending notifications.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you design and implement such orchestration using Camunda 8 self-managed with Java workers:

:small_blue_diamond: 1. Identify Business Process Steps

Typical process steps in a travel app might include:

  1. Search Travel Options
  2. Book Flight
  3. Book Hotel
  4. Process Payment
  5. Send Confirmation
  6. Handle Failures / Compensation

:small_blue_diamond: 2. Model the BPMN Process

Use Camunda Modeler to design the orchestration process as a BPMN diagram.

Example flow:

Start Event
   ↓
Service Task: Search Travel Options
   ↓
Service Task: Book Flight
   ↓
Service Task: Book Hotel
   ↓
Service Task: Process Payment
   ↓
Service Task: Send Confirmation
   ↓
End Event

Add boundary error events and compensation events for robustness.

:small_blue_diamond: 3. Deploy the BPMN Process to Camunda 8

  • Package your BPMN model (travel-booking.bpmn) and deploy it using the Camunda 8 Console or via REST API/Java client.

:small_blue_diamond: 4. Implement Workers (Java or other supported clients)

Each service task (e.g., book-flight) will have a job type that maps to a worker implementation.

Example (Java Worker for Booking a Flight):

@ZeebeWorker(type = "book-flight")
public void handleBookFlight(JobClient client, ActivatedJob job) {
    // business logic: call flight API
    boolean success = flightService.book(job.getVariablesAsMap());

    if (success) {
        client.newCompleteCommand(job.getKey())
              .variables(Map.of("flightBookingStatus", "CONFIRMED"))
              .send();
    } else {
        throw new RuntimeException("Flight booking failed");
    }
}

You can similarly implement book-hotel, process-payment, etc.

:small_blue_diamond: 5. Handle Failures and Compensation

Use BPMN features:

  • Boundary Error Events for catching failures and redirecting to error-handling flows.
  • Compensation Events to undo previous steps (e.g., cancel hotel if flight fails).
[Book Flight] --(error boundary event)--> [Handle Failure]

:small_blue_diamond: 6. Orchestrate Microservices and APIs

Use Camunda workers to call microservices or external APIs. Use gRPC, HTTP, or messaging (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ).

Example:

  • book-flight calls internal flight microservice via REST.
  • process-payment invokes a third-party payment gateway.

:small_blue_diamond: 7. Monitor & Operate

  • Use Operate to visualize running and completed process instances.
  • Integrate with Prometheus/Grafana to monitor workflow health.
  • Use Zeebe Metrics to track job failures, durations, and queue sizes.

:small_blue_diamond: 8. Optional: Use Form & Tasklist

If your app has human approvals (e.g., “Manager Approval for Booking”), use:

  • User Tasks in BPMN
  • Camunda’s Tasklist UI or custom frontend via GraphQL API

:brain: Example Use Case: Flight Booking Fails

If the flight booking fails:

  • Trigger boundary error
  • Cancel any reserved hotels
  • Refund if payment processed
  • Send failure notification

:white_check_mark: Summary Architecture

Component Technology
Workflow Engine Camunda 8 (Zeebe)
Workflow Model BPMN
Workers Java (or Node/Python/Go)
APIs REST/gRPC
Persistence PostgreSQL
Monitoring Prometheus + Grafana
Backup/Recovery Helm + S3 (as you use)