If I would store process instances in database, how can I start them?

Camunda 7 Topics Discussion & Questions
1

Hi guys,
currently I’m using the Modeller to model new BPMN files and store them into my Eclipse workspace. Since I use Spring Boot, the files are auto-detected during bootstrapping and
they can be started using the runtimeservice.
ProcessInstance processInstance = runtimeService.startProcessInstanceByKey(processName);

This works with BPMN files in the project file folder. But does this also work with BPMN files stored in a database table? Let’s say I want to store the BPMN files in a database table (e.g. CLOB field) rather than the file system, how would I than start a process instance?

Thanks
Roland

2

It works, because the bpmn files in the resources foulder are automatically deployed when the engine starts up.

I assume, you could your own startup hook, that reads your bpmn from the database and deploys them through the RepositoryService.

Cheers,
Stefan

3

Hi stefanzilske
yes, what you describe (building own startup hook) is exactly what I’m looking for. But currently I don’t know how to manage this. Has anyone some suggestions?
Cheers, Roland

4

Hi Roland,

you could write an own implementation of the AbstractProcessEnginePlugin where you could read (from you db) and deploy processes (with repositoryService) in the postInit method.

See also: https://docs.camunda.org/manual/7.5/user-guide/process-engine/process-engine-plugins/

Regards,
Patrick