Is it possible to deploy a process model without the use of the Eclipse plugin? I would think that this is possible since there is a note in the documentation that the use of the plugin is deprecated. I have to say that I am pretty frustrated with your Getting Started documentation at this point.
Take a look at this:
Hi Stephen,
So that is the kind of tutorial that I was hoping for. Thanks! Probably as you anticipated, I needed to backtrack to your earlier tutorial “Deploying External Scripts with Camunda REST API”, but even then I get stuck at the curl command below. What do I use for cookie-jar and cookie.txt? The rest I think I can figure out. But I can’t help thinking that there is some basic documentation that I’m missing. Do you have any docs pointers?
curl -w “\n” — cookie-jar cookie.txt
-H “Accept: application/json”
-d “username=USERNAME_GOES_HERE”
-d “password=PASSWORD_GOES_HERE”
http://LocationOfCamundaServer:8080/camunda/app/cockpit
@Chuck_Irvine the cookies stuff you don’t really need (its a old snippet).
I assume you are using the standard Camunda Docker deployment with no authentication over the API?
If so, just remove the cookie-jar stuff, as the Camunda API, by default, does not have any authentication.
Just get rid of the cookie aspect of the /deployment CURL and ignore the /cockpit CURL.
Have you logged into the Camunda Cockpit/tasklist? example: user Demo Pass: Demo
Hi @Chuck_Irvine,
Just to clarify some things, there’s two parts to Eclipse in this: Firstly, Eclipse as a software development tool to develop process applications (aka Java web application with additional descriptors). This is not deprecated at all as Eclipse is a great tool to do that (other IDEs like IntelliJ or Netbeans or fine, too). Secondly, Eclipse as a tool to develop BPMN 2.0 process models with the Camunda Eclipse plugin. This plugin is deprecated as we consider the Camunda desktop modeler superior. So to answer your question: No, you don’t need the Camunda Eclipse plugin, but Eclipse is nevertheless a good tool for developing process applications. The getting started guide does exactly that. If there’s anything unclear about it, please let us know and we can try to improve it.
Cheers,
Thorben
If you look at:
https://docs.camunda.org/get-started/bpmn20/deploy/
You will see that there is the assumption that a loan approval process has been defined in Eclipse using the plugin. However, if one is using the desktop modeler, which is what I used, there are no instructions on how to deploy a process saved as a bpmn file.
I think this is a substantial gap in the getting started documentation. Since the Eclipse resident process modeler is deprecated, the getting documentation should describe how to deploy a process model saved using the desktop modeler.
Per the help provided by StephenOTT, is seems that the way to do this is via the REST API.
Hi Chuck,
The magic thing is done one page before: https://docs.camunda.org/get-started/bpmn20/model/#save-the-bpmn-diagram
In the text it says "save as … in folder src/main/resources".
The bpmn file is part of the war-file and the engine picks it out of the war file during deployment.
Maybe we could stress it in the current chapter, too.
Cheers, Ingo
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Tried to improve it with this pull request: https://github.com/camunda/camunda-docs-static/pull/2/files
Let’s see if the team accepts it.
Something that I think would help is a sort of small branch in the get-started that allows a user to quickly deploy a process without the need for eclipse or interacting with the camunda file system.
I have found that many just want to get a feel for BPMN and get hindered by the overhead. If I give them a small shortcut to deploy the process to say the Camunda docker container with default install configuration, and use the Camunda REST API, they can have processes deployed in a few minutes and get a feel for BPMN without having to learn or work through the extra eclipse setup.
They of course want to come back to the eclipse part afterwards. But by then they have already become more comfortable with what camunda offers.
A sort of Progressive complexity Quick-Start
All, thanks for the help. I think I understand a little better now. Would you say that the following is true - the Eclipse Modeler is not required, but the use of Eclipse is required? As an experienced Java developer that doesn’t bother me. But there are some folks at my company, business analyst types, that want to experiment and possibly deploy simple process models and they will definitely be stumped by having to use Eclipse to do so.
With my improved understanding, perhaps I’ll take another pass at using the Getting Starting docs to deploy a simple process model.
@Chuck_Irvine we have had lots of success with early adopter users with little java skills, use purely the Modeler and Upload through the Rest API using CLI or using a custom web app that allows uploading of the BPMN files into a deployment. Not Java or Eclipse needed. Most are the Analyst skill sets that are looking to explore the BPMN capabilities without the overhead.