Using a bar file in a custom application that does not use forms (community edition)
How can I leverage using the studio to model and create new processes when I want to use my own custom forms instead of ones provided by Bonita 6.5? Am I able to import a bar file created using bonita studio (without the forms?) and be able to integrate it with my forms. Alternatively can I import my forms into bonita studio and be able to use them. Could you provide details of how this could be approached? I am trying to use the engine API for integration with my application.
Hi, There are several solutions depending on what you want to do.
If you want to be able to access your external forms from bonita portal, then I suggest using version 7 of bonita BPM instead of 6.5. There is an option to specify an external URL instead of designing a form within the solution. With this version, it should also be easier for you to execute the tasks from an external app since there is an API allowing you to start a process or execute a task while also sending the input of your form. see here for the concepts http://documentation.bonitasoft.com/contracts-and-contexts and here for the API documentation : http://documentation.bonitasoft.com/bpm-api-1#usertask (Execute a task with contract) http://documentation.bonitasoft.com/bpm-api-1#process (Start a process using an instantiation contract) If you absolutely need to stick with version 6.5, then we have a URL redirection feature that allows you to achieve a similar behaviour but it is only available with our subscription editions.
If you don't need to be able to access your external forms from the portal, then you can stick with version 6.5 and use the REST API to execute tasks and/or start processes from your forms, but I would still consider upgrading to version 7 to benefit from the task/process contract and the new APIs. It should ease your external forms development.