Comparing the BPMN-Centric and BPEL-Centric Tool Palettes

ActiveVOS Designer User’s Guide

The following illustration shows the two palettes, followed by a discussion.

BPMN

BPMN-Centric palette

BPEL

BPEL-Centric palette

The following tables describe palette differences.

BPMN-Centric Palette

The BPMN-Centric palette is organized into the following groups:

Edges and selections	An edge connects two activities to make them run in sequence. Use the other selection tools to select a set of items on the canvas.
Task	Basic process activities to build a process. For example, select a service task to represent a Web service endpoint.
Throw Event	Events that have an impact (a result), such as a reply, invoke, people activity notification, throw, rethrow, compensate, exit, and break. These are outbound events.
Catch Event	Events caused by a trigger, including wait, receive, and scope handlers, which include fault, termination, event, and compensation. These are inbound events.
Gateway	Controls the divergence and convergence of sequence flows, including branching, forking, merging, and joining of paths. Includes the BPEL pick activity as an event-based gateway.
Control Flow	Containers to structure a group of activities.
Annotation/Data Objects	Add labels, shapes, and swimlanes to the canvas. They are ignored in the XML code, but they print. You can anchor a label to an activity.
Custom	Save any activity or set of activities from a BPEL drawing as a custom activity. You can reuse the custom activity in other BPEL drawings. By default, the custom palette is hidden when empty. For details, see Creating a Custom Activity.

BPEL-Centric Palette

The BPEL-Centric palette is organized into the following groups:

Links and selections	Use a link to connect two activities to make them run in sequence. Use the other selection tools to select a set of items on the canvas.
Activity	Basic process activities to build a process. For example, select an invoke to represent a Web service endpoint.
Event	Select an activity that triggers an event, such as a receive, to start a process.
Control Flow	Select a container or gateway to structure a group of activities.
Handlers	Select a fault or event handler for a scope.
Annotation	Add labels, shapes, and swimlanes to the canvas. They are ignored in the XML code, but they print. You can anchor a label to an activity.
Custom	Save any activity or set of activities from a BPEL drawing as a custom activity. You can reuse the custom activity in other BPEL drawings. By default, the custom palette is hidden when empty. For details, see Creating a Custom Activity.