Install Flowable with Docker | How-To | Flowable

Summary

In this tutorial, Valentin Signer guides viewers through setting up Flowable with Docker. Starting with logging into the Flowable Artifactory, the video covers creating a Docker Compose YAML file, using Flowable's Docker images, and configuring services like PostgreSQL and Elasticsearch. It demonstrates deploying a simple 'Hello World' process in Flowable Work and Design, and managing it via Global Control, providing a comprehensive introduction to Flowable's Docker-based environment.

Takeaways

• 🚀 The video is a tutorial on how to start Flowable with Docker, presented by Valentin Signer.
• 🔐 It begins with instructions on logging into the Flowable Artifactory using Docker login command.
• 📝 The tutorial guides viewers to create a Docker Compose YAML file by copying information from the documentation.
• 🖥️ The video explains how to use `docker compose up -d` to create containers, volumes, and start them in the background.
• 🔍 It highlights the importance of checking the documentation for Docker and Flowable usage.
• 🗝️ The script mentions the option to generate an API key for the Flowable Artifactory instead of using a password directly for login.
• 📚 Lists the different Docker images available for Flowable, including Flowable Work, Flowable Design, and Flowable Engage.
• 🔄 The video describes the use of volumes to persist data across container restarts and removals.
• 🔍 It explains the configuration of Elasticsearch as a search engine within Flowable, including its dependency on the database.
• 🛠️ The script provides details on the Docker Compose file sections for database, Elasticsearch, Flowable Work, Flowable Design, and Global Control.
• 🔑 The tutorial includes steps to upload a license file for Flowable Design and create a new demo app with a simple process.
• 🔄 The video demonstrates the process of modeling a 'Hello World' process, publishing it, and starting an instance in Flowable Work.
• 👀 Lastly, it shows how to use the Global Control application to view process instances and definitions.

Q & A

What is the purpose of the video?

The video is a tutorial on how to start Flowable with Docker, guiding viewers through configuring their local Docker to connect to the global Artifactory and use Flowable Docker images in their local environment.

How do you log in to the Flowable Artifactory?

To log in to the Flowable Artifactory, you type 'docker login artifacts.global.com', enter your username that typically ends with 'addbots.flowable.com', and then enter your password.

What is the next step after logging in to the Flowable Artifactory?

After logging in, you create a Docker Compose YAML file using an editor of your choice and copy and paste information from the Flowable documentation.

What command is used to start the Docker containers?

The command 'docker compose up -d' is used to create the containers, volumes, and start them in the background.

What is the purpose of using a Docker Compose file?

A Docker Compose file is used to define and run multi-container Docker applications, making it easier to configure and start the necessary services.

What is the role of the API key in the Flowable Artifactory?

The API key can be used instead of your password for logging in to the Flowable Artifactory, offering an additional layer of security by not storing your password directly.

What are the different Docker images available for Flowable?

The available Docker images include Flowable Work, Flowable Design, and Flowable Engage, which provide different capabilities such as process modeling and administration.

Why is a volume used for the database in the Docker Compose file?

A volume is used to store the database data persistently, ensuring that the data is not lost when the container is removed.

What is the significance of Elasticsearch in the Flowable setup?

Elasticsearch is used as the search engine within Flowable, helping to index and search process instances and other data.

How can additional custom JAR files be used with Flowable Docker images?

Additional custom JAR files can be mounted into the Docker images by specifying a directory in the Docker Compose file, allowing customization of the environment.

What is the purpose of the 'restart' policy in the Docker Compose file?

The 'restart' policy is configured to automatically restart the Flowable application if it fails to start due to missing dependencies, ensuring the service is up and running.

How do you upload a license file to Flowable Design?

After logging in to Flowable Design with the default credentials, you can upload a license file when prompted, or you can do so manually through the application interface.

What is the default port for accessing Flowable Design?

The default port for accessing Flowable Design is 8091.

How can you create a new process in Flowable Design?

In Flowable Design, you can create a new process by selecting the 'New' option, choosing 'Demo App', and then creating a new BPMN process with the desired elements such as start and end events, and user tasks.

What is the purpose of the 'publish' button in Flowable Design?

The 'publish' button in Flowable Design is used to deploy the designed process to the Flowable Work environment, making it available for execution.

How can you start a new process instance in Flowable Work?

In Flowable Work, after logging in, you can start a new process instance by selecting 'New' and then choosing the process you want to start.

What is the role of the Flowable Control application?

Flowable Control provides an administrative view where you can monitor and manage process instances, re-trigger processes, and perform other administrative tasks.

What are the default credentials for accessing Flowable Work and Flowable Control?

The default credentials for accessing both Flowable Work and Flowable Control are 'admin' for the username and 'test' for the password.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Getting Started with Flowable and Docker

This paragraph introduces the video tutorial on setting up Flowable with Docker, presented by Valentin Signer. The focus is on configuring a local Docker environment to connect with a global Artifactory and utilizing Flowable Docker images. The process begins with logging into the Flowable Artifactory using Docker login credentials. Subsequently, a Docker Compose YAML file is created by copying information from the Flowable documentation. The video will guide viewers through the contents of this file and the use of 'docker compose up -d' to start the containers in the background. It also mentions the possibility of generating an API key for the Artifactory instead of using a password directly, which adds an extra layer of security.

05:00

📚 Understanding Docker Compose YAML Configuration

This section delves into the Docker Compose YAML file's structure, explaining the different sections and their purposes. It starts with the database configuration, which uses a PostgreSQL database, and details how to set up the database with a username and password. The importance of volumes for data persistence is highlighted to prevent data loss when containers are removed. The paragraph then moves on to Elasticsearch, which is used as the search engine within Flowable, and its configuration, including data persistence. Flowable Work and Global Work are introduced as the next sections, with instructions on how to configure them, including setting up the content storage volume and the order of service dependencies. The restart policy for containers is also discussed to ensure that applications restart if they fail to start due to missing dependencies.

10:02

🛠️ Exploring Flowable Applications and Licensing

The final paragraph covers the setup and use of Flowable applications, starting with Global Design, which is a modeling environment that connects to Global Work. It explains how to configure internal hostnames, deployment API URLs, and the importance of exposing certain ports for these services. The paragraph also touches on the need to upload a license file for Flowable Design and provides guidance on how to do so. The process of creating a new demo app and a simple 'Hello World' process within the app is demonstrated, including the steps to save and publish the process. The video concludes with a brief mention of Global Control, which offers an administrative view for managing processes, and encourages viewers to explore additional videos for more information on using Flowable.

Keywords

💡Flowable

Flowable is an open-source Business Process Management (BPM) tool that enables the creation, deployment, and management of business processes. In the video, Flowable is used to demonstrate how to set up a local Docker environment for process automation and workflow management. The script mentions using Flowable Docker images to facilitate this setup.

💡Docker

Docker is a platform that allows developers to package applications and their dependencies into containers, which can be run consistently across different computing environments. The video's theme revolves around using Docker to configure Flowable, highlighting commands like 'docker login' and 'docker compose up' to set up the necessary containers.

💡Docker Compose

Docker Compose is a tool for defining and running multi-container Docker applications. It allows users to configure the required services for an application using a YAML file. In the script, Docker Compose is used to create and start Flowable services, such as the database, Elasticsearch, and Flowable applications like Work and Design.

💡Artifactory

Artifactory is a universal artifact repository manager that can store and manage build artifacts, Docker images, and more. The video script instructs viewers to log in to Flowable's Artifactory to access Docker images, which are then used to set up the Flowable environment locally.

💡Elasticsearch

Elasticsearch is a search and analytics engine based on the Lucene library. It is used in Flowable for indexing and searching process data. The script mentions setting up Elasticsearch as part of the Docker Compose configuration to ensure that search capabilities are available within the Flowable environment.

💡Postgres

Postgres, often referred to as PostgreSQL, is an open-source relational database system. In the context of the video, Postgres is used as the database for storing Flowable's process data. The script includes instructions for configuring a Postgres database within the Docker Compose setup.

💡API Key

An API key is a unique identifier used to authenticate requests to an API. The video script suggests generating an API key for the Flowable Artifactory instead of using a password directly, which enhances security by not storing the password in plain text.

💡Flowable Work

Flowable Work is a part of the Flowable suite that provides a user interface for managing and interacting with business processes. The script describes how to set up Flowable Work using Docker Compose and mentions the use of volumes to persist data.

💡Flowable Design

Flowable Design is a component of the Flowable suite used for creating and modeling business processes. The video demonstrates how to upload a license file to Flowable Design and create a new process model, showcasing its role in the process design and deployment workflow.

💡Global Control

Global Control is another application within the Flowable suite, providing an administrative interface for monitoring and managing process instances. The script explains how to access Global Control and view process instances, highlighting its utility for oversight and management within the Flowable ecosystem.

💡BPMN

BPMN stands for Business Process Model and Notation, which is a standard for modeling business processes. The video script references BPMN when discussing the creation of a 'hello world' process in Flowable Design, illustrating the use of BPMN for designing process flows.

Highlights

Introduction to configuring local Docker for Flowable with Valentin Signer.

Logging into Flowable Artifactory using Docker.

Creating a Docker Compose YAML file from documentation.

Using Docker Compose to start containers and volumes.

Exploring the Docker Compose file's contents and structure.

Storing Docker login credentials securely in the key store.

Listing available Flowable Docker images and their uses.

Customizing Docker images with additional JAR files.

Database configuration in Docker Compose for Flowable.

Setting up Elasticsearch as a search engine for Flowable.

Managing content storage with Docker volumes.

Dependencies and restart policies for Docker containers.

Configuring Flowable Work and Design with internal hostnames and API URLs.

Exposing ports for Flowable Work and Design applications.

Using Global Control for administrative purposes in Flowable.

Uploading a license file for Flowable Design.

Creating and publishing a simple 'Hello World' process in Flowable.

Accessing and starting the 'Hello World' process instance in Flowable Work.

Viewing process instances and definitions in Flowable Control.

Conclusion and invitation to explore additional Flowable videos.

Transcripts

hello and welcome to this video how to

start flowable with docker i'm valentin

signer and i'm going to walk you through

how you can

configure your local docker to connect

to the global artifactory and how you

can use the flowable docker images

inside your local environment

now first to get started we actually

will need to log in to the flower

artifactory therefore we can simply type

docker login artifacts.global.com

and then as next step we need to enter

our username that typically ends with

addbots.flowable.com

once we have done that we can enter our

password and eventually we should see an

message logging succeeded

now next we can use an editor of our

choice to create a docker compose

yaml file and in that file we will for

now just simply copy and paste

information from the documentation so

when you go to

administration then installation

then install installation with docker

scroll a little bit down you will see

that docker compose file for now i'm

just going to copy it and while we then

starting up

all those different pots i'm going to

walk you through what is in there now we

will use docker compose up dash d to

basically create the container create

the volumes and so on and start it now

that is starting in the background even

if the command already returned not all

the nodes are started yet so that is

going to take a little bit

until this is done

meanwhile we can look at this

documentation here and that provides us

different information about docker and

flowable and how to use it

now first of all

there's here again the docker login

command

so you can also just copy and paste that

from here

as well as

there is the possibility to generate an

api key

inside

the flowable artifactory instead of

using

uh your password directly here to login

that has the advantage that you don't

have your password for

artifacts.flowable.com are stored

basically in there however

those are typically at least for mac and

i think as well for linux not stored

inside the local docker configuration

they are stored inside your key store so

they are encrypted most likely with your

password as well so you might not need

to care about it but anyway it's good to

know that it exists

now we have also here

a list of the different docker images

we are use

we have available so flow will work is

one we use which we use global design

and global control are

used as well flow will engage you can

use as an alternative to flowable work

it also gives you the jet capability of

global and besides of that it also

includes everything what work

includes however when you use flowable

engage you also need to have active mq

warning

all of those docker images provide you

the possibility to put or to use

additional custom jar files and

therefore you can simply mount

into the direction a directory

additional class path whatever you would

like to have

exposed there

now inside that docker compose file we

have

a few different

sections so we have database here

database

is for us a postgres database in version

14. obviously feel free to change that

to a newer supported version as well

then we have in here

the database which we would like to have

configured our username and password to

that database as well

and we have here a list of

volumes which we can use

and that volume is basically to store

the data of the database

also in case we remove that container

otherwise our data would be gone now

next in here in that list is

elasticsearch elasticsearch is basically

the search engine which is used inside

flowable that is uh here in the latest

version 7

there might be also here a newer version

available

we again use a volume

to

avoid whenever you upgrade it that

the data of elastic searches removed in

case your data gets actually removed you

can restore all that data from

elasticsearch based on your database

obviously when you lose both then you

don't have that possibility anymore

now flowable work

is the next section and global work

there's here just mentioned latest

you can also replace that with a

specific version number

in case you need to

we store all the content items which you

have uploaded inside slash content

storage which is again a volume we have

mentioned over here so even that

whenever you turn off the container or

remove that container it is still there

as long as you don't remove the volume

now here we have also elasticsearch

configured and elasticsearch is also one

of the dependencies in here so that

node is starting basically after

elasticsearch

as well as uh the database is configured

here and the database is also one of our

dependencies however that depends on

just says us that those containers are

created before it doesn't tell us that

those applications are already

completely started whenever we start our

flowable work

and that's the reason why we have here

the restart policy configured and the

reset policy just tells us that when

flow fails to start because of one of

those dependencies are missing then we

go ahead and just restart flowable

as well

now the next in that section is flowable

design and global design

is our modeling environment so that

connects to global work that's what we

have

in here in the first few lines so that's

how you set that up here we have the

internal hostname

which is basically the name of the

service over here

we configure that we would like to have

uh the deployment api url and the

undeployment ap uil

so that tells us that we are able to

press the publish button in flowable

design and as well the unpublished

button

we have here just the database

configured without elastic searches of

global design does not need to have

elastic search and that i should have

mentioned also before for work we expose

the part here for global work to 8090

and for flowable design we expose it to

8091

and it depends again on our database

now global control

itself is the last of the three flowable

applications we are using right now

global control is also in the latest

version um we configure it to connect to

work

and we also have the database in here

global control gives us an admin view so

it's more like for administrative

purpose you can also re-trigger some

things like drops in there and so on uh

that is exposed to 1892.

now there are a lot of properties in

here and for an entire list of the

properties you can just look here

uh on below properties there you have a

list there and also just check out the

release notes where you have specific

version numbers which you can put in

here instead of

latest

now let's go first to flow will design

since we still need to upload our

license file so

therefore we can just open a localhost

1891

and here we can sign in with the

username admin and the password test

and once we sign in it's actually going

to ask us

if we would like to upload the flowable

license

there we can just say yeah we would like

to do so

and then global design refresh with a

license

in case you do not have a license yet

you can either use the license from the

enterprise trial in case you have that

one or you can reach out to your contact

at flow

now here we have the possibility to

create new apps

so we could just create a new demo app

and in that demo app we can create a new

simple process so let's just call that

hello world

and here i will quickly just

model modeler process uh just as a mine

reminder here on the left side you have

the

um different uh stencils available

inside the bpmn context here in the

middle we have the canvas where we can

draw something and on the right side we

have all the properties here at the top

you have a toolbar where we can save on

the left side and later on publish on

the right side

now i select the start event and then

i'm going to make an end event over here

i will drag and drop the user task here

call that hello world

and once that is done i'm going to save

this one and then i'm going to publish

it to my flowable work installation

now that is published and so i can go

now to 8090

and um over here i need to sign in again

with the username admin and the password

test

once i signed in i have the possibility

in here to press new

and save work and that basically now

allows me to start my hello world

process so i have now my first hello

world process instance in here

last but not least we also have the

global control application so let's go

to flow over control

again the default credentials here are

the same as well username admin and

password test

and

we have several options in here

and one of them is processes where we

can look at our instances

and in that list we see now for example

our hello world process definition here

as well

now that's already it from my side so

everything is started you can use those

flowable applications

just with docker compose as mentioned

here

please check out our additional videos

we have done which also explain you what

you can then do with lobel and thank you

for watching this video see you next

time