Flowable UI Admin Installation

Here, you can find some information to install Flowable UI Admin linked with a Flowable engine embedded into a Petals SE Flowable. More information about Flowable UI Admin can be found into the Flowable's documentation.

For our sample installation, the required configuration is:

• a working Apache Tomcat installation with the application "Tomcat Manager Application" deployed. Apache Tomcat can be downloaded at : http://tomcat.apache.org/,
• a Petals container where the Petals SE Flowable is running,
• the Flowable's REST API is enabled on the Petals SE Flowable.

And download the Flowable's distribution whose the version is the same as the Flowable engine embedded into Petals SE Flowable. This version can be downloaded at : http://www.flowable.org/downloads.html.

Petals SE Flowable must be configured with a database reachable by external clients. So, using an in-memory or embedded database can be troubling.

Installation

Flowable UI Admin requires Flowable UI IDM for its identity management that's why it is needed to deploy both webapplications.

Configuration of Flowable UIs is defined in two properties files:

1. 'flowable-ui-app.properties' located in Tomcat classpath ($TOMCAT_HOME/lib or /var/lib/tomcatX/lib/ according to your Tomcat's installation). Create it with the following content:

   # Flowable engine REST API embedded into the Petals SE Flowable
   rest.process.app.name=Flowable engine REST API
   rest.process.app.description=Flowable engine REST API embedded into the Petals SE Flowable
   rest.process.app.host=http://localhost
   rest.process.app.port=8089
   rest.process.app.contextroot=flowable-rest-api
   rest.process.app.restroot=/
   rest.process.app.user=rest-api-user
   rest.process.app.password=user-api-rest-password
   
   idm.app.url=http://localhost:8080/flowable-idm
   idm.admin.user=admin
   idm.admin.password=test
   

   where:

   Property name	Description
   rest.process.app.host	URL (scheme + host part) of the Flowable REST API running into the Petals SE Flowable
   rest.process.app.port	URL (port part) of the Flowable REST API running into the Petals SE Flowable
   rest.process.app.contextroot	URL (context part) of the Flowable REST API running into the Petals SE Flowable
   rest.process.app.restroot	URL (service part) of the Flowable REST API running into the Petals SE Flowable
   rest.process.app.user/rest.process.app.password	Credentials of the user with privileges to access the Flowable REST API running into the Petals SE Flowable
   idm.app.url	The URL of the Flowable IDM UI web-application, used for authenticate user by other Flowable UIs.
   idm.admin.user/idm.admin.password	Credentials of the IDM user with admin privileges (when running with default configuration: admin/test)

2. 'db.properties' located in Tomcat classpath ($TOMCAT_HOME.lib or /var/lib/tomcatX/lib/ according to your Tomcat's installation). Create it with the following content:

   db=h2
   datasource.driver=org.h2.Driver
   datasource.url=jdbc:h2:tcp://localhost//tmp/h2-flowable.db
   datasource.username=sa
   datasource.password=
   

   where:

   Property name	Description
   db	Your database type. Available types are: h2, mysql, oracle, postgre, db2, mssql
   datasource.driver	The JDBC driver to use
   datasource.username/datasource.password	Credentials to connect to the database

First, starts to install the Flowable UI IDM deploying the WAR file 'flowable-idm.war' available in the Flowable's distribution archive with the Tomcat manager (http://localhost:8080/manager). Check this installation going to http://localhost:8080/flowable-idm and login with a user having an admin role. You should be able to manage users, groups and privileges. The default user with admin role is 'admin/test'.

Next, install the Flowable UI Admin deploying the WAR file 'flowable-admin.war' available in the Flowable's distribution archive with the Tomcat manager (http://localhost:8080/manager). Check this installation going to http://localhost:8080/flowable-admin and login with a user having an admin role. You should be able to manage Flowable.

If you use a database different from H2, don't forget to add your JDBC driver into the web-applications copying the associated JAR-file in '/var/lib/tomcatX/webapps/flowable-idm/WEB-INF/lib' and '/var/lib/tomcatX/webapps/flowable-admin/WEB-INF/lib'.

If you use a h2 database, you have to change the version of the H2 JDBC Driver embedded in Flowable UI web applications to be aligned with the one used by Petals SE Flowable: Get the convenient jar file at: https://search.maven.org/remotecontent?filepath=com/h2database/h2/1.4.178/h2-1.4.178.jar. Go inside '/var/lib/tomcatX/webapps/flowable-idm/WEB-INF/lib' or '$TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/flowable-idm/WEB-INF/lib' and delete h2-1.3.176.jar file. Copy the downloaded h2 jar file in this directory. Go inside '/var/lib/tomcatX/webapps/flowable-admin/WEB-INF/lib' or '$TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/flowable-admin/WEB-INF/lib' and delete h2-1.3.176.jar file. Copy the downloaded h2 jar file in this directory. Reload both web applications