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Automatic run-time versioning for BPEL processes

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Abstract

We describe a middleware solution for automatic run-time process versioning in Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) and then analyse its impact in terms of scalability and performance. Business processes change in response to business needs, but the deployment of new versions to a BPEL engine must ensure that running instances are not disrupted and can conclude following their original workflows. Our solution is implemented as a standalone component that manages versioning transparently to the process editor, the orchestration engine, the web services used by the process, and the end-user. We have tested it for almost 1 year in the production environment of a telecommunications company, without significant overhead in terms of process invocation time.

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Notes

  1. As the number of concurrent versions of a process present on the versioning manager for each invocation was unavailable, it is assumed to be the number of different versions of the process launched on the same day. While this metric may be incorrect in the case of very long or very short running processes, in this case it was considered a plausible approximation.

  2. All correlation tables are shown presenting only the results where a significance level of at least 0.05 (after applying the Dunn-Šidák correction) is found. A dot is shown where not enough valid data were available to ascertain a significant correlation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the valuable comments and suggestions by the editor and anonymous reviewers. Partly financed by national funding via the Foundation for Science and Technology and by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), through the COMPETE 2020 – Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INESC Coimbra - Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores de Coimbra, R. Sílvio Lima, Pólo II, 3030-290, Coimbra, Portugal

    Paulo Melo

  2. Center for Business and Economics Research (CeBER), University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Paulo Melo

  3. CISUC, Department of Informatics Engineering, University of Coimbra, Pólo II, Coimbra, Portugal

    Paulo Rupino da Cunha & André Macedo

  4. Université Lyon 1, LIRIS, CNRS, UMR5205, 69621, Villeurbanne, France

    Catarina Ferreira da Silva

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  1. Paulo Melo
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  2. Paulo Rupino da Cunha
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  3. Catarina Ferreira da Silva
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  4. André Macedo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paulo Rupino da Cunha.

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Melo, P., da Cunha, P.R., da Silva, C.F. et al. Automatic run-time versioning for BPEL processes. SOCA 11, 315–327 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11761-017-0211-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11761-017-0211-3

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