Vegas bets on BPEL

The Business Process Execution Language is a markup language that uses the basic Extensible Markup Language syntax. Commands, or activities, issued to BPEL engine are encoded in brackets.

Here are some basic activities.

<invoke>: Invoke a Web service.
<reply>: Generate a response for synchronous operations.
<assign>: Manipulate a variable.
<throw>: Indicate that an error has taken place.
<terminate>: Terminate the entire process.
<sequence>: Defines a set of activities invoked in an ordered sequence.
<while>: Defines a looping activity.
<pick>: Pick an alternative path.
<partnerLink>: Jump to an external BPEL process.

The basic format for a BPEL process could be structured like this:
<process name=“NameOfProcess” ... >
<partnerLinks>
<!— The declaration of partner links —>
</partnerLinks>
<variables>
<!— The declaration of variables —>
</variables>
<sequence>
<!— The definition of the BPEL business process main body —> <br>
</sequence>
</process>

On its “Hands-on Introduction to BPEL” Web page, Oracle shows how this structure could be used to generate an employee travel request (GCN.com, Quickfind 1032).