Author: Jacobs, D.
Paper Title Page
TUAAULT04 Web-based Execution of Graphical Workflows : a Modular Platform for Multifunctional Scientific Process Automation 540
 
  • E. De Ley, D. Jacobs
    iSencia Belgium, Gent, Belgium
  • M. Ounsy
    SOLEIL, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
 
  The Passerelle process automation suite offers a fundamentally modular solution platform, based on a layered integration of several best-of-breed technologies. It has been successfully applied by Synchrotron Soleil as the sequencer for data acquisition and control processes on its beamlines, integrated with TANGO as a control bus and GlobalScreen as the Scada package. Since last year it is being used as the graphical workflow component for the development of an eclipse-based Data Analysis Work Bench, at ESRF. The top layer of Passerelle exposes an actor-based development paradigm, based on the Ptolemy framework (UC Berkeley). Actors provide explicit reusability and strong decoupling, combined with an inherently concurrent execution model. Actor libraries exist for TANGO integration, web-services, database operations, flow control, rules-based analysis, mathematical calculations, launching external scripts etc. Passerelle's internal architecture is based on OSGi, the major Java framework for modular service-based applications. A large set of modules exist that can be recombined as desired to obtain different features and deployment models. Besides desktop versions of the Passerelle workflow workbench, there is also the Passerelle Manager. It is a secured web application including a graphical editor, for centralized design, execution, management and monitoring of process flows, integrating standard Java Enterprise services with OSGi. We will present the internal technical architecture, some interesting application cases and the lessons learnt.  
slides icon Slides TUAAULT04 [10.055 MB]  
 
WEPKS008 Rules-based Analysis with JBoss Drools : Adding Intelligence to Automation 790
 
  • E. De Ley, D. Jacobs
    iSencia Belgium, Gent, Belgium
 
  Rules engines are less-known as software technology than the traditional procedural, object-oriented, scripting or dynamic development languages. This is a pity, as their usage may offer an important enrichment to a development toolbox. JBoss Drools is an open-source rules engine that can easily be embedded in any Java application. Through an integration in our Passerelle process automation suite, we have been able to provide advanced solutions for intelligent process automation, complex event processing, system monitoring and alarming, automated repair etc. This platform has been proven for many years as an automated diagnosis and repair engine for Belgium's largest telecom provider, and it is being piloted at Synchrotron Soleil for device monitoring and alarming. After an introduction to rules engines in general and JBoss Drools in particular, we will present some practical use cases and important caveats.