Getting Started With Apache ODE

Apache ODE (Apache Orchestration Director Engine) 'executes' or 'runs' one or more business processes which have been expressed in the Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL). 

Introduction to BPEL can be found from here

Intalling Apache ODE 

For this I'm using

• OS : Ubuntu 15.10 (64 bit)
• Apache ODE: V.1.3.6 
• Apache Tomcat: 7.0.65
• Eclipse : Version: Mars.1 Release (4.5.1)

Steps for Installing Apache ODE is as follows.

• Download below bundles.

• ODE WAR distribution (https://ode.apache.org/getting-ode.html)
• Apache Tomcat(http://tomcat.apache.org/)
• Eclipse IDE for Java EE (https://eclipse.org/downloads/)

• Extract the Apache Tomcat bundle to a prefered location . (This will refer as TOMCAT_HOME)

• Extract ODE bundle and copy the ode.war file to TOMCAT_HOME/webapps folder.

• Start the tomcat server. (This will extract the ode.war file within webapps folder)

•  Add BPEL Designer plugin for eclipse.

Help->Install New Software->Add (http://download.eclipse.org/bpel/site/1.0.5) -> Select Eclipse BPEL Desiner

• Setup ODE Server in Eclipse

•  Window -> Show View -> Servers -> Right click on Empty Space in the View -> New -> Server
• Select Apache - > ODE V.1.x Server -> Click Next
• Set ODE's home directory ( TOMCAT_HOME/webapps/ode)
• Set Tomcat Home directory( TOMCAT_HOME) and port. (Default tomcat port is 8080)
• Click Finish. You now have the ODE server which is ready to run on the Eclipse. You can see this server on the Server View
• Start the Server.

If you are using Tomcat v.6 or v.7, you probably get the following error.

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: 

org/apache/juli/logging/LogFactory
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.<clinit>(Bootstrap.java:49)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: 

org.apache.juli.logging.LogFactory
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:381)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:331)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357

This error occurs because some jars in the Launch environment. 

Fix:

• double click on the installed Ode v1.x Server in the Server View to see the configuration
• Open launch configuration → Classpath tab → User Entires → Add External JARs → select Jar files in [TOMCAT_HOME]\bin\ → Then Ok.
• Now try to start your ODE server in the Server View