Integrating Activiti Workflow Engine with Spring Boot: Configuration, Code Samples, and Usage

Activiti is an open‑source BPMN 2.0 workflow engine that can be embedded in Java applications. By adding the

<dependency><groupId>org.activiti</groupId><artifactId>activiti-spring-boot-starter-basic</artifactId><version>6.0.0</version></dependency>

to a Spring Boot project, you enable workflow capabilities.

The required configuration includes a data source definition and Activiti settings in application.yml (or application.properties), for example:

server:
  port: 8081
spring:
  datasource:
    url: jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/act5?useSSL=true
    driver-class-name: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
    username: root
    password: root
activiti:
  database-schema-update: true
  check-process-definitions: true
  process-definition-location-prefix: classpath:/processes/
  history-level: full

A Spring MVC configuration class annotated with @EnableWebMvc and @Configuration registers static resource handlers for /static/** and /templates/**, allowing Thymeleaf views to be served.

To start a leave‑request process, the service defines a constant PROCESS_DEFINE_KEY = "vacationProcess" and uses the runtimeService.startProcessInstanceByKey method, setting variables such as applyUser, days, and reason. The current task is claimed and completed with those variables.

For approval, the boss queries tasks with

taskService.createTaskQuery().taskCandidateUser(userName).orderByTaskCreateTime().desc().list()

, maps each Task to a VacTask DTO, and then completes the task by posting the result (approved or rejected) along with auditor information.

Historical records are retrieved from the Activiti history tables using historyService.createHistoricProcessInstanceQuery() filtered by the process definition key and start user. Each historic instance is converted back into a Vacation VO by loading its historic variables via historyService.createHistoricVariableInstanceQuery() and a utility method ActivitiUtil.setVars that reflects variable names onto the VO fields.

The front‑end uses AngularJS to display pending tasks in a table, showing task name, creation time, applicant, leave dates, and reason, with buttons to approve or reject. Sample HTML snippets:

<div ng-controller="myAudit">
  <h2 ng-init="myAudit()">待我审核的请假</h2>
  <table border="0">
    <tr>
      <td>任务名称</td>
      <td>任务时间</td>
      <td>申请人</td>
      <td>申请时间</td>
      <td>天数</td>
      <td>事由</td>
      <td>操作</td>
    </tr>
    <tr ng-repeat="vacTask in vacTaskList">
      <td>{{vacTask.name}}</td>
      <td>{{vacTask.createTime | date:'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'}}</td>
      <td>{{vacTask.vac.applyUser}}</td>
      <td>{{vacTask.vac.applyTime | date:'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'}}</td>
      <td>{{vacTask.vac.days}}</td>
      <td>{{vacTask.vac.reason}}</td>
      <td>
        <button type="button" ng-click="passAudit(vacTask.id, 1)">审核通过</button>
        <button type="button" ng-click="passAudit(vacTask.id, 0)">审核拒绝</button>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</div>

The complete source code is available at https://gitee.com/yawensilence/activiti-demo6-springboot , providing a ready‑to‑run example of a Spring Boot + Activiti 6 workflow application.