Integrating Activiti7 with SpringBoot: Dependencies, Deployment, Usage, and Advanced Operations

1. Dependencies

Add the Activiti SpringBoot starter and image generator dependencies to your pom.xml , excluding conflicting MyBatis and commons libraries.

<!-- Add Activiti and SpringBoot integration dependencies -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.activiti</groupId>
    <artifactId>activiti-spring-boot-starter</artifactId>
    <version>7.0.0.SR1</version>
    <exclusions>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>commons-io</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>commons-lang3</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-lang3</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>org.mybatis</groupId>
            <artifactId>mybatis</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
    </exclusions>
</dependency>

<!-- Activiti image generator dependency -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.activiti</groupId>
    <artifactId>activiti-image-generator</artifactId>
    <version>7.0.0.SR1</version>
    <exclusions>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>commons-io</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
    </exclusions>
</dependency>

2. Install Activiti Environment

Configure IDEA to use UTF‑8 encoding and install the Activiti diagram plugin to avoid Chinese garbled characters.

File → Settings → Editor → File Encodings → set to UTF‑8.

Help → Edit Custom VM Options → add -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 .

Modify idea.exe.vmoptions and idea64.exe.vmoptions similarly, then restart IDEA.

3. Start Using

3.1 Create a BPMN file

Design a basic leave request process using the Activiti BPMN editor.

3.2 Deploy Process Definition

import org.activiti.engine.*;
import org.activiti.engine.repository.Deployment;
import org.junit.Test;

@Test
public void testDeploy() {
    ProcessEngine processEngine = ProcessEngines.getDefaultProcessEngine();
    RepositoryService repositoryService = processEngine.getRepositoryService();
    Deployment deployment = repositoryService.createDeployment()
        .addClasspathResource("bpmn/leave.bpmn")
        .name("请假流程")
        .deploy();
    System.out.println("流程部署ID:" + deployment.getId());
    System.out.println("流程部署名称:" + deployment.getName());
}

3.3 Start Process Instance

@Test
public void testStartProcess() {
    ProcessEngine processEngine = ProcessEngines.getDefaultProcessEngine();
    RuntimeService runtimeService = processEngine.getRuntimeService();
    ProcessInstance instance = runtimeService.startProcessInstanceByKey("leaveProcess");
    System.out.println("流程定义的id = " + instance.getProcessDefinitionId());
    System.out.println("流程实例的id = " + instance.getId());
}

3.4 Query and Complete Tasks

@Test
public void testSelectTodoTaskList() {
    String assignee = "李四";
    ProcessEngine processEngine = ProcessEngines.getDefaultProcessEngine();
    TaskService taskService = processEngine.getTaskService();
    List
taskList = taskService.createTaskQuery()
        .processDefinitionKey("leaveProcess")
        .taskAssignee(assignee)
        .list();
    for (Task task : taskList) {
        System.out.println("流程定义id = " + task.getProcessDefinitionId());
        System.out.println("流程实例id = " + task.getProcessInstanceId());
        System.out.println("任务id = " + task.getId());
        System.out.println("任务名称 = " + task.getName());
    }
}

@Test
public void testCompleteTask() {
    String assignee = "李四";
    ProcessEngine processEngine = ProcessEngines.getDefaultProcessEngine();
    TaskService taskService = processEngine.getTaskService();
    List
taskList = taskService.createTaskQuery()
        .processDefinitionKey("leaveProcess")
        .taskAssignee(assignee)
        .list();
    for (Task task : taskList) {
        taskService.complete(task.getId());
    }
}

4. Advanced Operations

4.1 BusinessKey Usage

When starting a process, pass a business key to link the workflow instance with a business record.

@Test
public void testStartProcessWithBusinessKey() {
    String businessKey = "8001";
    ProcessEngine processEngine = ProcessEngines.getDefaultProcessEngine();
    RuntimeService runtimeService = processEngine.getRuntimeService();
    ProcessInstance instance = runtimeService.startProcessInstanceByKey("leaveProcess", businessKey);
    System.out.println("业务key:" + instance.getBusinessKey());
}

4.2 Suspend/Activate Process Definitions and Instances

@Test
public void testSuspendAllProcessInstance() {
    ProcessEngine engine = ProcessEngines.getDefaultProcessEngine();
    RepositoryService repo = engine.getRepositoryService();
    ProcessDefinition def = repo.createProcessDefinitionQuery()
        .processDefinitionKey("leaveProcess")
        .singleResult();
    boolean suspended = def.isSuspended();
    if (suspended) {
        repo.activateProcessDefinitionById(def.getId(), true, null);
    } else {
        repo.suspendProcessDefinitionById(def.getId(), true, null);
    }
}

@Test
public void testSuspendSingleProcessInstance() {
    String processInstanceId = "2501";
    ProcessEngine engine = ProcessEngines.getDefaultProcessEngine();
    RuntimeService runtime = engine.getRuntimeService();
    ProcessInstance instance = runtime.createProcessInstanceQuery()
        .processInstanceId(processInstanceId)
        .singleResult();
    if (instance.isSuspended()) {
        runtime.activateProcessInstanceById(processInstanceId);
    } else {
        runtime.suspendProcessInstanceById(processInstanceId);
    }
}

4.3 Candidate Users and Task Claiming

Define multiple candidate users in the BPMN file and let a user claim a task before completing it.

@Test
public void testClaimTask() {
    String taskId = "2505";
    String assignee = "张三";
    ProcessEngine engine = ProcessEngines.getDefaultProcessEngine();
    TaskService taskService = engine.getTaskService();
    taskService.claim(taskId, assignee);
}

@Test
public void testCompleteClaimedTask() {
    String taskId = "2505";
    ProcessEngine engine = ProcessEngines.getDefaultProcessEngine();
    TaskService taskService = engine.getTaskService();
    taskService.complete(taskId);
}

4.4 Gateways

Examples of exclusive, parallel, and inclusive gateways are provided to illustrate decision logic based on process variables such as day .

@Test
public void testExclusiveGateway() {
    ProcessEngine engine = ProcessEngines.getDefaultProcessEngine();
    RuntimeService runtime = engine.getRuntimeService();
    Map
vars = new HashMap<>();
    vars.put("day", 0);
    ProcessInstance instance = runtime.startProcessInstanceByKey("leaveEGatewayProcess", vars);
    System.out.println("流程实例ID=" + instance.getId());
}

5. Service Overview

The main Activiti services used are:

RepositoryService : Deploy and manage process definitions.

RuntimeService : Start processes and query runtime data.

TaskService : Query, claim, complete, and add comments to tasks.

HistoryService : Retrieve historic execution information.

ManagementService : Engine administration and maintenance.

Typical operations include deployment, starting a process, querying tasks, completing tasks, claiming tasks, adding comments, suspending/activating definitions or instances, downloading resources, and deleting deployments.