Activiti in Docker

Introduction
- Version
- Changelog
Installation
Quickstart
Configuration
- Database
- Available Configuration Parameters

Introduction

Dockerfile to build an Activiti BPM container image.

Version

Current Version: 6.0.0.Beta4

Installation

Create the container network with network-create.sh.
Set up a DB container and set its properties in assets/db.properties
Set this container up

Pull the latest version of the image from the docker index. This is the recommended method of installation as it is easier to update image in the future. These builds are performed by the Docker Trusted Build service.

docker pull kentoj/activiti:latest

Since version latest, the image builds are being tagged. You can now pull a particular version of activiti by specifying the version number. For example,

docker pull kentoj/activiti:6.0.0.Beta4

Alternately you can build the image yourself.

git clone https://github.com/kentoj/activiti.git
cd activiti
docker build --tag="$USER/activiti" .

Quickstart

Run the activiti image

docker run --name='activiti' -it --rm \
-p 8080:8080 \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/run/docker.sock \
-v $(which docker):/bin/docker \
eternnoir/activiti:latest

Point your browser to http://localhost:8080 and login using the default username and password:

username: kermit
password: kermit

You should now have the Activiti application up and ready for testing. If you want to use this image in production the please read on.

Configuration

Database

Activiti uses a database backend to store its data. The main difference between this image and the eternoir/activiti image is that it does not automatically set up a DB container.

PostgreSQL

External PostgreSQL Server

The image is configured to use an external PostgreSQL. To create the volume and the container needed for the PostgreSQL container run the postgres-container-create script. This depends on the network-create.sh script.

Before you start the Activiti image create user and database for activiti.

We are now ready to start the Activiti application.

run the docker-run.sh command.

Linking to PostgreSQL Container

The containers are visible to each other through the Docker network called my-activiti-network

Available Configuration Parameters

Please refer the docker run command options for the --env-file flag where you can specify all required environment variables in a single file. This will save you from writing a potentially long docker run command.

Below is the complete list of available options that can be used to customize your activiti installation.

TOMCAT_ADMIN_USER: Tomcat admin user name. Defaults to admin.
TOMCAT_ADMIN_PASSWORD: Tomcat admin user password. Defaults to admin.
DB_HOST: The database server hostname. Defaults to ``.
DB_PORT: The database server port. Defaults to 5432.
DB_NAME: The database database name. Defaults to ``.
DB_USER: The database database user. Defaults to ``.
DB_PASS: The database database password. Defaults to ``.

Administration

Add the following records into the database to enable an admin account:

INSERT INTO public.act_id_group (id_, rev_, name_, type_) VALUES ('ROLE_ADMIN', 1, 'Superusers', 'security-role');
INSERT INTO public.act_id_user (id_, rev_, first_, last_, email_, pwd_, picture_id_) VALUES ('admin', 1, 'null', 'Administrator', 'admin@activiti.example.com', 'test', null);
INSERT INTO public.act_id_membership (user_id_, group_id_) VALUES ('admin', 'ROLE_ADMIN');

Maintenance

Shell Access

For debugging and maintenance purposes you may want access the container shell. Since the container does not allow interactive login over the SSH protocol, you can use the nsenter linux tool (part of the util-linux package) to access the container shell.

Some linux distros (e.g. ubuntu) use older versions of the util-linux which do not include the nsenter tool. To get around this @jpetazzo has created a nice docker image that allows you to install the nsenter utility and a helper script named docker-enter on these distros.

To install the nsenter tool on your host execute the following command.

docker run --rm -v /usr/local/bin:/target jpetazzo/nsenter

Now you can access the container shell using the command

sudo docker-enter my_activiti

For more information refer https://github.com/jpetazzo/nsenter

Another tool named nsinit can also be used for the same purpose. Please refer https://jpetazzo.github.io/2014/03/23/lxc-attach-nsinit-nsenter-docker-0-9/ for more information.

Upgrading

TODO

kentoj/activiti