This chapter covered a lot of ground; first we learned how to configure OSWorkflow to load XML descriptors, and then we took a very through view of the OSWorkflow API to use it inside our applications as an embedded workflow engine.

Later we saw the persistence alternatives OSWorkflow has to store the workflow descriptor and instance data. We also saw the JUnit unit-testing framework that allows us to verify the correctness and validate the functional requirements of our business processes.

We saw that Spring enables us to decouple our application with clear separation of concerns and declarative transactions and security. OSWorkflow integrates seamlessly with Spring benefiting from of all it features.

The chapter ended with the description of the different built-in security mechanisms of OSWorkflow such as actions and step restrictions. We also learned how to extend the OSWorkflow user and group directory by using OSUser.

The next chapter is about the JBoss Rules engine, a very efficient...