Article

Kogito tooling for friendly DMN and BPMN visualization on GitHub

November 25, 2019
Karina Varela
Principal Technical Marketing Manager
Kogito tooling business

Business automation is highly dependent on the development of business processes and rules that are easily understood by anyone involved with the project. To achieve this goal, the KIE and Kogito teams choose to adopt the usage of patterns defined by OMG as the triple crown of process management:

  • DMN — Decision Model and Notation
  • BPMN — Business Process Model and Notation
  • CMMN — Case Management Model and Notation

With this new BPMN and DMN Chrome extension, you can finally see business processes and rules directly on GitHub.

If you work with business automation projects, you are probably familiar with these standards. Additionally, you've probably been frustrated by facing a huge XML file while trying to see the latest changes or checking a business asset on GitHub. If that is your case, you will probably love this Chrome extension: It allows users to see business processes and business rules versioned as BPMN and DMN files directly on the GitHub webpage.

How this helps

If you are curious about this extension and how it helps, see in Figure 1 how a BPMN file is displayed in GitHub by default, and then see in Figure 2 how this same file is displayed with the BPMN and DMN Chrome extension. If you feel like trying this extension out yourself, keep reading.

Figure 1: A BPMN file is displayed in GitHub, without the extension.">
Figure 2: A BPMN file displayed with the BPMN and DMN Chrome extension.">

How to install

This tool is still not available in the Chrome store, but you can already try it out and take advantage of its benefits. To have this extension working on your Chrome browser, follow these simple steps:

  1. Access the Kogito Tooling release pages.
  2. Look for the latest release and click the link, then scroll down to the end of the release notes.
  3. Click on Assets to expand the menu and see the available options, as shown in Figure 3:
Figure 3: Open the Assets menu to find the Chrome extension.">
  1. Download and unzip the available ZIP file.
  2. In Chrome, go to the upper right corner and then access and activate the Developer mode, as shown in Figure 4:
Figure 4: Turn on Developer mode.">
  1. Click on Load unpacked button and choose the directory you just unzipped, as shown in Figure 5:
Figure 5: Open the new directory.">

That is it. You should now see the BPMN and DMN extension available for use. If you want to try it out, access a business asset on GitHub (e.g., this one).

We hope you enjoy this plugin developed by the KIE Group. To learn more about Kogito, check out these related articles:

Last updated: July 1, 2020

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