Activiti (software)
Open-source workflow engine
title: "Activiti (software)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["workflow-applications", "java-enterprise-platform", "java-(programming-language)-libraries", "cross-platform-free-software", "free-software-programmed-in-java", "free-business-software", "software-using-the-apache-license"] description: "Open-source workflow engine" topic_path: "general/workflow-applications" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activiti_(software)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Open-source workflow engine ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Activiti |
| screenshot | Alfresco Activiti Process Modeler Screenshot.png |
| caption | Screenshot of a contract workflow in Alfresco's Activiti Process Modeler |
| released | |
| developer | Alfresco and the Activiti community |
| latest release version | 8.2.0 |
| latest release date | 22 Jan 2024 |
| operating system | Cross-platform |
| programming language | Java |
| genre | workflow engine, BPM |
| license | Apache License 2.0 |
| website | |
| :: |
| name = Activiti | logo = | screenshot = Alfresco Activiti Process Modeler Screenshot.png | caption = Screenshot of a contract workflow in Alfresco's Activiti Process Modeler | released = | discontinued = | developer = Alfresco and the Activiti community | latest release version = 8.2.0 | latest release date = 22 Jan 2024 | latest preview version = | latest preview date = | operating system = Cross-platform | programming language = Java | genre = workflow engine, BPM | license = Apache License 2.0 | website = Activiti is an open-source workflow engine written in Java that can execute business processes described in BPMN 2.0. Activiti is the foundation for Alfresco's Alfresco Process Services (APS) and Alfresco is the Activiti project's leading sponsor.
History
In March 2010, Tom Baeyens and Joram Barrez, two key developers for jBPM left Red Hat and started Activiti as employees of Alfresco. Activiti is based on their workflow experience with jBPM, but is a new code base, not based on any previous jBPM code.
The first version of Activiti was 5.0, to indicate that product is the continuation of experience they gained via jBPM 1 through 4.
In October 2016, Barrez, Rademakers (author of Activiti in Action) and other contributors left Alfresco. The departing developers forked the Activiti code to start a new project called Flowable.
In February 2017, a new commercial version of Activiti was released and rebranded as Alfresco Process Services.
In May 2017, Activiti released version 6.0.0 with new support for ad hoc sub processes and a new application user interface.
Components
The project is a suite of applications that work together:
- Modeler, a web-based graphical workflow authoring interface
- Designer, an Eclipse plug-in for developing workflows
- Engine, the core workflow processor
- Explorer, a web tool to deploy process definitions, start new process instances and carry-out work on workflows
- Cycle, a web app for collaboration between business users and software engineers
Alternative modeling GUI
The Yaoqiang BPMN Editor (FLOSS, GPLv3) can connect to the Activiti engine and thus can be used as a graphical workflow authoring interface, as an alternative to Activiti Modeler.
The DocuBrain Workflow Editor is a standalone BPMN 2.0 compliant workflow editor that can be used to create and edit generic BPMN processes. The editor supports direct connections to Activiti as well as all of Activiti's customization (such as Activiti specific element attributes, Activiti specific tasks like Camel Task, Mule Task, etc.).
References
References
- (2 December 2010). "Activiti 5.0 GA, the Apache 2 Licensed BPMN 2 Engine Released". InfoQ.
- "Activiti GitHub Releases".
- [https://www.activiti.org/faq.html#WhyApacheLicense Activiti FAQ], Why Apache license?
- Andrew Bonham. (2016-09-28). "Comparing and Contrasting Open Source BPM Projects". Capital One DevExchange.
- (February 28, 2017). "Alfresco Releases Digital Business Platform to Speed App Development". CMSWire.
- "About Activiti".
- [https://processdevelopments.blogspot.com/2010/05/alfresco-creates-activiti.html Process Developments: Alfresco Creates Activiti] from Tom Baeyens blog
- [https://activiti.org/faq.html#WhyIsTheVersionCalled50 Activiti FAQ], Why is the first version called 5.0?
- Tijs Rademakers. (2012-07-01). "Activiti in Action". [[Manning Publications]].
- Sandy Kemsley. (2016-10-20). "Another rift in the open source BPM market: @FlowableBPM forks from @Alfresco Activiti". Enterprise Irregulars.
- "Activiti 6 is here!".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::