Update a Glassfish Installation from 7.2 to 7.3

The following steps describe how to update the Camunda artifacts on a Glassfish 3.1 application server in a shared process engine setting. For the entire migration procedure, refer to the migration guide. If not already done, make sure to download the Camunda 7.3 Glassfish distribution.

The update procedure takes the following steps:

  1. Uninstall the Camunda libraries and archives
  2. Replace Camunda core libraries
  3. Replace optional Camunda dependencies
  4. Maintain Camunda 7 configuration (optional)
  5. Install the Camunda archive
  6. Install the Camunda 7 web applications

In each of the following steps, the identifiers $*_VERSION refer to the current version and the new versions of the artifacts.

1. Uninstall the Camunda Applications and Archives

First, uninstall the Camunda web applications, namely the Camunda REST API (artifact name like camunda-engine-rest) and the Camunda applications Cockpit, Tasklist and Admin (artifact name like camunda-webapp).

Uninstall the Camunda EAR. Its name should be camunda-glassfish-ear-$PLATFORM_VERSION.ear. Then, uninstall the Camunda job executor adapter, called camunda-jobexecutor-rar-$PLATFORM_VERSION.rar.

2. Replace Camunda Core Libraries

After shutting down the server, replace the following libraries in $GLASSFISH_HOME/glassfish/lib with their equivalents from $GLASSFISH_DISTRIBUTION/modules/lib:

  • camunda-engine-$PLATFORM_VERSION.jar
  • camunda-bpmn-model-$PLATFORM_VERSION.jar
  • camunda-cmmn-model-$PLATFORM_VERSION.jar
  • camunda-xml-model-$PLATFORM_VERSION.jar

3. Replace Optional Camunda Dependencies

In addition to the core libraries, there may be optional artifacts in $GLASSFISH_HOME/glassfish/lib for LDAP integration, Camunda Connect, and Camunda Spin. If you use any of these extensions, the following update steps apply:

LDAP integration

Copy the following libraries from $GLASSFISH_DISTRIBUTION/modules/lib to the folder $GLASSFISH_HOME/glassfish/lib if present:

  • camunda-identity-ldap-$PLATFORM_VERSION.jar

Camunda Connect

Copy the following libraries from $GLASSFISH_DISTRIBUTION/modules/lib to the folder $GLASSFISH_HOME/glassfish/lib if present:

  • camunda-connect-core-$CONNECT_VERSION.jar

Camunda Spin

Copy the following libraries from $GLASSFISH_DISTRIBUTION/modules/lib to the folder $GLASSFISH_HOME/glassfish/lib if present:

  • camunda-spin-core-$SPIN_VERSION.jar

4. Maintain the Camunda 7 Configuration

If you have previously replaced the default Camunda 7 configuration by a custom configuration following any of the ways outlined in the deployment descriptor reference, it may be necessary to restore this configuration. This can be done by repeating the configuration replacement steps for the updated platform.

Task Query Expressions

As of 7.3.3, the default handling of expressions submitted as parameters of task queries has changed. Passing EL expressions in a task query enables execution of arbitrary code when the query is evaluated. The process engine no longer evaluates these expressions by default and throws an exception instead. This behavior can be toggled in the process engine configuration using the properties enableExpressionsInAdhocQueries (default false) and enableExpressionsInStoredQueries (default true). To restore the engine’s previous behavior, set both flags to true. See the user guide on security considerations for custom code for details. This is already the default for Camunda 7 versions after and including 7.2.8.

5. Install the Camunda Archive

First, install the camunda job executor resource adapter, namely the file $GLASSFISH_DISTRIBUTION/modules/camunda-jobexecutor-rar-$PLATFORM_VERSION.rar. Then, install the camunda EAR, i.e., the file $GLASSFISH_DISTRIBUTION/modules/camunda-glassfish-ear-$PLATFORM_VERSION.ear.

6. Install the Web Applications

REST API

The following steps are required to update the camunda REST API on a Glassfish instance:

  1. Download the REST API web application archive from our Maven Nexus Server. Or switch to the private repository for the enterprise version (User and password from license required). Choose the correct version named $PLATFORM_VERSION/camunda-engine-rest-$PLATFORM_VERSION.war.
  2. Deploy the web application archive to your Glassfish instance.

Cockpit, Tasklist, and Admin

The following steps are required to update the camunda web applications Cockpit, Tasklist, and Admin on a Glassfish instance:

  1. Download the camunda web application archive from our Maven Nexus Server. Or switch to the private repository for the enterprise version (User and password from license required). Choose the correct version named $PLATFORM_VERSION/camunda-webapp-glassfish-$PLATFORM_VERSION.war.
  2. Deploy the web application archive to your Glassfish instance.

LDAP Entity Caching

It is possible to enable entity caching for Hypertext Application Language (HAL) requests that the camunda web applications make. This can be especially useful when you use camunda in combination with LDAP. To activate caching, the camunda webapp artifact has to be modified and the pre-built application cannot be used as is. See the REST Api Documentation for details.

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