Getting Started with FlowCentral Platform
The FlowCentral Platform, developed by software developers for software developers, is a high-productivity, high-level and highly-extensible Java application framework for building enterprise grade web-based workflow applications. It is a lightweight full-stack framework developed specifically for enterprise software used for facilitating business operations around process workflows.
You will find FlowCentral architecture and suite of low-code development tools familiar and easy to learn. Its web-based drag-and-drop tools simplify the creation of enterprise software components such as tables, forms, workflows, and reports, effectively reducing development time.
FlowCentral Requirements
A FlowCentral instance comprises a set of Java classes and associated assets bundled within JAR files, operating within a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) environment. All necessary JAR files for running a FlowCentral instance are accessible on Maven Central Repository. Configuration for download and integration into your development environment can be performed through commonly used build tools such as Maven and Gradle.
The minimum Java version required to run a FlowCentral instance is Java 1.8. This or any other higher version will do.
No specific hardware operating system is required. You just have to make sure that the port configured for your FlowCentral instance is open on the operating system’s firewall if you want to access the instance remotely.
We also recommend any modern Java IDE (Eclipse, InteliJ, NetBeans, etc) for development.
Verify and install Java
To check that you have Java 1.8 or higher already installed, open a command-line terminal and enter the following.
java -version
The terminal should output something like:
java version “1.8.0_112”
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment(build 1.8.0_112-b15)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.112-b15, mixed mode)-
If a suitable Java version is not installed then you have to install one. You can obtain one from here OpenJDK.
Create your First FlowCentral Project
Creating a FlowCentral Project is made easy by utilizing the online project generator. You basically set the parameters for your project, generate a zip file and import contents of the generated zip file into your IDE as a new project.
- Open a web browser and navigate to http://start.flowcentralplatform.com.
- Configure and set parameters for your FlowCentral project.
- Click Generate & Download.
- Download the resulting ZIP file. The ZIP file is an archive of a FlowCentral project that is configured based on your choices on the Initializer.
- Import the projects from the generated ZIP archive into your preferred IDE.
- Once the FlowCentral projects are imported, go to the executable JAR project and run the runnable class as a Java application.
- Open any modern web browser and enter localhost:8080 at the address bar (Your port number and context may vary if you changed default values when configuring your project on Initializer). You will be presented with a login page. Login with Login ID ‘SYSTEM’ and password ‘system’. You will be asked to change password.
- On successful login, you will be presented FlowCentral application home page of your instance.
