Integrating Activiti 6.0 with Spring Boot: Configuration, Code Samples, and Example Workflow

The guide explains how to embed the Activiti 6.0 BPM engine into a Spring Boot project, providing a complete example of a leave‑request workflow.

Dependency – Add the Activiti starter to the Maven pom:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.activiti</groupId>
    <artifactId>activiti-spring-boot-starter-basic</artifactId>
    <version>6.0.0</version>
</dependency>

Application configuration – Configure the MySQL datasource and Activiti settings in application.yml (or application.properties ):

server:
  port: 8081

spring:
  datasource:
    url: jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/act5?useSSL=true
    driver-class-name: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
    username: root
    password: root

activiti:
  database-schema-update: true
  check-process-definitions: true
  process-definition-location-prefix: classpath:/processes/
  history-level: full

Spring MVC configuration – A Java class enables static resources and view controllers:

package com.yawn.config;

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.EnableWebMvc;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurerAdapter;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.ResourceHandlerRegistry;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.ViewControllerRegistry;

@EnableWebMvc
@Configuration
public class MvcConfig extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter {
    @Override
    public void addResourceHandlers(ResourceHandlerRegistry registry) {
        registry.addResourceHandler("/static/**").addResourceLocations("classpath:/static/");
        registry.addResourceHandler("/templates/**").addResourceLocations("classpath:/templates/");
        super.addResourceHandlers(registry);
    }

    @Override
    public void addViewControllers(ViewControllerRegistry registry) {
        registry.addViewController("/index");
        registry.addViewController("/user");
        registry.addRedirectViewController("/", "/templates/login.html");
        super.addViewControllers(registry);
    }
}

Starting a leave process – Service method creates a process instance, sets variables, claims the task and completes it:

private static final String PROCESS_DEFINE_KEY = "vacationProcess";

public Object startVac(String userName, Vacation vac) {
    identityService.setAuthenticatedUserId(userName);
    ProcessInstance vacationInstance = runtimeService.startProcessInstanceByKey(PROCESS_DEFINE_KEY);
    Task currentTask = taskService.createTaskQuery()
        .processInstanceId(vacationInstance.getId()).singleResult();
    taskService.claim(currentTask.getId(), userName);
    Map
vars = new HashMap<>(4);
    vars.put("applyUser", userName);
    vars.put("days", vac.getDays());
    vars.put("reason", vac.getReason());
    taskService.complete(currentTask.getId(), vars);
    return true;
}

Boss audit – Query pending tasks, map them to VacTask objects, and retrieve historic variables:

public Object myAudit(String userName) {
    List
taskList = taskService.createTaskQuery()
        .taskCandidateUser(userName)
        .orderByTaskCreateTime().desc().list();
    List
vacTaskList = new ArrayList<>();
    for (Task task : taskList) {
        VacTask vacTask = new VacTask();
        vacTask.setId(task.getId());
        vacTask.setName(task.getName());
        vacTask.setCreateTime(task.getCreateTime());
        String instanceId = task.getProcessInstanceId();
        ProcessInstance instance = runtimeService.createProcessInstanceQuery()
            .processInstanceId(instanceId).singleResult();
        Vacation vac = getVac(instance);
        vacTask.setVac(vac);
        vacTaskList.add(vacTask);
    }
    return vacTaskList;
}

private Vacation getVac(ProcessInstance instance) {
    Integer days = runtimeService.getVariable(instance.getId(), "days", Integer.class);
    String reason = runtimeService.getVariable(instance.getId(), "reason", String.class);
    Vacation vac = new Vacation();
    vac.setApplyUser(instance.getStartUserId());
    vac.setDays(days);
    vac.setReason(reason);
    vac.setApplyTime(instance.getStartTime());
    vac.setApplyStatus(instance.isEnded() ? "申请结束" : "等待审批");
    return vac;
}

Utility for historic variables – ActivitiUtil.setVars uses reflection to copy historic variable values into a POJO:

public class ActivitiUtil {
    public static
void setVars(T entity, List
varInstanceList) {
        Class
tClass = entity.getClass();
        try {
            for (HistoricVariableInstance varInstance : varInstanceList) {
                Field field = tClass.getDeclaredField(varInstance.getVariableName());
                if (field == null) continue;
                field.setAccessible(true);
                field.set(entity, varInstance.getValue());
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Querying historic records – After a process finishes, its data is stored in the history tables; the following method retrieves completed leave records:

public Object myVacRecord(String userName) {
    List
hisProInstance = historyService
        .createHistoricProcessInstanceQuery()
        .processDefinitionKey(PROCESS_DEFINE_KEY)
        .startedBy(userName)
        .finished()
        .orderByProcessInstanceEndTime().desc()
        .list();
    List
vacList = new ArrayList<>();
    for (HistoricProcessInstance hisInstance : hisProInstance) {
        Vacation vacation = new Vacation();
        vacation.setApplyUser(hisInstance.getStartUserId());
        vacation.setApplyTime(hisInstance.getStartTime());
        vacation.setApplyStatus("申请结束");
        List
varInstanceList = historyService
            .createHistoricVariableInstanceQuery()
            .processInstanceId(hisInstance.getId()).list();
        ActivitiUtil.setVars(vacation, varInstanceList);
        vacList.add(vacation);
    }
    return vacList;
}

Front‑end display – An AngularJS view lists pending audits in a table and provides “Approve” and “Reject” buttons:

<div ng-controller="myAudit">
    <h2 ng-init="myAudit()">待我审核的请假</h2>
    <table border="0">
        <tr>
            <td>任务名称</td><td>任务时间</td><td>申请人</td>
            <td>申请时间</td><td>天数</td><td>事由</td><td>操作</td>
        </tr>
        <tr ng-repeat="vacTask in vacTaskList">
            <td>{{vacTask.name}}</td>
            <td>{{vacTask.createTime | date:'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'}}</td>
            <td>{{vacTask.vac.applyUser}}</td>
            <td>{{vacTask.vac.applyTime | date:'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'}}</td>
            <td>{{vacTask.vac.days}}</td>
            <td>{{vacTask.vac.reason}}</td>
            <td>
                <button type="button" ng-click="passAudit(vacTask.id, 1)">审核通过</button>
                <button type="button" ng-click="passAudit(vacTask.id, 0)">审核拒绝</button>
            </td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</div>

The corresponding Angular controller sends HTTP requests to the back‑end to fetch tasks and to submit audit decisions.

app.controller("myAudit", function ($scope, $http, $window) {
    $scope.vacTaskList = [];
    $scope.myAudit = function () {
        $http.get("/myAudit").then(function (response) {
            $scope.vacTaskList = response.data;
        });
    };
    $scope.passAudit = function (taskId, result) {
        $http.post("/passAudit", {
            "id": taskId,
            "vac": { "result": result >= 1 ? "审核通过" : "审核拒绝" }
        }).then(function (response) {
            if (response.data === true) {
                alert("操作成功！");
                $window.location.reload();
            } else {
                alert("操作失败！");
            }
        });
    };
});

The complete source code for this demo project is available at https://gitee.com/yawensilence/activiti-demo6-springboot .