I have followed the steps in the current version of your book, and I have found a few problems / ideas for improvements for the final version.
I am refering to the pdf of the book version as of December 7, 2015.
I have used Bonita 7.1.4 Community version.
p. 59: The query "findByPersistenceId" already exists as a default query, therefore you needn't define it as a custom query.
p. 65: "import bizdata.VacationRequest" - the package bizdata has not been defined. By default the business data are found in com.company.model
p. 71: The date pickers' default values are 01/01/1970, and it is very tedious to select a current date. If you change the default values in the formInput from "0" to "", the date pickers show the current date as default values.
p. 73, item 3.d.: "../" does not work, you need "../{{context.vacationRequest_ref.link}}
p. 73, items 4.d and 6. The date is by default shown in milliseconds since 1/1970. The value should therefore be formated as: vacationRequestBusinessData.startDate | date : 'MM/dd/yyyy'
p. 74: In Figure 7-4 the status values "Approved" and "Refused" are shown starting with capital letters, but when you follow the instructions, they are shown in lowercase letters. In order to work properly with the contract, they need to be in lowercase. Therefore, the reader shouldn't change the values to Uppercase. Is there a method to label the radio box values with other Strings than the actual values?
p. 85/86: It should be pointed out that for testing purposes it is useful to use much shorter durations, otherwise you need to wait for seven days until you can test whether the reminder function works correctly ...
p. 86, step 7: The form has been named reviewRequestForm (on p. 72), not reviewVacationRequest
p. 86, step 8: Before you can add the operations, you need to define the contract.
p. 86, step 9a: You need to select the pool, not the lane, in order to add a new actor.
I haven't continued with the building of the application in chapter 10, since the instructions are not yet complete. In the pdf, the urls and scripts are not entirely on the page.
In chapter 12 you are using the Google Calendar connector. Unfortunately, the current version of the Google calendar API only works with a paid "Google Apps for Work" Account. Therefore, your readers can make use of this part only when they have such a paid account, or within a 30 days testing period - which is not very satisfying.
I hope, my comments are useful, and I'm looking forward to the final version of the book.
Best regards and a happy new year!
Thomas Allweyer
Note from the Author or Editor:
Thanks a lot for your comments. They have been integrated in the final version of the book.