jBPM 5 does not allow attaching timer boundary events to WorkItemNode. The following fragment:

        <receiveTask completionQuantity="1" id="_2_1_21" implementation="##WebService" instantiate="false"

                     isForCompensation="false" messageRef="ID_30607364_7317_2206_0052_000400200024"

                     name="Receive confirmation" startQuantity="1">

            <incoming>_2_1_22</incoming>

            <outgoing>_2_1_25</outgoing>

        </receiveTask>

        <boundaryEvent attachedToRef="_2_1_21" id="_2_1_21_1" name="48 Hours">

            <outgoing>_2_1_21_2</outgoing>

            <timerEventDefinition id="ID_22607364_7317_2206_0052_000400200027">

                <timeCycle>P48H</timeCycle>

            </timerEventDefinition>

        </boundaryEvent>

results in exception:

java.lang.ClassCastException: org.jbpm.workflow.core.node.WorkItemNode cannot be cast to org.jbpm.workflow.core.node.CompositeContextNode

while executing this line (ProcessHandler.java, line #280):

CompositeContextNode compositeNode = (CompositeContextNode) attachedNode;

Both CompositeContextNode and WorkItemNode extend StateBasedNode class, which defines addTimer() - the only method called from ProcessHandler while processing timer boundary event. In other words, changing the offending line to

StateBasedNode compositeNode = (StateBasedNode) attachedNode;

will compile and will not result in run time exception. However, will it run? In other words, would it be sufficient to enable timer boundary events for work item nodes?