>> to write your own work item handlers, you should have to use eclipse or some other IDE.
Well, that's where I'm confused. I created the work item definitions with the Process Designer's built-in editor and the work items show up as tasks in the Process Designer. The JBPM Console sees the BPMN2 process created in Process Designer, as its supposed to.
If the BPMN2 process contains the work item definitions and the JBPM Console executes the BPMN2 process, shouldn't the work items also be executed by the Console?