[Zope-CMF] workflows what are they and how to use them

[Shane Hathaway]

On Thu, 26 Jul 2001, Ulrich Eck wrote:

> the main problem i have is, that the CMF-Workflow is tightly
> integrated in the PortalContent-Objects .. the activity-based workflow
> cannot .. there must be another way to offer the activities to the
> user .. but how :-) another problem is .. how to define activities
> that use portal-content-objects and howto specify that ..
>
> looking forward for your comments

Sorry, I really don't have any yet.  We're looking at the ideas in very
different ways and I won't be able to make useful comments until I've
fully examined wfmc and OpenFlow.

But here are my less mature thoughts.  :-)  You want a unit of work to be
represented as an object, right?  So naturally you associate a workflow
definition with a certain object type.  Now let's say there are several
subtasks in this work unit.  Subtasks are just another work unit, right?
So your subtasks are also objects.  They are stored as children of the
parent task.

Let's say certain subtasks aren't available except when the parent task is
in a certain state.  You set up a guard condition for those subtasks that
checks the state of the parent object.

Let's say completion of all subtasks implies completion of the task.  You
set up a script that modifies the parent's state when the subtasks are
completed.

I could provide more mini-use cases, but it really wouldn't be helpful
since I have not examined wfmc and OpenFlow enough yet.  DCWorkflow is
nothing more than a proof of concept (intended to prove that you can
indeed create state machines through the web), not a fully researched
project.

My unresearched thoughts are that DCWorkflow seems much more
object-oriented than the approaches taken by authors of several workflow
articles I've read.  But we'll see.  It will be some time, I think,
because Zope Corp. can only take on so many non-customer projects.

Shane