[Zope] Generic Workflow Products?

[Kapil Thangavelu]

aboulanger@vpatch.com wrote:
> 
>    After applying Zope to a couple of in-house projects
>    (which turned out pretty well, thank you),  I've started
>    to come to the realization that many applications boil
>    down to workflow management.  A job comes in, attributes
>    get set, things get attached to it, and it gets passed
>    from person to person (to machine, in some cases)
>    as it flows through the system.
> 
>    I guess to start out it would need the following:
> 
>    -- user classes
>    -- job creation
>    -- job attributes, with protection from view and modification
>       depending on user classes
>    -- multiple job queues, with access control, and some sort
>       of priority.  Queues may end up being implemented simply
>       by having a job state, sequence number, and priority, and
>       moving from one queue to another would just be changing
>       the state.
>    -- job timeouts for escalation,
>    -- e-mail "ticklers" and notification
>    -- job routing based on attributes and actions.
>    -- some sort of api other then HTTP/HTML for external
>       programs to access jobs, perform actions, and update
>       jobs.
>    -- Extra Credit:  Graphical workflow editor.
>    -- (what else am I missing)
> 
>    Sounds like a job for Zope, doesn't it.  Basically I've
>    implemented a couple of systems like this, either
>    classic database-driven or z-class driven.  But I'm tired
>    of re-inventing the wheel.  It would be nicer if systems
>    like this could be implemented at the "workflow logic"
>    level rather than the Zclass level.  IE a set of ZClasses
>    or Product classes that implemented workflow system.
> 
>    -- cary
> 
> There are several workflow activites within Zope that I know of:
> 
> PTK has and "implicit" workflow support for moving documents in a
> review process. Unfortunately workflow hangs off of the documents from
> what I saw of its design patterns. Not a good design if a workflow
> step involves multiple documents and the execution of applications on
> data.

The PTK has been undergoing radical changes as of late. Its worth taking
another look at as the current design is much more supportive of
alternative workflow designs.

> Several Zope sites have some kind of workflow for what they do. There
> is a mesh healing (CAD/CAM) Zope based application service provider
> (ASP) that comes to mind.

also the Xen Zope Product (not on zope.org, where i forget)


Kapil