[Zope3-dev] WORKFLOW: Notes on WFMC and XPDL

[Dominik Huber]

Jim Fulton wrote:

> Jim Fulton wrote:
>
>>
>> I've been studying some literature on workflow, in preparation for
>> proposing an activity-based workflow framework for Zope 3.  The
>> Workflow-Management Coalition (WFMC) has published a number of
>> documents and standards:
>>
>>   http://www.wfmc.org/standards/docs.htm
>>
>> to promote interoperability of workflow systems.  The WFMC standards
>> are interesting for two (somewhat obvious) reasons:
>>
>> - They represent years of industry experience.
>>
>> - They provide interfaces that it would be useful, for
>>   interoperability, for Zope-based workflow systems to support
>>
>> One of the more important standards is the XML-based Workflow Process
>> Description Language (XPDL,
>> http://www.wfmc.org/standards/docs/TC-1025_10_xpdl_102502.pdf), which
>> specifies both an interchange format and process-definition
>> architecture.  The WFMC/XPDL model is not without it's limitations
>> (see, for example:
>> http://tmitwww.tm.tue.nl/research/patterns/download/ce-xpdl.pdf), but
>> it seems like a good place to start.
>
>
> I've begun implementing a workflow engine that can execute
> xpdl-defined models.  I think the documentation:
>
>   
> http://svn.zope.org/Zope3/trunk/src/zope/wfmc/README.txt?rev=28689&view=markup 
>
>
> should be useful for understanding how this works, and, in particular,
> how this fits in with the rest of an application.
>
> Jim
>
New dimensions, the brain is still prickling :)
Thanks!
Dominik