Thanks for feedback David, Yes only future will tell, past did already. I pretty sure you are right : experience tells.
Actually, I'm not specially a workflow big fan, and ECA have proven their usefulness. Nevertheless, I wonder what would appear from OSWorkflow in OFBiz in some areas. In general, I don't like to close doors (or not open them rather) before being sure there are nothing interesting behing them, live is so short ! My father always told me : "L'experience d'autrui ne profite jamais", he was right ! A bit digressive sorry :o) Jacques ----- Message d'origine ----- > > For anyone looking into this it might be helpful to keep in mind that OSWorkflow is VERY different from the ECA rules in OFBiz and is also very different (rather less different though) from a WfMC style workflow engine which includes both Shark and the old OFBiz Workflow Engine. > > For anyone wondering how this affects things in the future in OFBiz, it will depend totally on where people find it to be helpful. For many things, even very custom things, that we've done we have found that a workflow engine just doesn't end up helping a whole lot when you are doing custom application that require special management of automated and manual work. You end up having to create custom screens and map everything in the workflow to other entities in the data model anyway, and it's usually less code and work initially and over time, and WAY more flexible, to just do that with the other tools in OFBiz rather than having a centralized work management piece. There are of course exceptions to this, but in general the changes that are often needed over time don't always match up well with the changes that a tool like this will facilitate. In short, having tried many of these tools for similar problems I haven't seen a huge win with a workflow engine yet. > > -David > > > Jacques Le Roux wrote: > > Anthony, > > > > Thanks for this. Having an usable alternative to ECA sounds good to me. > > Nice to know, by the way, that the Jira team uses OSWorkflow in their > > work. Does someone know more about that ? > > > > I'm sure I'm not the only one looking forward for your work ! > > > > Jacques > > > > De : "Anthony Enrione" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >> Hi Jacques, > >> > >> Yes i would like to get it into Ofbiz. I will keep you all posted on > > my > >> progress. When we have completed the integration i will produce a > > patch > >> file. It's a nice workflow engine because it's small a compact and i > >> think that it would be a good fit for Ofbiz. > >> > >> Anthony. > >> > >> Jacques Le Roux wrote: > >>> Anthony, > >>> > >>> Do you think about integrating OSWorkflow in OFBiz ? > >>> > >>> Jacques > >>> > >>> De : "Anthony Enrione" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >>> > >>>> Jacques, > >>>> > >>>> Thanks for the reply. > >>>> > >>>> We had a look at using the eventing mechanisms in Ofbiz but found > > it > >>>> hard to create complex workflows, especially workflows that need to > >>>> > >>> make > >>> > >>>> decisions or persist state. We had a look at Shark and found it a > >>>> > >>> little > >>> > >>>> on the heavy side. > >>>> > >>>> Just to let you know... > >>>> After having evaluated a number of workflow engines, we have > > decided > >>> to > >>> > >>>> go with OSWorkflow. It is small. The main workflow is done in a > > single > >>>> Java class and it has a simple persistance interface. We found it > >>>> already has support for Ofbiz entities (perhaps this was added by > > the > >>>> Jira developers as they use both OSWorkflow and the Ofbiz Entity > >>>> Engine?). I have been busy integrating OSWorkflow and adding > > support > >>> for > >>> > >>>> invoking Ofbiz Services. OSWorkflow makes use of Quartz to do the > >>>> scheduling but it was very easy to replace this with the Ofbiz > >>>> > >>> scheduler. > >>> > >>>> Anthony. > >>>> > >>>> Jacques Le Roux wrote: > >>>> > >>>>> Anthony, > >>>>> > >>>>> Quick answer. > >>>>> > >>>>> The OFBIz workflow engine is normally deprecated by the Shark > >>>>> > >>> workflow > >>> > >>>>> engine (which was originally built on the top of th OFBiz workflow > >>>>> engine). > >>>>> However I guess that there are not a lot of persons using a > > workflow > >>>>> engine in OFBiz. > >>>>> In a typical use of OFBiz (eCommerce for instance) most of the > >>>>> > >>> workflow > >>> > >>>>> job is currently done thru ECA mechanims (SECA for Services, EECA > >>>>> > >>> for > >>> > >>>>> Entities, MECA for mailing). > >>>>> > >>>>> This is not to discourage you to use the existing workflow engines > >>>>> > >>> in > >>> > >>>>> OFBiz but to let you know that you will not find much support from > >>>>> > >>> the > >>> > >>>>> OFBiz community. > >>>>> > >>>>> Jacques > >>>>> > >>>>> De : "Anthony Enrione" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >>>>> > >>>>> > >>>>>> Hi all, > >>>>>> > >>>>>> We are using Ofbiz to build an ecommerce site and i am currently > >>>>>> evaluating workflow engines. I have seen that Ofbiz has it's own > >>>>>> workflow engine which (from the source code) looks fairly > > complete. > >>>>>> There is also support for the Ehydra Workflow engine. I have some > >>>>>> questions regarding the two: > >>>>>> > >>>>>> What is the state of the internal workflow engine in Ofbiz? Is it > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>> fully > >>>>> > >>>>> > >>>>>> functional? If not what areas need to be worked on? > >>>>>> Why was Ehydra chosen to replace the existing Workflow engine in > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>> Ofbiz? > >>>>> > >>>>> > >>>>>> How well does it integrate with Ofbiz? > >>>>>> Does anybody have any experience of using either of the two > >>>>>> > >>> systems? > >>> > >>>>>> Any advice would be gratefully appreciated. > >>>>>> > >>>>>> Anthony. > >>>>>> > >>>>>> > >>>>> > >>> > >>> > >> > >
