I think that Struts and the MVC architecture could be used to create a basic workflow system.
A "WorkflowState" object would represent the state of items in the workflow (current assignment, current status, and other attributes). A "WorkflowRights" object would represent a user's right to view or change workflow items. A "WorkflowEngine" object would process the "WorkflowState" object and generate a "WorkflowRights" object. The "WorkflowRights" object would be a bean that could be used by a JSP to determine if the text of an item is displayed (if the item "is viewable"), or a form field is displayed for an item (if the item "is changeable"), or perhaps the item is neither viewable nor changeable (the state of the item is simply held by the "WorkflowState" item). The Struts Action object could determine the ActionForward based on the processed "WorkflowState". Things could get messy very quickly if you attempted to create a framework that would account for every interaction and combination, and/or provide a generic rules generation system. However, if you accept that your workflow rules are going to be generated by coding your "WorkflowEngine", you should be able to create a very effective, modular system. Any thoughts? Mike __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
