Hi Ross, The term Workflow can potentially mean a lot of things to different people, and it certainly sounds like you're talking about business process workflows. I have been looking at (well, thinking mainly) about "workflows" in the context of Data Integration applications, where there are many steps, and one or many dependencies between the steps. There would be an intial "start" step, followed by path(s) of interrelated steps, endind in a final "End" step. Somewhat similar to what you are talking about, but without the human element. Perhaps "Job scheduling with Dependencies" is perhaps a better word for it than workflow.
Would you say the workflow engine you're talking about is relevant to this scenario? Thanks On Friday, May 25, 2012 3:59:50 PM UTC+12, Massimo Di Pierro wrote: > > +1 > > On Thursday, 24 May 2012 14:57:55 UTC-5, Richard wrote: >> >> Keep going Ross, I like what I read! >> >> :) >> >> Richard >> >> On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 3:29 PM, Ross Peoples <ross.peop...@gmail.com>wrote: >> >>> Just wanted to give an update on this. I'm working on the workflow >>> engine nearly every day. Workflow engines are complicated things with lots >>> of pitfalls that need to be taken into account. Having said that, I am >>> getting closer to completing it. >>> >>> What works: >>> >>> - Templates >>> - Creating workflows on-the-fly >>> - Serial and parallel steps (wait on more than one user/group at a >>> time) >>> - Due date calculation taking schedules, holidays, etc into account >>> - Simple flow of a workflow (i.e. every step is completed >>> successfully, without issue) >>> - Full delta auditing with support for writing audit logs to another >>> DAL instance >>> - Triggers (when someone does something to a workflow, some code can >>> be executed) >>> >>> What needs to be finished: >>> >>> - Step rejections (someone noticed a problem created in a previous >>> step and wants to send it back to be corrected) >>> - Workflow monitors (users that aren't currently involved with the >>> workflow, but want to monitor the workflow's progress) >>> - Workflow comments (have rejections and other comments on the >>> workflow been addressed) >>> - Workflow check-list (high-level workflow objectives, created and >>> managed by users, basically just meta-data) >>> - Documentation (API and User Guide) >>> >>> Most of the functionality in the "needs to be finished" list has been >>> written, but not tested. The engine is about 1500 lines of code right now, >>> which includes about 350 lines of tests. One of my main goals has been to >>> write a test suite that tests as many scenarios as possible. Writing a user >>> guide with example usage will come after the engine has been accepted in >>> web2py. I want to make sure the API doesn't need changing before I start >>> writing actual documentation. >>> >>> I started writing this engine because I needed to replace a proprietary >>> engine I created in C# several years ago that has seen years of production >>> use. Unfortunately, the old engine lacks a lot of features (parallel steps, >>> monitors, comments, check-lists, auditing, etc) and is tied to a single >>> specific object. I wanted a workflow engine that could attach a workflow to >>> just about anything. I also wanted it to have better features, cleaner >>> code, and be easier to use. >>> >>> Hopefully, I will continue to make excellent progress on it and have >>> something to submit for approval soon. I'll keep you posted! >>> >> >>
