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https://www.evernote.com/shard/s260/sh/17c525e8-ef84-4fcf-a6d6-e868ed7f3782/293a53aa5ead55e3ca20c44f0d5633f1

Schematic

Activation

Deactivation

Terms

• Requestor user that request activation
• Approver user that approves or rejects the activation request
• Human Task a step in the flow that requires a user to make a decision
• Script Task a step in the flow that executes java code
• Message a message in the pulse shown under the header 'Work items'
• Notification a banner shown in the UI when a new message has been received

Detailed steps in workflow

• Requestor clicks Publish action
  
  • ActivationAction
    
    • CommandManager
      
      • VersionCommand
      • LaunchWorkflowCommand
        
        • asks for comment
        • packages attributes from Context into attributes in workflow
        • WorkflowManager.launch()
          
          • workflow is started
          • Enters Human Task : Approval
            
            • creates an item in review app
            • sends message to all approvers (one unique message for each user is generated)
          • workflow is paused
        • notification is shown to Requestor

• Approver clicks message and is taken into Review app
  
  • sees the comment
  • sees the version of the page
  • sees four actions, approve, reject, view diff, view dependencies
  • clicks either approve or reject
    
    • see below
  • item in review app is removed
  • message in pulse is removed for the Approver
  • Human Task : Approval is completed

• Outcome 1 - Approver clicked approve
  
  • Activation command is executed
    
    • if it fails
      
      • notifies the approver with an error message (stored in pulse, notification is shown)
    • if it succeeds
      
      • notifies the requestor with an info message (stored in pulse, notification is shown)
  • workflow is completed

• Outcome 2 - Approver clicked reject
  • Action opens dialog asking for comment
  • Enters Human Task : Rejection
    
    • creates an item in review app
    • sends message to requestor
    • workflow is paused
  • Requestor clicks on message
    
    • sees comment from the approver about why it was rejected
    • sees one action, stop workflow
• Requestor clicks 'stop workflow'
  
  • • item in review app is removed
    • message in pulse is removed for the Requestor
    • Human Task : Rejection is completed
    • workflow is completed

• Approver B clicks his unread message in pulse and is taken into Review app
  • is shown a message that the task has already been completed

Review app

An app for allowing users to complete human tasks.

Requirements

• needs to support configurable views, different for approval(approve, reject) and rejection(close)
• needs to support configurable 'decisions'
• needs to support the item being removed when it is answered
• needs to fail gracefully when an item to be opened is missing because its already been answered
• must support also content other than pages, like contacts, dam etc, basically 
• should be able to display a diff view for pages
• should be able to display dependencies
• should be able to displat comment submitted by the requestor
• should not be visible in the app launcher layout

Philipps notes on the review app

• jump to an independent review app
• this app is not in the app launcher layout
• main tab
  
  • shows the page
  • workflow actions in the action bar
• open diff view
• show dependencies

Overall design principles

• as much as possible should be driven by the workflow using generic components
  
  • this allows for maximum customisation by customers
• review app should be equally configurable in case the customers wants more Human Tasks with different options
• there can be multiple items in review app for one workflow instance, in case it branched and both branches are in Human Tasks

Open questions

• should we remove or change messages (for all users) that point to an item in the Review app when the item is answered?
• how do we transfer command context attributes into the workflow, currently it cherry-picks only a few of them
• can we remove the need for configurable views in Review App and instead supply the available options from the workflow itself? on the item added
• is the review app a content app?
• jbpm starts background threads, how much of a problem is this and what can we do?
• workflow definitions are reloaded on change in repository but not updated in jbpm knowledge service, how can we do this without restarting the knowledge service?

• should we maybe mark item in review app as completed instead of removing it?

Tasks and issues

• pulse does not support links on messages, it can only open a message view which seems like an unnecessary step
• a user viewing the message when it is removed must not encounter an error because of this
• hiding the review app from the app launcher does not work, an app not in the app launcher cannot be started
• externalise hard coded messages
• extract boostrap files to get rid of MetaData nodes
• implement version handler that cleans up after old module
• forth activation status showing that an activation is pending to avoid users activating again and again
• configurable workflow for paths in workspace, both workflowname and dialog should be customisable
• catalog needs to be possible to specify from the workflow
• notification template in mail module  Unable to locate Jira server for this macro. It may be due to Application Link configuration.

• review/implement install/update tasks

  • update/cleanup when upgrading from 4.x - warn user if we remove stuff (ideally, check if they customized the wf)
  • where does config go (which module), which module installs what/where

Typical extension examples

• six eyes review process
• send mail in certain steps

Persistence

Knowledge service

Stores process instances.

• MGNLWORKFLOW-80
• http://docs.jboss.org/jbpm/v5.4/userguide/ch.core-persistence.html#d0e3365
• persisting process instances
  
  • ProcessInstanceManagerFactory
  • ProcessSignalManagerFactory
  • we need to save instances of org.jbpm.ruleflow.instance.RuleFlowProcessInstance
  • JPA impl marshalls RuleFlowProcessInstance to ProcessInstanceInfo
  • JPASignalManager only preloads process instances waiting for a specific event before letting the default impl do its thing

Human task service

Stores data on human tasks. The tasks id, the process instance id and input parameters.

• http://docs.jboss.org/jbpm/v5.4/userguide/ch.human-tasks.html#d0e5656
• persisting work items / tasks
  
  • WorkItemManagerFactory
  • DefaultWorkItemManager stores WorkItemImpl in memory
  • JPAWorkItemManager marshalls WorkItemImpl to WorkItemInfo
  • we will need to keep track of all messages in pulse that refer to a task

Workspace

• use one workspace: “workflows” keeping

• process instances (e.g. under /processInstances)

• tasks

• items for the workflow app

Node types

• workflow-nodetypes.xml defines two new nodetypes: mgnl:groups + mgnl:roles
  
  • don’t think this naming is explicit enough - to easy to mix with mgnl:group and mgnl:role
• in code
  
  • there’s no WorkflowNodeTypes type but just constants
  • there’s actually a third nodeTpye: mgnl:workItem
• in 4.5 workflow: there’s workItem + expression - both defined as proper nodeTypes and used when storing in “store” jcr workspace...
  
  • comparing with 4.5
    
    • owfe-nodetypes.xml -> defines workItem + expression, both stored

Prioritisation

A) Basic Workflow Unable to locate Jira server for this macro. It may be due to Application Link configuration.

• A) work item has a speaking title and description
  
  • which page, type of request (e.g. review), …..
  • no silly (technical) content in the message (task id, ….)
  • --> dynamic title and description based on workflow parameters as well as the user
• A) open page to be reviewed
  
  • --> can open the pages app (diff view would be even better)
  • open the correct version (feature should exist, is used for deleted pages)
  • a version is created when the workflow is started (commend)
  • the version is name is transported via the workflow (work item?)
• B) work item disappears after reacting on it
• C) reject
  
  • should not stop workflow:
    
    • 1. author publishes
    • 2. reviewer rejects
    • 3. author stops workflow
  • pulse message to the author (without comment)
    
    • tell that it was rejected 

A) Support for Groups (Pulse and Workflow)  Unable to locate Jira server for this macro. It may be due to Application Link configuration.

B) Error Handling

B) Demo User Eric and Peter

• author can start workflow
• reviewer can reject and proceed

B) Various technical issues (to be converted into tickets)

• workflow message is not deleted after approving/rejecting activation

• when trying to approve already approved workflow error message is displayed in the box, when trying to reject it, error message is displayed in as line under the trinity icons (and in second case also error message is generated and sent)

• there is no indication of failing activation. When hitting approve on instance w/ missing public, it just seems like activation is working fine.

• in error messages, stacktrace is wrongly formatted making it impossible to read

• how to get workflow definitions out of workflow - e.g. to modify them?
• bunch of errors when trying to use workflow (see http://pastebin.com/Q40SUHUx )

C) Commenting

C) Review App (what's that precisely)