book_openwfe.txt

日常的办公系统 应用工作流框架等增加员工的基本信息、培训信息、奖罚信息、薪资信息

OpenWFE

Open source WorkFlow Engine

John Mettraux
     _________________________________________________________

   Table of Contents

   1. Introduction

        What is OpenWFE ?
        System requirements

   2. Installation

        about the README files
        Installing a Java Development Kit
        Downloading an OpenWFE release
        Unpacking the release and setting the environment
        Content of OpenWFE's releases

              Engine
              Worklist
              Webclient
              Apre
              Droflo

   3. Running OpenWFE

        Start scripts

              troubleshooting
              Starting the engine and the other components

        First web login

   4. Configuration

        An overview OpenWFE's architecture

              Services and applications
              The participant map
              Listeners and dispatchers

        Worklist user management

              Roles, participants and users
              Launch permissions
              Query stores
              Modifying etc/worklist/passwd.xml directly
              SqlPasswdCodec
              User management web interface

        Putting a relational database behind OpenWFE

              XlobEpressionStore
              XlobWorkItemStore
              The relational database
              'swis', the SqlWorkItemStore
              SqlPasswdCodec
              Implementing and using a data source

        Dispatchers and listeners

              Dispatching over a socket
              Dispatching over a smtp
              Securing the dispatch
              How should the workitem get encoded

        OpenWFE as a service

              OpenWFE as a linux service
              OpenWFE as a windows service

   5. An example : a ticket system
   6. Workflow definitions

        How does the workflow engine works ?

              Workflow definitions
              Expressions
              Workitems

        Expressing a business process

              The 'participant' expression
              set
              if
              case
              equals
              not
              and
              or
              greater-than
              lesser-than
              when
              sleep
              save and restore
              inc
              unset
              undefined
              defined
              subprocess
              log
              using variables with the dollar notation
              using constants with the dollar notation
              functions
              Implementing your own expressions

        Validation of an XML workflow definition

   7. Workflow Patterns

        Pattern 1 (Sequence)
        Pattern 2 (Parallel Split)
        Pattern 3 (Synchronization)

              Synchronization through correlation

        Pattern 4 (Exclusive choice)
        Pattern 5 (Simple merge)
        Pattern 6 (Multi-choice)
        Pattern 7 (Synchronizing Merge)
        Pattern 8 (Multiple Merge)
        Pattern 9 (Discriminator)

              Pattern 9a (N out of M join)

        Pattern 10 (Arbitrary Cycles)
        Pattern 11 (Implicit Termination)
        Pattern 12 (Multiple Instances without Synchronization)
        Pattern 13 (Multiple Instances with Design Time
                Knowledge)

        Pattern 14 (Multiple Instances with Run Time Knowledge)

              Iterator

        Pattern 15 (Multiple Instances without Run Time
                Knowledge)

        Pattern 16 (Deferred Choice)
        Pattern 17 (Interleaved Parallel Routing)
        Pattern 18 (Milestone)
        Pattern 19 (Cancel Activity)
        Pattern 20 (Cancel Case)

   8. Command line tools

        wfcmd.sh
        control.sh

   9. The APRE and the Automatic Participants

        The Apre
        The Pyya Apre
        The Agents

              Agent's result

   10. Invoking web services from OpenWFE

        The 'WsInvoker' dispatcher class
        The ws-param-map.xml file

   11. Embedding OpenWFE

        The embedded engine
        Using the FsPersistedEngine
        Using the DbPersistedEngine
        Embedded worklists
        Using the the InMemoryWorklist

   12. Business Activity Monitoring

        TextHistory
        SqlHistory
        The Status service
        Auditing modifications on workitems

   13. The RMI WorkSession

        An example
        Playing with a WorkItem

              An easier way of handling workitem attributes :
                      owfe2java() and back

              Storing beans in a workitem

   14. OpenWFE's application framework

        The configuration file

              Looking up services
              Sub-contexts (referring to other config files)

        The passwd.xml file

              The policy files

        Writing your own service

              A simple example

   15. Pyya

        The Pyya Worksession
        The Pyya Apre

              An example python agent : the 'to-pdf-agent'

   16. openwfe-dotnet

        Establishing a WorkSession

   17. The "Mail Form" system

        A flow with a 'mail form'
        Emitting 'mail forms'
        Listening for 'mail forms'

   18. OpenWFE tips and tricks

        Lauching a flow with netcat

   List of Figures

   4.1. a etc/worklist/query-map.xml example
   4.2. OpenWFE Debian start script

Chapter 1. Introduction

   Table of Contents

   What is OpenWFE ?
   System requirements

What is OpenWFE ?

   OpenWFE is an Open source WorkFlow Engine.

   OpenWFE is also a complete workflow management system. It
   features four components. The engine of course, a worklist
   handler, an apre (Automatic Participant Runtime Environment)
   and a web interface. The web interface as released is just a
   'proof of concept'.

   OpenWFE is currently released only in its full suite. The 4
   components are packaged to interact with each other.

   A fifth component was added : 'Droflo', a web interface for
   modelling business processes.

   If you want to learn more about OpenWFE's architecture, you
   should take a look at its website (http://www.openwfe.org).

System requirements

   OpenWFE requires a system with a Java Development Kit (JDK) of
   version 1.4.0 or younger. A Java Runtime Environment (JRE) of
   version 1.4.0 or younger is ok if you won't use the
   webapplication. The webapplication requires a JDK because it
   contains the javac compiler that is necessary in order to
   compile JSP (java server pages) into servlets.

Chapter 2. Installation

   Table of Contents

   about the README files
   Installing a Java Development Kit
   Downloading an OpenWFE release
   Unpacking the release and setting the environment
   Content of OpenWFE's releases

        Engine
        Worklist
        Webclient
        Apre
        Droflo

about the README files

   The best and the most up to date information about installing
   and running an OpenWFE suite can be found in the
   README.windows.txt or README.linux.txt found in your OpenWFE
   binary package. These readme do not provide information about
   configuring an OpenWFE system, they just help you in your
   first step : setting up and running a default OpenWFE suite.

Installing a Java Development Kit

   Before installing, you should make sure your system has a
   properly installed java virtual machine. Make sure to install
   a JDK and not a JRE (a Java Runtime Environment).

   If you intend to run the full OpenWFE suite, you should have a
   JDK (Java Dev Kit) and not only a JRE (Java Runtime
   Environment). The web interface needs the java compiler in
   order to turn jsp pages into servlet bytecode.

   You should have at least a Java 1.4.0 virtual machine. Earlier
   versions won't work.

   On the windows platform, you should use at least the 1.4.1
   JDK.

   You can find a JDK at http://java.sun.com

Downloading an OpenWFE release

   Having checked this, you can go and download OpenWFE :
   http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=54621

   Download for example openwfe-1.5.1.tgz

   Always make sure to download the latest version. Some versions
   are pre-releases they introduce bug fixes or new feature,
   seeing OpenWFE gently evolving into an even better solution.

   You have the opportunity to download a source release. It
   includes the source code that got compiled into fellow
   releases.

Unpacking the release and setting the environment

   Once you have this package, go in your home directory or
   create a directory for it. Remember that the package will
   contain a first level of directory.

   Unpack the file and then go into what you've just unpacked.

   On GNU/Linux, make sure that all the .sh files present are
   executable (chmod a+x *.sh).

   You then have to indicate to the OpenWFE where your Java
   Development Kit is located. You do this by editing the
   openwfe-x.x.x/base.sh file. It sets three

   For example, if you have your JDK in /usr/local/j2sdk145, make
   sure that base.sh contains :
JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/j2sdk145

   Or, you can comment (#) this line of definition if your
   command line environment already holds a value for JAVA_HOME.
   You can check this by typing
echo $JAVA_HOME

   If a valid path is returned, you can comment the JAVA_HOME
   definition in base.sh (or set it to the echoed value).

   On a windows system, you should use the command
echo %JAVA_HOME%

   to determine if your environment is correct. This environment
   variable can be set in the 'user profile' of your system.
   There is for the moment (OpenWFE 1.3.2) no equivalent of
   base.sh for the Windows platform.

Content of OpenWFE's releases

Engine

   The heart of the system, it's our workflow execution
   environment.

Worklist

   The worklist is a set of stores for workitems. Workitems are
   emitted by the engine upon encountering a
   ParticipantExpression. A worklist stores workitems and let
   participants retrieve and use them.

   Since 0.6.2, a new kind of store appeared. It is generally
   used as the unique store of a worklist, and queries are
   defined for each users trying to access it.

Webclient

   Also called the webappserver. The webclient is in fact a web
   application devised to interact with the worklist. It embeds
   Jetty (http://jetty.mortbay.com) so that you don't have to
   care about setting up a servlet/jsp container yourself.

Apre

   The apre is a carrier for agent implemented either in java or
   in jython. For example there is an agent named
   'EmailNotificationAgent' that is implemented in jython and
   that does what its name stands for. You can find its
   implementation under apre-scripts/EmailNotificationAgent.py.
   Flow 1.7 and flow 1.8 make use of such agents.

Droflo

   Droflo is a web based workflow design tool. It means that you