8. Implementing Workflow
by Vinita Choudhary, Pallika Majumdar, Munwar Shariff, Amita Bhandari
Alfresco 3 Enterprise Content Management Implementation
- Alfresco 3 Enterprise Content Management Implementation
- Table of Contents
- Alfresco 3 Enterprise Content Management Implementation
- Credits
- About the Author
- About the Co-Authors
- Acknowledgements
- About the Reviewers
- Preface
- 1. Introduction to Alfresco
- 2. Installing Alfresco
- Installing Alfresco
- Out of the box installation architecture
- Choosing the right installation option
- Installing on Microsoft Windows
- Full installation
- Installation of the Alfresco Tomcat bundle
- Installation of other Alfresco Components
- Installation folder structure
- Starting and stopping Alfresco as a console application
- Configuring Alfresco as a Windows service
- Installing on Linux
- Installing extensions with AMP Install
- Summary
- Installing Alfresco
- 3. Getting Started with Alfresco
- Introduction to Alfresco Explorer
- Getting started with content creation
- My Alfresco dashboards
- Start with basic configuration
- Extend Alfresco configuration
- Install the enterprise license file
- Change the default administrator password
- Configure the content store
- Configure the relational database
- Configure the email service and email server
- Configure the log files
- Configure the Alfresco virtual file system
- Configure the default logos
- Customize the look and feel using CSS
- Configure multilanguage support
- Creating a blue print for your application
- Summary
- 4. Implementing Membership and Security
- 5. Implementing Document Management
- Managing spaces
- Managing content
- Library services
- Categorizing content
- Managing multilingual content
- Using network drives to manage content
- Microsoft Office 2003 add-ins
- Recovering deleted content
- The Data Dictionary and space templates
- Discussions on spaces and documents
- RSS syndication
- Migrating existing content into Alfresco
- Summary
- 6. Implementing Business Rules
- 7. Extending the Alfresco Content Model
- Custom configuration
- Custom aspect
- Constraints
- Advanced property sheet configuration
- Custom content type
- When do you need a custom content type
- Steps to add a custom content type
- Define the custom content type
- Extend the content model with the custom content type
- Configure the web client for the custom content type
- Add custom content type
- Create a Press Release as HTML content
- Create business rules targeting the custom content type
- Custom associations
- Dynamic models
- Summary
- 8. Implementing Workflow
- Introduction to the Alfresco workflow process
- Simple Workflow
- Advanced workflows
- Workflow user interactions
- Out of the box features
- Creating custom advanced workflows
- Track the status of this workflow through a customized dashlet
- Out of the box features of the workflow task list's dashboards
- Integration with rules
- Summary
- 9. Integrating External Applications with Alfresco
- The Alfresco content platform
- Web Scripts
- Various application integration examples
- Integrating with Liferay
- Integrating with Drupal
- Integrating with Joomla!
- Integrating with Adobe Flex
- Email integration: MS Outlook, Lotus Notes, Novell, and Thunderbird
- Integrating with iPhone
- Integrating with iGoogle
- Integrating with FFMPEG video transcoder
- Integrating with ViewOnePro image viewer
- Integrating with the Facebook social network application
- CMIS
- Summary
- 10. Advanced Collaboration Using Alfresco Share
- Alfresco Share
- My Dashboard
- My Profile
- Sites
- People
- Using your personal dashboard
- Using a site
- Customize a site
- Customizing a site's dashboard
- Editing the site details
- Configuring the site dashboard RSS feed
- Configuring the Wiki site dashlet
- Subscribing to an RSS feed
- Tagging site content
- Selecting a page
- The Wiki page
- The Document Library page
- Accessing the Document Library page
- Browsing the library
- Creating a folder structure
- Adding items to the library
- Working with individual library items
- Viewing an item
- Add a comment to a library item
- Editing a library item comment
- Deleting a library item comment
- Editing an item
- Downloading an item
- Upload updated content
- Deleting an item
- Editing item details
- Copying an item
- Moving an item
- Assigning workflow to an item
- Managing permissions for an item
- Working with multiple library items
- The Calendar page
- The Blog page
- The Discussions page
- Managing site users
- Benefits of using Alfresco Share
- SharePoint protocol support with Alfresco Enterprise 3.0
- Alfresco Share
- 11. Customizing the User Interface
- Configuring Alfresco Explorer
- Configuring views
- User configurable dashboards
- Using a FreeMarker dashlet from the repository
- Customizing Alfresco Share
- Presentation templates
- Configure custom webscripts
- Configure custom dashlets
- Configure custom components in Alfresco Share
- Rich user interface using Flex
- Customizing JSP Client
- Various user interface options
- Summary
- Configuring Alfresco Explorer
- 12. Search
- 13. Implementing Imaging and Forms Processing
- 14. Administering and Maintaining the System
- Index
Workflow is the automation of a business process, during which documents are passed from one participant to another for action, according to a set of procedural rules. Every Content Management System implementation has its own workflow requirements. For some companies, workflow could be a simple approval process. For some companies, it could be a complex business process management system. Workflow provides ownership and control over the content and processes. In this chapter, you will learn about the basic, out-of-the-box workflow capabilities of Alfresco and the ways to extend it as per your business requirements.
By the end of this chapter, you will have learned how to:
- Enable simple workflow for documents
- Create email templates and set email notifications
- Extend workflow to include multiple approval steps
- Implement a complex workflow scenario for document lifecycle management
- Start an advanced workflow from the list of predefined workflows
- Assign documents and properties to the workflow
- Take ownership of a task
- Reassign a task
- Change the workflow state of a task
- List the tasks that are assigned to you and the tasks that have been completed by you
- Cancel or abort the workflows that you have started
- Create your own custom advanced workflow
- Start workflow through business rules
- Dynamically deploy workflows
- Customize dashlet to see the workflow status
Alfresco includes two types of out of the box workflow. The first is the Simple Workflow, which is content-oriented, and the other is the Advanced Workflow, which is task-oriented.
The Simple Workflow process in Alfresco involves the movement of documents through various spaces. It is simple, as each workflow definition is restricted to a single state. Multiple states are achieved by loosely tying together multiple workflow definitions. Loose coupling is achieved by attaching a workflow definition to a space and a workflow instance to a content item. A content item is moved or copied to a new space at which point a new workflow instance is attached, which is based on the workflow definition of the space.
The Advanced Workflow process is task-oriented, where you create a task, attach documents that are to be reviewed, and assign it to appropriate reviewers. You can track the tasks assigned to you and the tasks that are initiated by you. You can change the status of the tasks, reassign the tasks to other users, and cancel a task. You can send various notifications to all of the parties involved, and track the tasks to closure. Alfresco provides this level of workflow ubiquitously, throughout its entire product. The same robust workflow capabilities are available in Document Management (DM), Records Management (RM), Web Content Management (WCM), and throughout our applications, which includes Alfresco Share.
You can use the out of the box features provided by both types of workflow, or you can create your own custom advanced workflow, according to the business processes of your organization.
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