[Zope-PTK] Member Publishing

[Shane Hathaway]

"Spicklemire, Jerry" wrote:
>         Workflow = State Machine
> 
> So obvious, but it just never hit me before.

Tres just came up with a few more ideas today that build upon that
concept.

It's been in the plan for a while to create a portal_workflow object
that would allow a manager to create and configure a state machine.  But
you could do even more if:

  - the portal_workflow object were allowed complete control over the
"workflow_status" attribute of all portal content.  The portal content
would be ignorant of its own workflow status.

  - you could have multiple state machines and you could assign state
machines to meta types.

  - permissions were assigned to transitions.

  - all protected actions on an object, including those that don't
change the object's workflow status, were protected by transitions
rather than permissions.  (Otherwise the number of necessary permissions
explodes quickly.)

  - objects could participate in multiple state machines (workflows)
simultaneously, making substates possible.

Very hot stuff.  I can't wait to see how it will all work.

Shane