[Zope] Generic Workflow Products?

[Kapil Thangavelu]

Cary O'Brien wrote:
> 
> After applying Zope to a couple of in-house projects
> (which turned out pretty well, thank you),  I've started
> to come to the realization that many applications boil
> down to workflow management.  A job comes in, attributes
> get set, things get attached to it, and it gets passed
> from person to person (to machine, in some cases)
> as it flows through the system.
> 
> I guess to start out it would need the following:
> 
> -- user classes
> -- job creation
> -- job attributes, with protection from view and modification
>    depending on user classes
> -- multiple job queues, with access control, and some sort
>    of priority.  Queues may end up being implemented simply
>    by having a job state, sequence number, and priority, and
>    moving from one queue to another would just be changing
>    the state.
> -- job timeouts for escalation,
> -- e-mail "ticklers" and notification
> -- job routing based on attributes and actions.
> -- some sort of api other then HTTP/HTML for external
>    programs to access jobs, perform actions, and update
>    jobs.
> -- Extra Credit:  Graphical workflow editor.
> -- (what else am I missing)
> 
> Sounds like a job for Zope, doesn't it.  Basically I've
> implemented a couple of systems like this, either
> classic database-driven or z-class driven.  But I'm tired
> of re-inventing the wheel.  It would be nicer if systems
> like this could be implemented at the "workflow logic"
> level rather than the Zclass level.  IE a set of ZClasses
> or Product classes that implemented workflow systems.
> 
> Is there such a thing? Has anyone worked on such a thing?
> Any ideas how to implement such a thing?
> 
> I've got a couple of modifications to an existing system
> coming up, which sounds like just the excuse I need
> for a total rewrite :)
> 

Check out some of the recent work on the PTK list, its building the
infrastructure you need to implement plugabble workflows.


Kapil