[Zope] zope form server and workflow

Tim Nash thedagdae at gmail.com
Tue Feb 6 22:13:35 EST 2007


I'd like to get zope developers advice. I'm interested in the
possibility of developing a system by putting together several zope
instance that talk to each other via web services. I'd like to use
zope as a RESTful server but I am novice zope user. I have only built
one product and that was over a year ago.

What I would like to do is the following:

I'd like to be able to use zope as a url addressed storage system for
e-forms. These are forms like you would find in a hospital clinic.
There would be a gui interface that would be separate from the zope
server (maybe it would also run in a different zope server but it
could also be built in php or jsp).

The gui pulls a blank e-form by calling
http://hospital.org/form_service/patientCareForms/12465.pdf
and pre-populates it with patient data taken from the session.

Gui then stores the partially completed e-form. MRN is a unique number
associated with a patient
and FIN is unique to the MRN as well as the current encounter (or
visit to the clinic)
http://hospital.org/cardiovascular/MRN/FIN/date/uniqueid_12465.pdf

then at a later time, gui recalls the same e-form
http://hospital.org/cardiovascular/MRN/FIN/date/uniqueid_12465.pdf

and sends it to a users mailbox. The mailbox is a zope workflow service
http://hospital.org/workflow_service/dr_phil/date/uniqueid_12465.pdf

Dr. Phil signs it and sends it to become part of the final medical
record and stored in a relational database. The eform data is
processed
http://hospital.org/workflow_service/process_eform/12465.pdf

And the pdf is sent for storage:
http://hospital.org/stored_forms/cardiovascular/MRN/FIN/date/uniqueid_12465.pdf

Is this possible in zope? Is it even a good idea performance wise? The
tough part to me is
1. calling a url with two consecutive url parts that are dynamically
generated: /MRN/FIN
2. doing inserts into dynamic areas such as the final storage step.

A system like this is would let the physician's use e-forms that look
just like the paper forms they are used to and it could be scaled up
quickly.


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