Products.DCWorkflow 2.1.2

DCWorkflow product for the Zope Content Management Framework

This product provides fully customizable workflows for the CMF portal_workflow tool.

Usage

To see an example, after installing DCWorkflow, using the “Contents” tab of your portal_workflow instance add a “CMF default workflow (rev 2)” instance.

Developing a workflow

This tool is easiest to use if you draw a state diagram first. Your diagram should have:

• States (bubbles)

• Transitions (arrows)

• Variables (both in states and transitions)

Remember to consider all the states your content can be in. Consider the actions users will perform to make the transitions between states. And consider not only who will be allowed to perform what functions, but also who will be required to perform certain functions.

On the “States” tab, add a state with a simple ID for each state on your diagram. On the “Transitions” tab, add a transition with a simple ID for each group of arrows that point to the same state and have similar characteristics. Then for each state choose which transitions are allowed to leave that state.

Variables are useful for keeping track of things that aren’t very well represented as separate states, such as counters or information about the action that was last performed. You can create variables that get stored alongside the workflow state and you can make those variables available in catalog searches. Some variables, such as the review history, should not be stored at all. Those variables are accessible through the getInfoFor() interface.

Worklists are a way to make people aware of tasks they are required to perform. Worklists are implemented as a catalog query that puts actions in the actions box when there is some task the user needs to perform. Most of the time you just need to enter a state ID, a role name, and the information to put in the actions box.

You can manage all of the actions a user can perform on an object by setting up permissions to be managed by the workflow. Using the “Permissions” tab, select which permissions should be state-dependent. Then in each state, using the “permissions” tab, set up the role to permission mappings appropriate for that state.

Finally, you can extend the workflow with scripts. Scripts can be External Methods, Python Scripts, DTML methods, or any other callable Zope object. They are accessible by name in expressions. Scripts are invoked with a state_change object as the first argument; see expressions.stx.

Once you’ve crafted your workflow, you hook it up with a content type by using the portal_workflow top-level “Workflows” tab. Specify the workflow name in the target content type’s box.

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Products.DCWorkflow Changelog

2.1.2 (2008-09-13)

• test fixture: Fix failng tests with GenericSetup > 1.3 by explicitly loading GS’ meta.zcml during setup.

2.1.2-beta (2008-08-26)

• completed devolution from monolithic CMF package into its component products that are distributed as eggs from PyPI.

2.1.1 (2008-01-06)

• no changes

2.1.1-beta(2007-12/29)

• Testing: Derive test layers from ZopeLite layer if available.

• exportimport: Scripts with invalid types imported after scripts with valid types will no longer place the valid script twice. Scripts can also now be specified with meta_types other than the hard-coded meta_types.

• AfterTransitionEvent now passes along the new status of the object, just as StateChangeInfo passes on the new status to after-transition scripts. (http://www.zope.org/Collectors/CMF/490)

2.1.0 (2007-08-08)

• Fixed all componentregistry.xml files to use plain object paths and strip and slashes. GenericSetup does only support registering objects which are in the site root.

2.1.0-beta2 (2007-07-12)

• moved the Zope dependency to version 2.10.4

• Remove antique usage of marker attributes in favor of interfaces, leaving BBB behind for places potentially affecting third-party code. (http://www.zope.org/Collectors/CMF/440)

• Add POST-only protections to security critical methods. http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2007-0240)

• Workflow definition instances now have a description field (http://www.zope.org/Collectors/CMF/480)

2.1.0-beta (2007-03-09)

• moved the Zope dependency to verson 2.10.2

• Tool lookup and registration is now done “the Zope 3 way” as utilities, see http://svn.zope.org/CMF/branches/2.1/docs/ToolsAreUtilities.stx?view=auto

• Merged patches from Martin Aspeli to enable generating events before and after DCWorkflow transitions, and in the ‘notify’ methods of the workflow tool (http://www.zope.org/Collectors/CMF/461).

2.1.0-alpha2 (2006-11-23)

• moved the Zope dependency to version 2.10.1

• Fixed test breakage induced by use of Z3 pagetemplates in Zope 2.10+.

• browser views: Added some zope.formlib based forms.

• testing: Added test layers for setting up ZCML.

2.1.0-alpha (2006-10-09)

• skins: Changed encoding of translated portal_status_messages. Now getBrowserCharset is used to play nice with Five forms. Customized setRedirect and getMainGlobals scripts have to be updated.

• Profiles: All profiles are now registered by ZCML.

• ZClasses: Removed unmaintained support for ZClasses. Marked the ‘initializeBases*’ methods as deprecated.

• Content: Added IFactory utilities for all content classes. They are now used by default instead of the old constructor methods.

• Content: All content classes are now registered by ZCML. ContentInit is still used to register oldstyle constructors.

• setup handlers: Removed support for CMF 1.5 CMFSetup profiles.

Earlier releases

For a complete list of changes before version 2.1.0-alpha, see the HISTORY.txt file on the CMF-2.1 branch: http://svn.zope.org/CMF/branches/2.1/HISTORY.txt?view=auto

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