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custom workflow

tonizz

Hi everybody,

I only have a user, admin, in my site to publish web contents from web forms. So up to now this user has to create and submit the contents and after this, he has to "auto-review" and "auto-approve" the contents that he created. I would like to publish without having to approve or regret. In other words I would like to release directly to the main sandbox.

could be a solution creating a new custom workflow?In this case, how can I do it. More or less I know what I migth do but I dont know which files I have to edit o which are the tasks I have to modify.

Thanks in advance!

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Comments

kvc

Yes, you will need to create a custom workflow. Web Forms are required to be configured for workflow to promote to Staging.

You will want to want to use the workflow task types defined in /webapps/alfresco/WEB-INF/classes/alfresco/workflow/wcmWorkflowModel.xml. You will also want to use /webapps/alfresco/WEB-INF/classes/alfresco/workflow/submit_processdefinition.xml as a model for your custom workflow, and create your own process definition in the same folder location (/workflow) using the same naming convention (myworkflowname_processdefinition.xml). Once you've created your own custom workflow, you'll want to enable it and make it visible when configuring workflow for web forms and web projects by adding it to the <workflows/> section of web-client-config-wcm.xml in /webapps/alfresco/WEB-INF/classes/alfresco/web-client-config-wcm.xml.

The key elements from our default submit to include in your custom model are:

    <task-node name="submitted">
        <event type="node-enter">
           <action class="org.alfresco.repo.avm.wf.AVMSubmitPackageHandler"/>
        </event>
        <task name="wcmwf:submittedTask" swimlane="initiator" />
        <transition name="" to="end" />
    </task-node>
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

and

    <!–                 –>
    <!– End the Process –>
    <!–                 –>

    <end-state name="end"/>
    
    <event type="process-end">
        <action class="org.alfresco.repo.avm.wf.AVMRemoveAllSrcWebappsHandler"/>
        <action class="org.alfresco.repo.avm.wf.AVMRemoveWFStoreHandler"/>
    </event>
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

The first is responsible for actually committing your changes to Staging, and the second is responsible for clearing the virtualization server and removing your temporary workflow sandbox.

Hope that helps.

Kevin

tonizz

Thanks for your help kevin.

I think I have done everything you wrote in the post but something is not working.

I have created my process definition called approved_processdefinition.xml in the folder \workflow

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<process-definition xmlns="urn:jbpm.org:jpdl-3.1" name="wcmwf:approved">

    <swimlane name="initiator"/>

    <start-state name="start">
        <task name="" swimlane="initiator"/>
        <transition name="" to="submitted"/>
    </start-state>
   
    <task-node name="submitted">
        <event type="node-enter">
           <action class="org.alfresco.repo.avm.wf.AVMSubmitPackageHandler"/>
        </event>
        <task name="wcmwf:submittedTask" swimlane="initiator" />
        <transition name="" to="end" />
    </task-node>

    <end-state name="end"/>
    
    <event type="process-end">
        <action class="org.alfresco.repo.avm.wf.AVMClearSubmittedHandler"/>
        <action class="org.alfresco.repo.avm.wf.AVMRemoveWFStoreHandler"/>
    </event>

</process-definition>‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

After this, I have modified the file web-client-config-wcm.xml adding my workflow:

<workflows>
     wcmwf:submit,wcmwf:approved
</workflows>‍‍‍

When I start alfresco tomcat It finds this error:

Cannot find WCM workflow def for configured definition name: wcmwf:approved.

Thanks.

edgar

When I start alfresco tomcat It finds this error:

Cannot find WCM workflow def for configured definition name: wcmwf:approved.

Same here. I have also tried deploying the workflow by issuing the command "deploy alfresco/workflow/approved_processdefinition.xml" in the Workflow Console but that gives me the error:

org.alfresco.service.namespace.InvalidQNameException: A QName must consist of a local name

cheers,

Edgar

edgar

Ah, found it, you need to add your custom workflow in the alfresco\WEB-INF\classes\alfresco\bootstrap-context.xml file to the list of work flow definitions:

<props>
  <!– WCM workflow definition –>
  <prop key="engineId">jbpm</prop>
  <prop key="location">alfresco/workflow/approved_processdefinition.xml</prop>
   <prop key="mimetype">text/xml</prop>
   <prop key="redeploy">false</prop>
</props>
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

And also you need an entry in the wcm-workflow-messages.properties file:

wcmwf_approved.workflow.title=Approved
wcmwf_approved.workflow.description=Approved without review workflow; promote to staging sandbox directly
‍‍‍‍

Now in the Data Dictionary I can select the "Approved" workflow as default workflow for my Web Forms.

However in my Web Project I still only see the default Submit workflow it seems? The "Configure Workflow" tab still gives me the Review Options that belong to the Submit workflow.

regards,

Edgar

edgar

Another thing is, after submitting the content I get a "Submitted" task in my Tasks To Do list. However when I click "Task Done" I get the error:

Please correct the errors below then click OK.

    * A system error happened during the operation: Mandatory task properties have not been provided: {http://www.alfresco.org/model/wcmworkflow/1.0}approveCnt,
{http://www.alfresco.org/model/wcmworkflow/1.0}reviewType,{http://www.alfresco.org/model/wcmworkflow/1.0}reviewerCnt
‍‍‍‍‍‍

Apart from that the workflow does seem to work ok. The content is submitted to the staging sandbox directly without a review step.

Can I customize the "submit" screen as well? With this simple workflow it does not make much sense that the user needs to enter the name and description of the submission.

regards,

Edgar

fmurialdo

edgar,

did you go further on this wcm workflow definition?
I believe I did the same steps you did, but got stuck on org.alfresco.service.namespace.InvalidQNameException: A QName must consist of a local name.
What was the piece triggering this error? The bootstrap, the properties file?

Alfresco also recommends to use shared/classes/alfresco/extension/workflow-context.xml
rather than webapps/alfresco/WEB-INF/classes/alfresco/bootstrap-context.xml (there is an existing workflow-context.xml.sample) to define the new workflow.

Thanks.

Franck.

edgar

Hi,

did you go further on this wcm workflow definition?

No, I did not. Strange thing is, I got my custom workflow running fine on my local Alfresco installation (Windows XP) but have so far failed to get it running (using the same config files!) on our server (Linux). No idea why. On the server I keep getting the InvalidQNameException as well..

regards,

Edgar

slynn

If you change the start-state node in your process definition file from:

<start-state name="start">
    <task name="" swimlane="initiator"/>
    <transition name="" to="submitted"/>
</start-state> ‍‍‍‍

To:

<start-state name="start">
   <task name="wcmwf:startTask" swimlane="initiator"/>
   <transition name="launch" to="submitted" />
</start-state> ‍‍‍‍

Then it should work. That fixed the problems for me at least.

bmui

I followed the steps in this forum and created the custom workflow to bypass review and approval to directly submit web content into the staging sandbox. That worked perfectly.

Now additionally, I wanted to skip the summary page(and remove the submit items-submission info details page) when creating new web content. I set the 'content finish' instruction to end on Step Two - Author Web Content by editing the web-client-config-wizards.xml in <alfresco>\tomcat\webapps\alfresco\WEB-INF\classes\alfresco. This seemed to work since the Summary step was gone.

So, for example, I have a web form called 'demo-page' (which contains an xsd schema and xsl template) and wanted to test if it would submit created web content directly to the staging sandbox right after I clicked the finish button in Step Two-Author web content.

But what resulted, was that the content I created did not go into the staging sandbox (ending up in My Sandbox) and I got an error.

Wondering if anyone knew what this error means and how I could resolve???:

Error generating rendition using demo-page.xsl: javax.xml.transform.TransformerConfigurationException: javax.xml.transform.TransformerException: javax.xml.transform.TransformerException: A node test that matches either NCName:* or QName was expected.

ALSO, I actually tried this with the Alfresco tutorial example (alfrescowww, company-footer, press-release, etc.) using the 'approved' custom workflow, instead of the default 'web site submission workflow'.

When I clicked 'finish' on the Step Two-Author web content in My Sandbox's create web content, no error appeared, but the content still went into My Sandbox. I would have to go to modified items and submit the content and go through the Submit Items page(enter a label & description) in order for it to go to the Staging Sandbox. But, I want the content to be directly placed in Staging right after I clicked 'finish'.

Thanks

bmui

Just noticed that after I submitted content, a task appears in the My Alfresco dashboard. When clicking 'task done', this error shows:

A system error happened during the operation: Mandatory task properties have not been provided: {http://www.alfresco.org/model/wcmworkflow/1.0}approveCnt,{http://www.alfresco.org/model/wcmworkflow/1.0}reviewerCnt,{http://www.alfresco.org/model/wcmworkflow/1.0}reviewType,{http://www.alfresco.org/model/bpm/1.0}assignees

I'm not sure why this task appears since I'm tyring to bypass the review and approval. I'm guessing since I havent found a way to skip the submit details page(in which i have to enter a label and description), thats the cause.. i think i have to figure out wat the submit items page does after you submit it and combine it with my customized action that took place of the functionality that was used at the 'finish button' when creating web content…

i might have to modify/refer to these files, not completely sure:

web-client-config-wcm-actions.xml, web-client-config-dialogs.xml, submit-dialog.jsp…

d_mon

A system error happened during the operation: Mandatory task properties have not been provided: {http://www.alfresco.org/model/wcmworkflow/1.0}approveCnt,{http://www.alfresco.org/model/wcmworkflow/1.0}reviewerCnt,{http://www.alfresco.org/model/wcmworkflow/1.0}reviewType,{http://www.alfresco.org/model/bpm/1.0}assignees

So is it possible to avoid task creation or at least provide these missing mandatory properties somehow?
What is needed to be changed for that: process definition, workflow model or something else?

quartilan

I have got the custom workflow thingy working. But I would like to remove the staging sandbox. Is this possible?

The idea would be that my user would work directly on the staging sandbox.

quartilan

I have found something on the auto-deployement. This should be available in version 2.2. Is this version allready available or is there any way I can get this to work in 2.1?

d_mon

I have got the custom workflow thingy working. But I would like to remove the staging sandbox. Is this possible?

The idea would be that my user would work directly on the staging sandbox.

Could you please provide the information about how to do it?

quartilan

I took the adhoc workflow definition and modified it.

test_processdefinition.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<process-definition xmlns="urn:jbpm.org:jpdl-3.1" name="wf:test">

        <swimlane name="initiator"/>

      <swimlane name="assignee">
         <assignment class="org.alfresco.repo.workflow.jbpm.AlfrescoAssignment">
            <actor>#{bpm_assignee}</actor>
         </assignment>
      </swimlane>
      
        <start-state name="start"‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

>
            <task name="wcmwf:startTask" swimlane="assignee"/>
            <transition name="launch" to="submitted"/>
        </start-state>



        <task-node name="submitted">
            <event type="node-enter">
               <action class="org.alfresco.repo.avm.wf.AVMSubmitPackageHandler"/>
            </event>
            <task name="wcmwf:submittedTask" swimlane="assignee" />
            <transition name="submit" to="end" />
        </task-node>

        <end-state name="end"/>

        <event type="process-end">
            <action class="org.alfresco.repo.avm.wf.AVMClearSubmittedHandler"/>
            <action class="org.alfresco.repo.avm.wf.AVMRemoveWFStoreHandler"/>
        </event>
</process-definition>

I added some text in workflow-messages.properties

wf_test.workflow.title=Workflow title
wf_test.workflow.description=Workflow description‍‍‍

You also need to add the workflow in bootstrap-context.xml

<property name="workflowDefinitions">
         <list>
            <props>
               <prop key="engineId">jbpm</prop>
               <prop key="location">alfresco/workflow/review_processdefinition.xml</prop>
               <prop key="mimetype">text/xml</prop>
               <prop key="redeploy">false</prop>
            </props>
            <props>
               <prop key="engineId">jbpm</prop>
               <prop key="location">alfresco/workflow/test_processdefinition.xml</prop>
               <prop key="mimetype">text/xml</prop>
               <prop key="redeploy">false</prop>
            </props>
            <props>
               <!– WCM workflow definition –>
                <prop key="engineId">jbpm</prop>
                <prop key="location">alfresco/workflow/submit_processdefinition.xml</prop>
                <prop key="mimetype">text/xml</prop>
                <prop key="redeploy">false</prop>
            </props>
            

            <props>
               <!– WCM workflow definition –>
               <prop key="engineId">jbpm</prop>
               <prop key="location">alfresco/workflow/changerequest_processdefinition.xml</prop>
               <prop key="mimetype">text/xml</prop>
               <prop key="redeploy">false</prop>
            </props>
         
         </list>
      </property>‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Then you need to add the workflow in web-client-config-wcm.xml. I just added the wf:test after the wcmwf:submit.

<workflows>
            wcmwf:submit, wf:test
         </workflows>‍‍‍

I believe that that did the trick.

Still have a task assigned when in overvieuw but it is submitted in de staging sandbox without any need for further approval. I'm looking for a solution for this but no luck yet.

Hope this helped. (looks almost the same as what is described above but this worked for me)

d_mon

But can you close that assigned task or not?

kvc

Couple of items:

* Auto-promote to Staging from Web Content Wizard
   - Unfortunately, the Submit to Staging checkbox option is only available from the Summary screen in the Wizard. If you click finish in the content editing form, you bypass the Summary screen
      and your content just saves to your user sandbox.

* Auto-deploy
   - The auto-deploy option was added to our default WCM workflow and is settable by an end-user at time of Submit. This was put in primarily for "hot fixes" to www sites or basic publishing to
      an intranet site where the latest version of Staging is may very well always be the current version of your site.

   - This capability is available only in our recently available 2.2.0 Enterprise release for subscribing customers. It rolls into the next 2.9 Community update in June.

* Edit direct in Staging
   - As noted elsewhere, WCM follows a change management model: dev –> stage –> live. All changes must always be made in a user sandbox; staging sandboxes are marked as special read-only
      repositories for any user other than the system user (our app). Other reasons for enforcing this are that (a) in order to ensure Staging is indexed, we snapshot Staging upon submit - snapshots
      trigger indexing - meaning, the new version of your site is up-to-date for querying (b) in order to ensure you have a rollback point - a verifiable audit trail and back-up of every version of your
      site for compliance purposes - snapshots are baked in part of the system - I think our own www site for example is up to snapshot 1900 or something along those lines.

Cheers.

Kevin

jackzhaojin

Reply to quartilan's post -

Thanks for the detailed code posting, I've integrated exactly what you've entered, but I have a few issues, and I'm wondering if anyone has resolved it.

1) If I invoke the workflow, the workflow gets submitted without any reviewers and type of review, and this causes an error when you submit the workflow.

A system error happened during the operation: Mandatory task properties have not been provided: {http://www.alfresco.org/model/bpm/1.0}assignees‍

2) Auto-deploy functionality doesn't seem to work with this submission.

So far I have the following in my test_processdefinition.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<process-definition xmlns="urn:jbpm.org:jpdl-3.1" name="wf:test">

    <swimlane name="initiator"/>

    <swimlane name="assignee">
        <assignment class="org.alfresco.repo.workflow.jbpm.AlfrescoAssignment">
            <actor>#{bpm_assignee}</actor>
        </assignment>
    </swimlane>

    <start-state name="start">
        <task name="wcmwf:startTask" swimlane="assignee"/>
        <transition name="launch" to="submitted"/>
    </start-state>


    <task-node name="submitted">
        <event type="node-enter">
            <action class="org.alfresco.repo.avm.wf.AVMSubmitPackageHandler"/>
        </event>
        <task name="wcmwf:submittedTask" swimlane="assignee"/>
        <transition name="submit" to="end"/>
    </task-node>

    <end-state name="end"/>

    <event type="process-end">
        <action class="org.alfresco.repo.avm.wf.AVMClearSubmittedHandler"/>
        <action class="org.alfresco.repo.avm.wf.AVMRemoveWFStoreHandler"/>
    </event>
</process-definition>‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Any suggestions on either of these two issues?

Thanks a bunch ahead of time,

Jack

Alfresco version: 2.9c