Document workflow web-application

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alainp

Hello everyone,

As you can see from my posts count, I'm completely new in here. Actually, mostly new to anything ECM-related.

I work for an association and with the growth of our activity, we now find ourselves willing to manage the editing and validation of our agreements with third-parties in a more streamlined way.

Specifically, we need to design an application that would help us streamline one of our workflow (or should I call it document-flow). Some of the people involved belong to external organizations. For this reason, at least some of the functionnality must be implemented through a public website. The whole process begins with someone filling a short form with data that will be used in the document.

Now, I have the feeling Alfresco is quite the appropriate tool for this, with the "Share" application being pretty much exactly the tool we need. However, before I commit myself fully to trying to implement this, I'd like to have the opinion of people with experience. My understanding is that I need to create a space in Alfresco, with a sub-space for each state a document can be in. Then create the workflows associated to each sub-space. Then I'd have to create some webpages based on Surf, that would only display the stuff needed for each profile to do their job. Does that sound right ?

Finally, this last step is the one that worries me the most. How hard would you say it is for someone that doesn't know much about J2EE to get to know enough of Surf and Share to do what I need ? And what would you advise for the creation of the web forms and the storing of their data ? Do I need to use a secondary DB and access it on my own or is there already what's needed for this in Alfresco/Share ?

Thanks a lot for your help.

jpotts

Let me give you a belated welcome to the world of Alfresco and apologize that your original question went unanswered for so long. I hope you hung with us and maybe even successfully implemented your project by now. In case not, or in case this helps others, I'll take a shot at answering your question.

There are two styles of workflow within Alfresco. One is called "Basic" or "Simple" workflows. The other is called "Advanced" workflows. What you describe–setting up multiple folders to maintain the state of your documents–is how Basic workflows work.

If you business process can be implemented using Basic Workflows it is nice because those can be configured completely in the user interface with no developer required. You mentioned creating new Surf web pages, which is certainly an option. You might also consider changing the permissions on documents as they move from state to state. You can then place people in groups and assign those groups to folders such that they only see the folders and documents appropriate to their role in the business process.

If you do decide that you need to create new pages to support your process, there is no J2EE required. Surf is built entirely on web scripts, which in turn is based on FreeMarker and server-side JavaScript. Depending on your user interface needs you may also find that some client-side JavaScript is also required.

Once you get into the details you may find that Basic Workflows are too limited for your needs. If that is the case you can always use the Advanced Workflow engine. In fact, in Alfresco 4 there are two to choose from. Creating business processes using one of the Advanced Workflow engines can still be done without J2EE as logic is frequently implemented in server-side JavaScript, but depending on what you need to do you may find that a Java class here or there is needed.

I don't think you'll need a secondary database. You can probably capture all of the data needed as metadata on Alfresco objects. If it turns out that you do need to use one, then you'll start writing Java at that point.

Jeff