NAME
Workflow - Simple, flexible system to implement workflows
VERSION
This documentation describes version 0.15 of Workflow
SYNOPSIS
use Workflow::Factory qw( FACTORY );
# Defines a workflow of type 'myworkflow'
my $workflow_conf = 'workflow.xml';
# contents of 'workflow.xml'
<workflow>
<type>myworkflow</type>
<time_zone>local</time_zone>
<description>This is my workflow.</description>
<state name="INITIAL">
<action name="upload file" resulting_state="uploaded" />
</state>
<state name="uploaded" autorun="yes">
<action name="verify file" resulting_state="verified file">
<!-- everyone other than 'CWINTERS' must verify -->
<condition test="$context->{user} ne 'CWINTERS'" />
</action>
<action name="null" resulting_state="annotated">
<condition test="$context->{user} eq 'CWINTERS'" />
</action>
</state>
<state name="verified file">
<action name="annotate">
<condition name="can_annotate" />
</action>
<action name="null">
<condition name="!can_annotate" />
</action>
</state>
<state name="annotated" autorun="yes" may_stop="yes">
<action name="null" resulting_state="finished">
<condition name="completed" />
</action>
</state>
<state name="finished" />
</workflow>
# Defines actions available to the workflow
my $action_conf = 'action.xml';
# contents of 'action.xml'
<actions>
<action name="upload file" class="MyApp::Action::Upload">
<field name="path" label="File Path"
description="Path to file" is_required="yes" />
</action>
<action name="verify file" class="MyApp::Action::Verify">
<validator name="filesize_cap">
<arg>$file_size</arg>
</validator>
</action>
<action name="annotate" class="MyApp::Action::Annotate" />
<action name="null" class="Workflow::Action::Null" />
</actions>
# Defines conditions available to the workflow
my $condition_conf = 'condition.xml';
# contents of 'condition.xml'
<conditions>
<condition name="can_annotate"
class="MyApp::Condition::CanAnnotate" />
</conditions>
# Defines validators available to the actions
my $validator_conf = 'validator.xml';
# contents of 'validator.xml'
<validators>
<validator name="filesize_cap" class="MyApp::Validator::FileSizeCap">
<param name="max_size" value="20M" />
</validator>
</validators>
# Stock the factory with the configurations; we can add more later if
# we want
$self->_factory()->add_config_from_file(
workflow => $workflow_conf,
action => $action_conf,
condition => $condition_conf,
validator => $validator_conf
);
# Instantiate a new workflow...
my $workflow = $self->_factory()->create_workflow( 'myworkflow' );
print "Workflow ", $workflow->id, " ",
"currently at state ", $workflow->state, "\n";
# Display available actions...
print "Available actions: ", $workflow->get_current_actions, "\n";
# Get the data needed for action 'upload file' (assumed to be
# available in the current state) and display the fieldname and
# description
print "Action 'upload file' requires the following fields:\n";
foreach my $field ( $workflow->get_action_fields( 'FOO' ) ) {
print $field->name, ": ", $field->description,
"(Required? ", $field->is_required, ")\n";
}
# Add data to the workflow context for the validators, conditions and
# actions to work with
my $context = $workflow->context;
$context->param( current_user => $user );
$context->param( sections => \@sections );
$context->param( path => $path_to_file );
# Execute one of them
$workflow->execute_action( 'upload file' );
print "New state: ", $workflow->state, "\n";
# Later.... fetch an existing workflow
my $id = get_workflow_id_from_user( ... );
my $workflow = $self->_factory()->fetch_workflow( 'myworkflow', $id );
print "Current state: ", $workflow->state, "\n";
QUICK START
The eg/ticket/ directory contains a configured workflow system. You can
access the same data and logic in two ways:
* a command-line application (ticket.pl)
* a CGI script (ticket.cgi)
* a web application (ticket_web.pl)
To initialize:
perl ticket.pl --db
To run the command-line application:
perl ticket.pl
To access the database and data from CGI, add the relevant configuration
for your web server and call ticket.cgi:
http://www.mysite.com/workflow/ticket.cgi
To start up the standalone web server:
perl ticket_web.pl
(Barring changes to HTTP::Daemon and forking the standalone server won't
work on Win32; use CGI instead, although patches are always welcome.)
For more info, see eg/ticket/README
DESCRIPTION
Overview
This is a standalone workflow system. It is designed to fit into your
system rather than force your system to fit to it. You can save workflow
information to a database or the filesystem (or a custom storage). The
different components of a workflow system can be included separately as
libraries to allow for maximum reusibility.
User Point of View
As a user you only see two components, plus a third which is really
embedded into another:
* Workflow::Factory - The factory is your interface for creating new
workflows and fetching existing ones. You also feed all the
necessary configuration files and/or data structures to the factory
to initialize it.
* Workflow - When you get the workflow object from the workflow
factory you can only use it in a few ways -- asking for the current
state, actions available for the state, data required for a
particular action, and most importantly, executing a particular
action. Executing an action is how you change from one state to
another.
* Workflow::Context - This is a blackboard for data from your
application to the workflow system and back again. Each
instantiation of a Workflow has its own context, and actions
executed by the workflow can read data from and deposit data into
the context.
Developer Point of View
The workflow system has four basic components:
* workflow - The workflow is a collection of states; you define the
states, how to move from one state to another, and under what
conditions you can change states.
This is represented by the Workflow object. You normally do not need
to subclass this object for customization.
* action - The action is defined by you or in a separate library. The
action is triggered by moving from one state to another and has
access to the workflow and more importantly its context.
The base class for actions is the Workflow::Action class.
* condition - Within the workflow you can attach one or more
conditions to an action. These ensure that actions only get executed
when certain conditions are met. Conditions are completely
arbitrary: typically they will ensure the user has particular access
rights, but you can also specify that an action can only be executed
at certain times of the day, or from certain IP addresses, and so
forth. Each condition is created once at startup then passed a
context to check every time an action is checked to see if it can be
executed.
The base class for conditions is the Workflow::Condition class.
* validator - An action can specify one or more validators to ensure
that the data available to the action is correct. The data to check
can be as simple or complicated as you like. Each validator is
created once then passed a context and data to check every time an
action is executed.
The base class for validators is the Workflow::Validator class.
WORKFLOW BASICS
Just a Bunch of States
A workflow is just a bunch of states with rules on how to move between
them. These are known as transitions and are triggered by some sort of
event. A state is just a description of object properties. You can
describe a surprisingly large number of processes as a series of states
and actions to move between them. The application shipped with this
distribution uses a fairly common application to illustrate: the trouble
ticket.
When you create a workflow you have one action available to you: create
a new ticket ('create issue'). The workflow has a state 'INITIAL' when
it is first created, but this is just a bootstrapping exercise since the
workflow must always be in some state.
The workflow action 'create issue' has a property 'resulting_state',
which just means: if you execute me properly the workflow will be in the
new state 'CREATED'.
All this talk of 'states' and 'transitions' can be confusing, but just
match them to what happens in real life -- you move from one action to
another and at each step ask: what happens next?
You create a trouble ticket: what happens next? Anyone can add comments
to it and attach files to it while administrators can edit it and
developers can start working on it. Adding comments does not really
change what the ticket is, it just adds information. Attachments are the
same, as is the admin editing the ticket.
But when someone starts work on the ticket, that is a different matter.
When someone starts work they change the answer to: what happens next?
Whenever the answer to that question changes, that means the workflow
has changed state.
Discover Information from the Workflow
In addition to declaring what the resulting state will be from an action
the action also has a number of 'field' properties that describe that
data it required to properly execute it.
This is an example of discoverability. This workflow system is setup so
you can ask it what you can do next as well as what is required to move
on. So to use our ticket example we can do this, creating the workflow
and asking it what actions we can execute right now:
my $wf = Workflow::$self->_factory()->create_workflow( 'Ticket' );
my @actions = $wf->get_current_actions;
We can also interrogate the workflow about what fields are necessary to
execute a particular action:
print "To execute the action 'create issue' you must provide:\n\n";
my @fields = $wf->get_action_fields( 'create issue' );
foreach my $field ( @fields ) {
print $field->name, " (Required? ", $field->is_required, ")\n",
$field->description, "\n\n";
}
Provide Information to the Workflow
To allow the workflow to run into multiple environments we must have a
common way to move data between your application, the workflow and the
code that moves it from one state to another.
Whenever the Workflow::Factory creates a new workflow it associates the
workflow with a Workflow::Context object. The context is what moves the
data from your application to the workflow and the workflow actions.
For instance, the workflow has no idea what the 'current user' is. Not
only is it unaware from an application standpoint but it does not
presume to know where to get this information. So you need to tell it,
and you do so through the context.
The fact that the workflow system proscribes very little means it can be
used in lots of different applications and interfaces. If a system is
too closely tied to an interface (like the web) then you have to create
some potentially ugly hacks to create a more convenient avenue for input
to your system (such as an e-mail approving a document).
The Workflow::Context object is extremely simple to use -- you ask a
workflow for its context and just get/set parameters on it:
# Get the username from the Apache object
my $username = $r->connection->user;
# ...set it in the context
$wf->context->param( user => $username );
# somewhere else you'll need the username:
$news_object->{created_by} = $wf->context->param( 'user' );
Controlling What Gets Executed
A typical process for executing an action is:
* Get data from the user
* Fetch a workflow
* Set the data from the user to the workflow context
* Execute an action on the context
When you execute the action a number of checks occur. The action needs
to ensure:
* The data presented to it are valid -- date formats, etc. This is
done with a validator, more at Workflow::Validator
* The environment meets certain conditions -- user is an
administrator, etc. This is done with a condition, more at
Workflow::Condition
Once the action passes these checks and successfully executes we update
the permanent workflow storage with the new state, as long as the
application has declared it.
WORKFLOWS ARE OBSERVABLE
Purpose
It's useful to have your workflow generate events so that other parts of
a system can see what's going on and react. For instance, say you have a
new user creation process. You want to email the records of all users
who have a first name of 'Sinead' because you're looking for your
long-lost sister named 'Sinead'. You'd create an observer class like:
package FindSinead;
sub update {
my ( $class, $wf, $event, $new_state ) = @_;
return unless ( $event eq 'state change' );
return unless ( $new_state eq 'CREATED' );
my $context = $wf->context;
return unless ( $context->param( 'first_name' ) eq 'Sinead' );
my $user = $context->param( 'user' );
my $username = $user->username;
my $email = $user->email;
my $mailer = get_mailer( ... );
$mailer->send( 'foo@bar.com','Found her!',
"We found Sinead under '$username' at '$email' );
}
And then associate it with your workflow:
<workflow>
<type>SomeFlow</type>
<observer class="FindSinead" />
...
Every time you create/fetch a workflow the associated observers are
attached to it.
Events Generated
You can attach listeners to workflows and catch events at a few points
in the workflow lifecycle; these are the events fired:
* create - Issued after a workflow is first created.
No additional parameters.
* fetch - Issued after a workflow is fetched from the persister.
No additional parameters.
* save - Issued after a workflow is successfully saved.
No additional parameters.
* execute - Issued after a workflow is successfully executed and
saved.
Adds the parameters $old_state, $action_name and $autorun.
$old_state includes the state of the workflow before the action was
executed, $action_name is the action name that was executed and
$autorun is set to 1 if the action just executed was started using
autorun.
* state change - Issued after a workflow is successfully executed,
saved and results in a state change. The event will not be fired if
you executed an action that did not result in a state change.
Adds the parameters $old_state, $action and $autorun. $old_state
includes the state of the workflow before the action was executed,
$action is the action name that was executed and $autorun is set to
1 if the action just executed was autorun.
* add history - Issued after one or more history objects added to a
workflow object.
The additional argument is an arrayref of all Workflow::History
objects added to the workflow. (Note that these will not be
persisted until the workflow is persisted.)
Configuring
You configure the observers directly in the 'workflow' configuration
item. Each 'observer' may have either a 'class' or 'sub' entry within it
that defines the observer's location.
We load these classes at startup time. So if you specify an observer
that doesn't exist you see the error when the workflow system is
initialized rather than the system tries to use the observer.
For instance, the following defines two observers:
<workflow>
<type>ObservedItem</type>
<description>This is...</description>
<observer class="SomeObserver" />
<observer sub="SomeOtherObserver::Functions::other_sub" />
In the first declaration we specify the class ('SomeObserver') that will
catch observations using its "update()" method. In the second we're
naming exactly the subroutine ('other_sub()' in the class
'SomeOtherObserver::Functions') that will catch observations.
All configured observers get all events. It's up to each observer to
figure out what it wants to handle.
WORKFLOW METHODS
The following documentation is for the workflow object itself rather
than the entire system.
Object Methods
execute_action( $action_name, $autorun )
Execute the action $action_name. Typically this changes the state of the
workflow. If $action_name is not in the current state, fails one of the
conditions on the action, or fails one of the validators on the action
an exception is thrown. $autorun is used internally and is set to 1 if
the action was executed using autorun.
After the action has been successfully executed and the workflow saved
we issue a 'execute' observation with the old state, action name and an
autorun flag as additional parameters. So if you wanted to write an
observer you could create a method with the signature:
sub update {
my ( $class, $workflow, $action, $old_state, $action_name, $autorun )
= @_;
if ( $action eq 'execute' ) { .... }
}
We also issue a 'change state' observation if the executed action
resulted in a new state. See "WORKFLOWS ARE OBSERVABLE" above for how we
use and register observers and Class::Observable for more general
information about observers as well as implementation details.
Returns: new state of workflow
get_current_actions( $group )
Returns a list of action names available from the current state for the
given environment. So if you keep your "context()" the same if you call
"execute_action()" with one of the action names you should not trigger
any condition error since the action has already been screened for
conditions. If you want to divide actions in groups (for example state
change group, approval group, which have to be shown at different places
on the page) add group property to your action
<action name="terminate request" group="state change"
class="MyApp::Action::Terminate" /> <action name="approve request"
group="approval" class="MyApp::Action::Approve" />
my @actions = $wf->get_current_actions("approval");
$group should be string that reperesents desired group name. In @actions
you will get list of action names available from the current state for
the given environment limited by group. $group is optional parameter.
Returns: list of strings representing available actions
get_action_fields( $action_name )
Return a list of Workflow::Action::InputField objects for the given
$action_name. If $action_name not in the current state or not accessible
by the environment an exception is thrown.
Returns: list of Workflow::Action::InputField objects
add_history( @( \%params | $wf_history_object ) )
Adds any number of histories to the workflow, typically done by an
action in "execute_action()" or one of the observers of that action.
This history will not be saved until "execute_action()" is complete.
You can add a list of either hashrefs with history information in them
or full Workflow::History objects. Trying to add anything else will
result in an exception and none of the items being added.
Successfully adding the history objects results in a 'add history'
observation being thrown. See "WORKFLOWS ARE OBSERVABLE" above for more.
Returns: nothing
get_history()
Returns list of history objects for this workflow. Note that some may be
unsaved if you call this during the "execute_action()" process.
get_unsaved_history()
Returns list of all unsaved history objects for this workflow.
clear_history()
Clears all transient history objects from the workflow object, not from
the long-term storage.
set( $property, $value )
Method used to overwrite Class::Accessor so only certain callers can set
properties caller has to be a Workflow namespace package.
Sets property to value or throws Workflow::Exception
Properties
Unless otherwise noted, properties are read-only.
Configuration Properties
Some properties are set in the configuration file for each workflow.
These remain static once the workflow is instantiated.
type
Type of workflow this is. You may have many individual workflows
associated with a type or you may have many different types running in a
single workflow engine.
description
Description (usually brief, hopefully with a URL...) of this workflow.
time_zone
Workflow uses the DateTime module to create all date objects. The
time_zone parameter allows you to pass a time zone value directly to the
DateTime new method for all cases where Workflow needs to create a date
object. See the DateTime module for acceptable values.
Dynamic Properties
You can get the following properties from any workflow object.
id
ID of this workflow. This will always be defined, since when the
Workflow::Factory creates a new workflow it first saves it to long-term
storage.
state
The current state of the workflow.
last_update (read-write)
Date of the workflow's last update.
context (read-write, see below)
A Workflow::Context object associated with this workflow. This should
never be undefined as the Workflow::Factory sets an empty context into
the workflow when it is instantiated.
If you add a context to a workflow and one already exists, the values
from the new workflow will overwrite values in the existing workflow.
This is a shallow merge, so with the following:
$wf->context->param( drinks => [ 'coke', 'pepsi' ] );
my $context = Workflow::Context->new();
$context->param( drinks => [ 'beer', 'wine' ] );
$wf->context( $context );
print 'Current drinks: ', join( ', ', @{ $wf->context->param( 'drinks' ) } );
You will see:
Current drinks: beer, wine
Internal Methods
init( $id, $current_state, \%workflow_config, \@wf_states )
THIS SHOULD ONLY BE CALLED BY THE Workflow::Factory. Do not call this or
the "new()" method yourself -- you will only get an exception. Your only
interface for creating and fetching workflows is through the factory.
This is called by the inherited constructor and sets the $current_state
value to the property "state" and uses the other non-state values from
"\%config" to set parameters via the inherited "param()".
_get_action( $action_name )
Retrieves the action object associated with $action_name in the current
workflow state. This will throw an exception if:
* No workflow state exists with a name of the current state. (This is
usually some sort of configuration error and should be caught at
initialization time, so it should not happen.)
* No action $action_name exists in the current state.
* No action $action_name exists in the workflow universe.
* One of the conditions for the action in this state is not met.
_get_workflow_state( [ $state ] )
Return the Workflow::State object corresponding to $state, which
defaults to the current state.
_set_workflow_state( $wf_state )
Assign the Workflow::State object $wf_state to the workflow.
_get_next_state( $action_name )
Returns the name of the next state given the action $action_name. Throws
an exception if $action_name not contained in the current state.
CONFIGURATION AND ENVIRONMENT
The configuration of Workflow is done using the format of your choice,
currently XML and Perl is implemented, but additional formats can be
added, please refer to Workflow::Config, for implementation details.
DEPENDENCIES
Class::Accessor
Class::Factory
Class::Observable
DateTime
DateTime::Format::Strptime
Exception::Class
Log::Dispatch
Log::Log4perl
Safe
XML::Simple
DBI
Data::Dumper
Carp
File::Slurp
DEPENDENCIES FOR THE EXAMPLE APPLICATION
CGI
CGI::Cookie
DBD::SQLite
HTTP::Daemon
HTTP::Request
HTTP::Response
HTTP::Status
Template (Template Toolkit)
For Win32 systems you can get the Template Toolkit and DBD::SQLite PPDs
from TheoryX:
* <http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/cgi-bin/ppmserver?urn:/PPMServer58>
INCOMPATIBILITIES
XML::Simple
CPAN testers reports however do demonstrate a problem with one of the
dependencies of Workflow, namely XML::Simple.
The XML::Simple makes use of Lib::XML::SAX or XML::Parser, the default.
In addition an XML::Parser can makes use of plugin parser and some of
these might not be able to parse the XML utilized in Workflow. The
problem have been observed with XML::SAX::RTF.
The following diagnostic points to the problem:
No _parse_* routine defined on this driver (If it is a filter, remember to
set the Parent property. If you call the parse() method, make sure to set a
Source. You may want to call parse_uri, parse_string or parse_file instead.)
Your XML::SAX configuration is located in the file:
XML/SAX/ParserDetails.ini
Perl 5.8.x
CPAN testers reports indicate an issue with observers for Perl 5.8.8
# Failed test 'One observation sent on workflow fetch to two observers'
# at t/workflow.t line 79.
# got: '4'
# expected: '2'
# Looks like you failed 1 test of 35.
t/workflow.t .......................
Dubious, test returned 1 (wstat 256, 0x100)
Failed 1/35 subtests
The issue is being investigated further, so this information is to be
regarded as a warning before you dig too much into the issue.
See also:
<http://www.cpantesters.org/cpan/report/fc85ca1c-e46e-11e2-891c-ff8a40f4
ab3d>
BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
Known bugs and limitations can be seen in RT:
<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Workflow>
BUG REPORTING
Bug reporting should be done either via Request Tracker (RT)
<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Workflow>
Or via email
"bug-test-timer at rt.cpan.org"
A list of currently known issues can be seen via examining the RT queue
for Workflow.
<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Workflow>
TEST
The test suite can be run using, Module::Build
% ./Build test
Some of the tests are reserved for the developers and are only run of
the environment variable TEST_AUTHOR is set to true.
TEST COVERAGE
This is the current test coverage of Workflow version 1.32, with the
TEST_AUTHOR flag enabled.
---------------------------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
File stmt bran cond sub pod time total
---------------------------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
blib/lib/Workflow.pm 79.8 50.0 50.0 87.5 100.0 9.9 71.6
blib/lib/Workflow/Action.pm 90.8 66.7 n/a 88.2 100.0 4.1 89.9
...flow/Action/InputField.pm 97.0 92.9 87.5 100.0 100.0 5.9 95.8
...Workflow/Action/Mailer.pm 100.0 n/a n/a 100.0 100.0 0.1 100.0
...b/Workflow/Action/Null.pm 100.0 n/a n/a 100.0 100.0 0.2 100.0
blib/lib/Workflow/Base.pm 96.6 86.4 100.0 100.0 100.0 9.6 95.0
...lib/Workflow/Condition.pm 100.0 n/a n/a 100.0 100.0 0.8 100.0
...low/Condition/Evaluate.pm 59.0 16.7 33.3 87.5 100.0 0.9 53.0
...flow/Condition/HasUser.pm 57.7 0.0 0.0 71.4 100.0 0.1 51.2
blib/lib/Workflow/Config.pm 96.2 81.2 33.3 100.0 100.0 6.1 92.2
...b/Workflow/Config/Perl.pm 96.8 75.0 66.7 100.0 100.0 4.1 91.0
...ib/Workflow/Config/XML.pm 92.3 50.0 60.0 100.0 100.0 4.9 81.4
blib/lib/Workflow/Context.pm 100.0 n/a n/a 100.0 100.0 0.4 100.0
...lib/Workflow/Exception.pm 89.2 50.0 n/a 91.7 100.0 3.1 89.5
blib/lib/Workflow/Factory.pm 86.3 61.2 37.5 92.3 100.0 19.6 75.4
blib/lib/Workflow/History.pm 100.0 87.5 n/a 100.0 100.0 1.8 98.1
...lib/Workflow/Persister.pm 90.5 75.0 57.1 88.9 100.0 1.9 87.5
...Workflow/Persister/DBI.pm 75.3 51.2 25.0 83.3 100.0 7.4 67.5
...er/DBI/AutoGeneratedId.pm 77.8 40.0 n/a 100.0 100.0 0.4 70.1
...ersister/DBI/ExtraData.pm 25.9 0.0 0.0 71.4 100.0 0.1 22.9
...rsister/DBI/SequenceId.pm 56.2 0.0 0.0 75.0 100.0 0.3 53.1
...orkflow/Persister/File.pm 94.4 48.0 33.3 100.0 100.0 2.1 83.1
...low/Persister/RandomId.pm 100.0 n/a 100.0 100.0 100.0 1.8 100.0
...rkflow/Persister/SPOPS.pm 89.6 50.0 n/a 100.0 100.0 0.3 85.0
...orkflow/Persister/UUID.pm 100.0 n/a n/a 100.0 100.0 0.2 100.0
blib/lib/Workflow/State.pm 74.4 44.2 25.0 91.7 100.0 11.0 64.3
...lib/Workflow/Validator.pm 100.0 100.0 n/a 100.0 100.0 1.1 100.0
...dator/HasRequiredField.pm 90.0 50.0 n/a 100.0 100.0 0.6 86.7
...dator/InEnumeratedType.pm 100.0 100.0 n/a 100.0 100.0 0.4 100.0
...ator/MatchesDateFormat.pm 93.3 70.0 66.7 100.0 100.0 0.8 88.2
Total 83.9 54.7 39.7 93.0 100.0 100.0 76.8
---------------------------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
Activities to get improved coverage are ongoing.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
The Workflow project utilizes Perl::Critic in an attempt to avoid common
pitfalls and programming mistakes.
The static analysis performed by Perl::Critic is integrated into the
"TEST" tool chain and is performed either by running the test suite.
% ./Build test
Or by running the test file containing the Perl::Critic tests
explicitly.
% ./Build test --verbose 1 --test_files t/04_critic.t
Or
% perl t/critic.t
The test does however require that the TEST_AUTHOR flag is set since
this is regarded as a part of the developer tool chain and we do not
want to disturb users and CPAN testers with this.
The following policies are disabled
* Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitMagicNumbers
* Perl::Critic::Policy::Subroutines::ProhibitExplicitReturnUndef
* Perl::Critic::Policy::NamingConventions::ProhibitAmbiguousNames
* Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitConstantPragma
The complete policy configuration can be found in t/perlcriticrc.
Currently a large number other policies are disabled, but these are
being addressed as ongoing work and they will either be listed here or
changes will be applied, which will address the Workflow code's
problematic areas from Perl::Critic perspective.
CODING STYLE
Currently the code is formatted using Perl::Tidy. The resource file can
be downloaded from the central repository.
notes/perltidyrc
PROJECT
The Workflow project is currently hosted with SourceForge.net and is
listed on Ohloh.
SF.net: <http://perl-workflow.sf.net>
Ohloh: <https://www.ohloh.net/p/perl-Workflow>
REPOSITORY
The code is kept under revision control using Subversion:
<https://perl-workflow.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/perl-workflow>
MAILING LIST
The Workflow project has a mailing list for discussion of issues and
development. The list is low-traffic.
<http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=177533> (including archive)
RSS FEEDS
Commit log
<http://rss.gmane.org/messages/excerpts/gmane.comp.lang.perl.modules.wor
kflow.scm>
Ohloh news <https://www.ohloh.net/p/perl-Workflow/messages.rss>
CPAN testers reports <http://cpantesters.perl.org/show/Workflow.rss> in
matrix:
OTHER RESOURCES
* AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
<http://annocpan.org/dist/Workflow>
* CPAN Ratings
<http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Workflow>
* Search CPAN
<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Workflow>
SEE ALSO
* November 2010 talk 'Workflow' given at Nordic Perl Workshop 2010 in
Reykjavik, Iceland by jonasbn
<http://www.slideshare.net/jonasbn/workflow-npw2010>
* August 2010 talk 'Workflow' given at YAPC::Europe 2010 in Pisa,
Italy by jonasbn
<http://www.slideshare.net/jonasbn/workflow-yapceu2010>
* October 2004 talk 'Workflows in Perl' given to pgh.pm by Chris
Winters: <http://www.cwinters.com/pdf/workflow_pgh_pm.pdf>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2003 Chris Winters and Arvato Direct; Copyright (c)
2004-2013 Chris Winters. All rights reserved.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
AUTHORS
Jonas B. Nielsen (jonasbn) <jonasbn@cpan.org>, current maintainer.
Chris Winters <chris@cwinters.com>, original author.
The following folks have also helped out (listed here in no particular
order):
Sérgio Alves, patch to timezone handling for workflow history
deserialized using DBI persister resulting in 1.38
Heiko Schlittermann for context serialization patch resulting in 1.36
Scott Harding, for lazy evaluation of conditions and for nested
conditions, see Changes file: 1.35
Oliver Welter, patch implementing custom workflows, see Changes file:
1.35 and patch related to this in 1.37 and factory subclassing also in
1.35
Steven van der Vegt, patch for autorun in initial state and improved
exception handling for validators, see Changes file: 1.34_1
Andrew O'Brien, patch implementing dynamic reloaded of flows, see
Changes file: 1.33
Sergei Vyshenski, bug reports - addressed and included in 1.33, Sergei
also maintains the FreeBSD port
Alejandro Imass, improvements and clarifications, see Changes file: 1.33
Danny Sadinoff, patches to give better control of initial state and
history records for workflow, see Changes file: 1.33
Thomas Erskine, for patch adding new accessors and fixing several bugs
see Changes file 1.33
Ivan Paponov, for patch implementing action groups, see Changes file,
1.33
Robert Stockdale, for patch implementing dynamic names for conditions,
see Changes file, 1.32
Jim Brandt, for patch to Workflow::Config::XML. See Changes file, 0.27
and 0.30
Alexander Klink, for: patches resulting in 0.23, 0.24, 0.25, 0.26 and
0.27
Michael Bell, for patch resulting in 0.22
Martin Bartosch, for bug reporting and giving the solution not even
using a patch (0.19 to 0.20) and a patch resulting in 0.21
Randal Schwartz, for testing 0.18 and swiftly giving feedback (0.18 to
0.19)
Chris Brown, for a patch to Workflow::Config::Perl (0.17 to 0.18)
Dietmar Hanisch <Dietmar.Hanisch@Bertelsmann.de> - Provided most of the
good ideas for the module and an excellent example of everyday use.
Tom Moertel <tmoertel@cpan.org> gave me the idea for being able to
attach event listeners (observers) to the process.
Michael Roberts <michael@vivtek.com> graciously released the 'Workflow'
namespace on CPAN; check out his Workflow toolkit at
<http://www.vivtek.com/wftk.html>.
Michael Schwern <schwern@pobox.org> barked via RT about a dependency
problem and CPAN naming issue.
Jim Smith <jgsmith@tamu.edu> - Contributed patches (being able to
subclass Workflow::Factory) and good ideas.
Martin Winkler <mw@arsnavigandi.de> - Pointed out a bug and a few other
items.