Project proposal - Workflow Management System

[japie1001]

I've submitted an Proposal for the Summer of Code. I've put a lot of time in it.

I'd like to receive feedback how it can be improved.

What do you think of this idea?
Would a detailed planning improve my chances of being accepted?
Are there any other things worth putting in?
Do you know a way to improve my changes of getting accepted?
What functions would you like to see in a workflow management system?

All ideas, suggestions and comments are welcome.


Proposal – Workflow management system (WFM)
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1. Short introduction
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Name: ******
Age: ******
Study: Business Economics

I’ve got a small webdesign business and I build most of my sites in Joomla. Many of these projects involve custom component development. I’ve also modified the Joomla core, mainly to simplify it for my clients. My most challenging Joomla project so far was building an custom online shopping component for a client of my webdesign business.

My relevant skills:
• Database modeling
• UML modeling
• Experience working with Subversion
• And of course PHP5, MySQL, XHTML , CSS, Javascript including ajax

I know from experience that with a project of this size it is very important to communicate frequently, break up the work in small pieces (work breakdown structure), make a planning and get the work done on time. And last but not least: I’m very, very motivated to work on this project.

By entering the Google Summer of Code, I want to get experience in working on big projects for my professional carreer. Also, being part of an international project and working on Joomla (witch is getting bigger and bigger) is great.

2. Short project description
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The WMF manages workflow processes. Custom workflow processes can be created with the 'Workflow designer'. Workflows can be applied to an article or a whole category/section. Workflow processes will be executed according to user-defined criteria. If human intervention is required, the system notifies the user and puts a task on his tasklist. Third party developpers can easily integrate their plugins in the WMF with the well documented API.

3. Project goals
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• to provide an administration area to build workflow processes
• to provide a flexible workflow engine (based on Petri-nets)
• to provide an administration and monitoring tool
• to provide a task list for each user
• to provide a well documented API for Joomla plugins to integrate into the workflow system.

4. Project planning and milestones
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My milestones will be based on the different system components:

Milestone 1, plan: define the required functionality of each component. Create a work breakdown structure and a detailed planning.

Milestone 2, plan: create the workflow management engine and Workflow Enactment Service.

Milestone 3, plan: creating the administration & monitoring component.

Milestone 4, plan: create Taskhandler and task list component.

Milestone 5, plan: create API documentation for third party developers.

I haven’t made a planning yet. I will create a work breakdown structure and a detailed planning if I get accepted for the Summer of Code Program.

5. Overview of the system
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The design of the system is based on the Workflow Standards Framework of the Workflow Management Coalition.

A graphical overview can be viewed at:
http://www.w3webdesign.nl/overview.pdf (recommended)


5.1 Workflow designer
The Workflow designer is used to create the process description in a computer processable form. This could be defined in petri nets, but I haven’t researched if this suites the requirements.

5.2 Workflow templates
Petri nets are used to describe the workflow templates. Workflow templates contain all necessary information about the process to enable it to be executed by the Workflow Management Engine. This includes starting and completion conditions, activities and rules for navigating between them, user tasks to be undertaken, references to component items etc.

5.3 Workflow Enactment Service
The workflow enactment service interprets the process description and controls the instantiation of processes and sequencing of activities, adding tasks to the user task list.

5.4 Workflow engine
The workflow engine will manage the (multiple) instances of workflow processes.

5.5 Task list
When user interactions are necessary within the process execution, the workflow engine places tasks on the Task list.

5.6 Task Handler
The task handler provides an API for the task list component to query the Task list. Optionally, the task handler sends an e-mail to the user who has a new task assigned to them.

5.7 Task list component
The task list component provides an interface for the users.

5.8 Administration and monitoring component
The administrator can monitor the status of workflow instances, cancel workflow instances etc. The administrator can also set here the role(s) each user has.

[yangxiao]

Are there any Workflow Management System Plug-ins for Joomla! now?

[japie1001]

No, I haven't been accepted for the Summer of Code program and as far as I know there aren't any existing plugins.

success.

[bfalcao]

Hi Jappie,

My name is Bruno Falcão and I am a responsible for the Workflow Systems Solutions on a portuguese company.
I also have 8 years of PHP development and I am currently developing a complex Joomla website for a virtual airline (it's a concept that is somehow different from the Joomla sites that we currently see ).

I would like to help (and I'm also very interested) you on your project regarding to workflow approaches and knowledge experience on that area. If you need my help, please send me an email to bruno.c.falcao(at)gmail.com.

I saw your diagram and I must assume that it's still a draft although it's going, in my opinion on the right way.
I was wondering if you are going to create a workflow engine by yourself or if you are going to use an open source workflow engine like OpenFlow or Galaxia (openflow driven).

Regards and good luck mate. Please send me an email so we can keep in touch about it

[japie1001]

Hi Bruce,

I wanted to create a WMS for the Google Summer Of Code, but I haven't been accepted. There for I'm not going to make a WFS for Joomla.

Typo3 already as a WMS so you might want to use Typo3.

Success with your project.

[bfalcao]

Hi,

I think that Typo3 has a open source content management system, that is different from a workflow user-end based system.

Still, I think your idea is great. I am sad that it wasn't approved.

Regards,