Transcript eDoc Lite
Kuali Enterprise Workflow Kuali Days – November 2008 Scott Gibson, University of Maryland Bryan Hutchinson, Cornell University James Smith, University of Arizona Kuali Enterprise Workflow • • • • • What is KEW? The Building Blocks of Workflow Developing a Workflow Document eDoc Lite Deployment and Integration What is KEW? What is KEW? • A module of Kuali Rice • Provides a content-based routing engine • Used for business transactions in the form of electronic documents that require approval from multiple parties • Composed of a set of services, APIs, and GUIs KEW Core features • • • • Action List (User’s Work List) Document Searching Document Audit Trail (Route Log) Flexible process definition (Document Type) Splits, Joins, Parallel branches, Sub processes, Dynamic process generation • Basic User and Group support Can be overridden and customized to plug into Institutional user and group services Groups and Users will be managed by KIM • Rules Engine • Email Notification KEW Core features • Notes and attachments • Wide array of pluggable components to customize routing Where to route document Indexing of document data for searching Email Notification Customization Customization of Action List Customization of Routing Rules • eDoc Lite Framework for creating simple documents quickly Will see more of eDoc Lite later KEW Core features • Plug-in Architecture Packaging and deployment of routing components to the Rice Standalone Server at runtime Institutional Customization • Transactional Processing JTA can be used for multi-datasource transactions • Can run in J2EE appservers • Can run in Servlet Containers In non-J2EE environment, can use JOTM or other JTA implementation to provide JTA transactions The Building Blocks of Workflow Document Type • Document Type Contains identifying information Also contains document policies Defines the Route Path executed for a document of that type Hierarchical - children inherit attributes from their parents Defined in XML Route Node • Route Node A step in the routing process of a document type Defines the behavior of the document when it reaches that node Examples: • • • • • • Simple - do some arbitrary work Requests - generate action requests using a Route Module or the Rules engine Split - split the route path into one or more parallel branches Join - join one or more branches back together Sub Process - execute another route path inline Dynamic - generate a dynamic route path Rule Attribute • Rule Attribute Evaluates document data to determine whether or not the rule should fire Defines what data is collected on a rule Typically corresponds to one piece of data on a document (i.e dollar amount, department, organization, account, etc.) Can be written in Java or easily defined in XML Role Attribute • Role Attribute Resolves to a set of users and/or workgroups who should receive action requests Used to resolve Roles from external systems or databases for routing purposes Examples: Fiscal Officer, Dean, Supervisor, etc. KEW integration with KIM also does this… Rule Template • Rule Template A bunch of Rule Attributes Rules = Document Type + Rule Template Can also be used to define various other rule properties (defaults, etc.) Routing Rule • Routing Rule Who should receive action requests at a particular node? Created against a Rule Template. Rule matching behavior is handled by the Rule Attributes Defines the users, workgroups and/or roles who should receive action requests Post Processor • Post Processor Receives events as the process is executed Status Change Node Transition Action Taken by User Usually used to “commit” the business transaction once all approvals have been gathered Searchable Attribute • Searchable Attribute Extracts and indexes document data for searching Defines custom fields for Document Search Can be written in Java or defined in XML using Xpath. Developing a Workflow Document KFS Routing Example Let’s route a document… and look at doc type rule creation route log KFS Routing Example - Summary • Summary Can be simple or complex Process definition is defined Rule Attributes and Templates are Created Rules are Configured For more complex routing logic, routing components may need to be implemented For simpler routing logic, out-of-the-box components can be used (i.e. XPath eval.) eDoc Lite eDoc Lite • Sometimes you need integration to a big client app with a sophisticated interface eDoc Lite • Sometimes you don’t. • …this where eDoc Lite comes in. eDoc Lite • eDoc Lite is a simple, form-based system that runs entirely within a Standalone Rice Server can be created with no java, just XML eDoc Lite - Details • Simple form creation and presentation XML definition of form fields Use your own custom XSLT for presentation • Simple validation rules Regular Expression Custom Validators Required/Not-Required JavaScript Validation • Security Achieved through XSLT integration with KEW APIs Building Blocks of an eDoc Lite • Every eDoc Lite consists of 4 pieces: Field Definitions – defines what fields the EDL has, what type, validations, etc. Stylesheet – an XSLT stylesheet that renders the EDL for the user Document Type – defines the workflow process for the EDL EDL Association – associates each of the 3 pieces above to form an eDoc Lite eDocLite – EDL Form eDocLite – Summary • Makes creating a workflow-enabled application based on a simple form easy • No Java development required • No application to deploy Deployment and Integration Deployment and Integration • There are multiple ways to deploy and integrate applications with Kuali Rice Bundled – Kuali Rice software is “bundled” into your application Standalone – a standalone server is deployed • In addition, when deploying a standalone server, the following client integration options are available, most relate to the KEW module Embedded KEW – workflow engine is embedded into your application KEW Java Thin Client Web Services – for KEW and, eventually, KIM eDoc Lite Bundled Mode • All Kuali Rice modules are embedded into the client application, including the Web Application • Does not require the deployment of a standalone Rice server Ideal for development or “quickstart” applications This is not desirable for Enterprise deployments of Kuali Rice Bundled Mode Diagram Standalone Rice Server • The Standalone Rice Server allows you to run a central Kuali Rice application that can be integrated with multiple clients • Facilitates a single KEW Action List, Document Search, etc. • Allows for a shared KSB Service Registry • Supports multiple integration options for clients: KEW Java Thin Client Embedded KEW Web Services KEW Java Thin Client • Allows for a Java client application to integrate with the KEW module of Rice • Uses Java Serialization over HTTP • All workflow processing happens on the standalone server • If the workflow processing requires custom code (i.e. Post Processors), then plug-ins need to be developed and deployed to the server KEW Java Thin Client Diagram Embedded KEW • Embedded KEW allows you to configure a workflow engine embedded in your application but still use a standalone rice server • This allows for the following: Integration of database transactions between client application and embedded KEW (via JTA) Fast - Embedded client talks directly to database No need for application plug-ins on the server Still a single KEW web app but scalability is increased because of multiple Workflow Engines Embedded KEW Diagram KEW Web Services • There are a few web service endpoints that are exposed from Kuali Rice • KEW has a subset of it’s API available using this integration method • The KSB allows for exporting of services onto the bus using SOAP Web Services • In the future, we hope to add more web service endpoints to Kuali Rice • For example, KIM is being designed with web service remoting in mind Bringing it all Together • Leveraging the KSB and the previous examples, it’s possible to utilize multiple strategies for Kuali Rice/KEW integration and deployment • Examples: Some clients running as Thin Clients Some clients leveraging code deployed in plug-ins on the standalone server Multiple servers deployed in a cluster for scalability Some clients integrating directly with web service endpoints Some clients running in Embedded Mode Numerous eDoc Lite applications The Whole Picture Questions? Questions from the audience. Rice web site: http://rice.kuali.org