topic Re: evaluating alfresco and workflow features in Alfresco Archive

evaluating alfresco and workflow features

cata_maican — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:36:22 GMT

I'm evaluating afor Alfresco y organization (education) and i would like have some answers to the following questions1) since i'm fairly new to BPM and I have some questions related to workflows in Alfresco. So, is it possible to define workflows with variable number of steps? Let me give you an e

Re: evaluating alfresco and workflow features

mrogers — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:04:58 GMT

(1) since i'm fairly new to BPM and I have some questions related to workflows in Alfresco. So, is it possible to define workflows with variable number of steps? Let me give you an example: someone in my organization produces a document. This document needs to be approved so the document goes to approver1. Because the document contains some legal stuff, approver1 sends the document to lawyer1. Also, because the document contains some, let's say, tender stuff, lawyer1 asks TenderOfficer1 for his/her's opinion. So after lawyer1 and TenderOfficer1 give their comments/approval, "approver1" may take a decision and approve the document/send it to the next step in the workflow. The depth steps (layer1 –> TenderOfficer1 —>…….) may be variable.

- Yes - your workflows can be as complicated as you want them with variable numbers of steps, branching, joining etc.

(2) is it possible to attach a "registration number" to a electronic document that enters/exists in my organization so that the document may also be tracked by this number? Is it possible to add other meta-data visibile/hidden to a document?

- yes.

(3) for me, approving means digitally signing documents. Are there any specific features in Alfresco related to this (sign documents, add comments)?

- There's no signing of documents out of the box - however I'm sure there will be people who have done it. You can store metadata and comments, so you could store a signature such as an encrypted digest. For me the issue with this has always been key management which alfresco does not yet have.

Re: evaluating alfresco and workflow features

cata_maican — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:05:07 GMT

Thank you for your answers.

Could you, please, point me in some direction for (1) from where should I start and taking into consideration that the number of steps are unknown? Are there some examples of this type of workflow?

thank you,
Catalin

Re: evaluating alfresco and workflow features

hunjet — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:28:29 GMT

Hi Catalin,

Maybe you could start with wiki page: http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Category:Workflow.
Notice that Alfresco supports two workflow engines - jBPM and Activiti.

Regards,
Blaž