topic Re: Workflow Issues in Alfresco Archive

Workflow Issues

nh — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:35:28 GMT

Hi,I have a space in which all the users have Consumer role. I have a content rule applied to the space with a workflow. I follwed the process as it is in the Alfresco book.I login in as usr and upload document in a folder called Draft and assign permissions to other users on that content. After thi

Re: Workflow Issues

gavinc — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 10:05:36 GMT

Does the user have the correct permissions on the source and targets spaces? If you are doing a move I think the users need to have delete permission in the source space and addChildren permisssion in the target space.

Try moving a document manually using the web client as one of the users to see if it is possible oitside the workflow.

Re: Workflow Issues

nh — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 03:04:05 GMT

Hi,

I am trying out Alfresco 2.0 and having some issues with the new workflow.

Version 2.0 comes with a new option in the advanced workflw called "Web Site Submission"(Submit changes for approval). When I am opting for this and sumbmitting the wrkflw, I am getting a strange error as below.

Please correct the errors below then click Finish.
A system error happened during the operation: Mandatory task properties have not been provided: {http://www.alfresco.org/model/wcmworkflow/1.0}fromPath,{http://www.alfresco.org/model/wcmworkflow/1.0}label

We are implementing custom wrkflw in 1.4 for our org and it seems that 2.0 already has it [like the above option]

Please assist us in this so as we could try and implement 2.0 wrkflw.

Thanks in Advancd,
Hari

Re: Workflow Issues

gavinc — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:07:36 GMT

The Web Site Submission workflow is only for use in website spaces. Are you doing this or trying to use the workflow on some content outside a web site space?

Re: Workflow Issues

nh — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:32:41 GMT

Gavin ,
Firstly thanks for the reply.

Can u pls tell me wats exactly a "website space"?

I am using this workflow option just like the other workflow options.
I am uploading a content as a user in one of the selected spaces, and starting the advanced workflow, logged in as admin, selected the Website Submission option and submit.

can pls let me knw if nything wrong in this?

Thanks,
hari

Re: Workflow Issues

gavinc — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 10:57:59 GMT

Alfresco now has Web Content Management capabilities (which is an add-on available here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=143373)

Once the WCM capabilities have been enabled you'll find a "Web Projects" space in Company Home. If you go in here and drop the create menu down you'll see an option to create a Web Project, this is what i meant by website space.

The workflow you have been trying is only meant to be used within the context of one of these spaces i.e. managing the assets of a website.

You've therefore found a bug in that the website workflow should not really be available in the list of workflows, i'll raise this on JIRA.

To try out the advanced workflow capabilities I'd suggest just trying the other 2 workflows i.e. "Review & Approve" or "Adhoc Task".

Re: Workflow Issues

nh — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 11:33:51 GMT

Gavin,
Thank you for the info.

However, we are still using the review and approve workflow, and have few issues here.

1. we need to trigger an email to the person who uploaded the content, when the content is approved .the workflow we have is:
a)user submits content.

b)admin manages content rules , starts the advanced workflow and
assigns the content to a reviewer[ we have customized mail alert here]

c)reviewer approves/rejects the content[ customized mail alert] .

d)admin then clicks on the task done during which we need to send a mail to the conntent uploader.

is there a variable like bpm_content_owner like bpm_assignee , which would help us to send the mail?

2. We need to disable the Adhoc Workflow option to everyone? how coud we do it?

Thanks in Advance

Re: Workflow Issues

gavinc — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 10:48:01 GMT

You may find the following wiki page useful: http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/WorkflowAdministration as this will answer your questions here, but to summarise…

There is an "initiator" property that you can use, that is the user that started the workflow, so i'm not sure if this is what you want. You could get hold of the document under workflow and access it's properties to find the creator (the uploader) of the content.

To remove the adhoc workflow you will have to undeploy the workflow, this can be done via the workflow console, details on this are on the wiki page above.

Re: Workflow Issues

nh — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 11:48:55 GMT

Gavin,Thanks for the reply.

i was able to find out the creator details opf a document.

i have also remove the adhoc workflow from the list by a workaround[ by commenting the code in the bootstrap.xml] is this the right way anyways?

also,
i need to assign the permissions dynamically on a content for a user or a group of users when its is uploaded in the space.
eg: user uploads doc in space A and all the users, would have only consumer access or some other access assigned automatically

could this be done thro a custom script?[ and then executed thro the rules for a space]

also i need to move a content to a specified folder once it completes the advanced workflow cycle[rejected or approved] automatically thro' some rule?
with the info on the ebook i understand that this could be done by the script, but how could i trace the status of the workflow?

Please help.

Re: Workflow Issues

nh — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:50:53 GMT

Gavin,

I have tried a cutom script, to set the permission on a document automatically after its uploaded, but it doesn't seem to work in 1.4 and 2.0
below is the one liner

document.setPermission("Delete","Group_EVERYONE");

or

document.setPermission("Delete","EVERYONE");

can u pls tel wats wrong in this?

Thanks,
Hari

Re: Workflow Issues

gavinc — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 08:47:52 GMT

Yes, that is one way of removing the workflow i.e. don't load it in the first place. I presumed you were in a position where you couldn't reset your database, in which case undeploying it is the only way to remove it from the UI.

According to http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/JavaScript_API#Permission_and_Security_API the code you have should work. Have you tried the other alternative of

document.setPermission("Delete")‍

which should apply the permission to all users?

Yes, you should be able to copy/move nodes in JavaScript: http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/JavaScript_API#Modifying_and_Creating_API

Re: Workflow Issues

nh — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 08:56:43 GMT

Gavin,Thanks for the reply.

I apologise, but i could not understand your suggestion.

are u refering about redeploying the workflow everytime i make such changes? if yes, then i have enabled the "redeploy" option to true.

Can u pls explain this a bit more?

Thanks in Advance,

Re: Workflow Issues

gavinc — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 11:18:26 GMT

No, i was referring to the AdHoc workflow that you wanted removed from the system.

I was just saying that if you had already bootstrapped your system and you were not in a position to re-create your database then you could undeploy the adhoc workflow via the workflow console.

But as you have commented out the code in bootstrap.xml I'm guessing you that deleted your database and started again?

Re: Workflow Issues

nh — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:19:26 GMT

Hi,

We have implemented the Review & Approve workflow, and we have some isssues regarding the workflow.

Eg: a workflow is initiated on a content and 2 other resources are added to this same sent to the reviewer for review. after the review when the revr approves/rejects a mail needs to be triggered to the workflow initiator, and the content owners separately i,e 3 contents and three different mails to the owners.

We have tried to send mails to the different owners separately and it works, but we do not have the content details separetely.
var i;
for (i in bpm_package.children)
{
var ownerGuy = bpm_package.children[x].properties.creator;
var ownerMail = people.getPerson(ownerGuy).properties["cm:email"];
var mail = actions.create("mail");
mail.parameters.to = ownerMail;
mail.parameters.subject = "Document Approved: " + bpm_workflowDescription;
mail.parameters.from = bpm_assignee.properties["cm:email"];
mail.parameters.text = "Hiiiiiiiiiiii,"+ people.getPerson(ownerGuy).properties["cm:firstName"] +" Your content has been approved by the reviewer"+bpm_assignee.properties["cm:firstName"]+""+bpm_assignee.properties["cm:lastName"]+" with the following review comments: mail.execute(bpm_package);
}

In the above code we are able to get the creator's info. How can we fetch the content info respectively?
the content name, node link

Please Help

Thanks,
Hari

Re: Workflow Issues

gavinc — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 08:41:03 GMT

Does "var contentName = bpm_package.children[x].properties.name; " not work?

Re: Workflow Issues

nh — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 09:53:24 GMT

Gavin,

it wrks. i was able to implement it after some trial and error.

thanks a lot for the reply

Re: Workflow Issues

nh — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 10:11:38 GMT

Hi all,

I have two issues regarding the workflow and content addition.

Workflow:
During the review of the content, we need to make a few fields mandatory and validate. Can someone please sugges how to go about it?

Content upload or creation:
While uploading a content, the default type of the content wud be the extension of the content[eg MS Excel for .xls content and so on]. After the upload one could easliy modfigy the content type, which has some impact during the content search.

Is there a way this content type drop down list could be disabled as and when required?

Please help
NH

Re: Workflow Issues

gavinc — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 11:25:14 GMT

The fields used in a workflow are defined using a model behind the scenes (called bpmModel.xml and workflowModel.xml off the top of my head), so to make properties mandatory and have validation add the <mandatory> element and constraints to the property definition.

Of course if you wanting to change the out of the box definition to upgrade proof you'll need to define your own model and extend the default Alfresco one.

The mimetype field is shown as the result of the following in the config file web-client-config.xml:

<show-property name="mimetype" display-label-id="content_type" component-generator="MimeTypeSelectorGenerator" />‍

To remove the drop down you could override the relevant config to hide the property. But this would be global so i'm not sure if it would satisfy your "as and when" requirement.

Hope this helps.

Re: Workflow Issues

nh — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 03:16:11 GMT

Gavin,
Thanks a lot for the hint.The mime type definition[drop down box] works.

However, the other issue of making a field mandatory has some hiccups.
I was able to make the required field/s as mandatory, but it had a negetive impact.

We have added a new field "Comments" in the workflow screen by modifying the bpmmodel and the other files. This works fine in most of the cases, but as this field is added in the bpm under the all tasks list, the mandatory feature stops the submission of the content when actually not required.

Is there a way we could configure this field so as , its mandatory only when reqired?

<!–                                 –>
        <!– Base definition for all Tasks –>
        <!–                                 –>

        <type name="bpm:task">
            <parent>cm:content</parent>

            <properties>

                <!–             –>
                <!– Assignment –>
                <!–             –>
                <!– Note: Implemented via cmwnable aspect –>

                <!–                  –>
                <!– Task Identifier –>
                <!–                  –>
                <property name="bpm:taskId">
                    <type>d:long</type>
                    <protected>true</protected>
                    <mandatory>true</mandatory>
                </property>

                <!– Task Description –>
                <property name="bpm:description">
                    <type>d:text</type>
                </property>

            <!– Task Comments –>
              <property name="bpm:comments">
                    <type>d:text</type>
               <mandatory>false</mandatory>
                </property>

Please help.
NH

Re: Workflow Issues

gavinc — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 10:09:40 GMT

Unfortunately not, if a property is defined as mandatory it's always treated as such.

What you could do is create a custom JSP for the manage task dialog for the task type in which you need the comments field to be filled in i.e. mandatory. In the custom dialog add some JavaScript to check for comments being present.