Basic question about development needs

[hanoul]

:?:
I have noticed in various articles and an Alfresco book that the first thing they do is "build Alfresco from the source", or "importing the SDK".
Being a novice, I don't understand why you can't modify an Alfresco installation directly on the installed files.
1- Is it possible to "import" all the files from an Alfresco installation into Eclipse and work on them, and re-deploy them?
2- What is the difference between "building and Alfresco from the source" and "building an Alfresco from the SDK"?
3- How does any of the 2 above can be used for an installation?
4- I have Alfresco 3.1 installed on a Windows machine. I need to either modify process definition files for an existing workflow, or create new advanced workflows.
I was wondering if I can do that directly on my installation, or I have to start from the source, or SDK?

Thanks for your help.

[mrogers]

It depends on what you want to do.

If you are just configuring alfresco, and that includes working on content models, workflow  definitions and adding web scripts, then you will just be working with the configuration, there's no need to build anything.      There may be a need to package stuff up.

If you are building some sort of standalone client or something that embeds or extends alfresco then you may need to use the SDK.    For example if you are developing your own content transformers or your own program that uses alfresco's SOAP interfaces.

If you are changing alfresco, for example contributing new features to the repository or replacing chunks of alfresco explorer then you would build your own version of alfresco from source code.

[hanoul]

Thanks mrogers.
To define new advanced workflows, I will be using jBPM GPD embedded in Eclipse. What I am confused about is, how to deploy the definition files from Eclipse into my Alfresco installation.

On another note, do you happen to know how to change/configure the out of the box Website Submission Workflow so that it sends an e-mail notification to the reviewer?

Thanks,