Need help with workflow

[vasuki]

We are evaluating Alfresco for managing our website content. So, please excuse me if there are too many "newbie" questions…

I am trying to create the following "workflow" process:
I have two Spaces (let's say "DEV", "PRO"). If a user creates or updates a document somewhere in "DEV" (could be at any folder depth), the user should be able to click on "Submit to production", and this should copy the file to the exact same location under "PRO" (recreating the folder structure if necessary). Is this possible with Alfresco out-of-the-box?

I looked at the "simple workflow" for approve/reject - this seems to come close to what I want, but there are two problems:
1. It doesn't copy the folder structure - only the file gets copies to PRO.
2. It doesn't allow repeated pushes - once the file is sent to PRO, future updates cannot be sent, due to filenaming conflicts.

Thanks in advance for any help/guidance…

[gavinc]

If you are attempting to manage your website you would be much better served using our WCM capabilities not simple workflow. WCM provides the support for the thing you are asking and much more!

Have a look at the WCM product pages for an overview of the features:

http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Web_Content_Management
http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/New_Web_Content_Management_Plan

[vasuki]

Actually, we do not want Alfresco to manage the website. Our website is highly dynamic and is already running quite well. We only need a Content Management System to maintain the static (plaintext) portions of the website, which we will then dynamically pull in as needed into the dynamic webpages. So, WCM seems to be overkill for this kind of simplistic (?) workflow…

Of course, I am new to all of this, so if you have a reason to differ with my view, I would be happy to hear it… Thanks!

[patrik]

We are developing a process that is similar to yours in alfresco. But as far as i know it's not possible to carry out with an out-of-the-box solution. What we most preferably would like to do is to provide a button under the item in the browsing interface, that performs a javascript on the item. What we haven't solved so far is to associate the script with the item in a suitable way. I have addressed this problem in http://forums.alfresco.com/viewtopic.php?t=8435 where you also can see how to create this type of button.

If that doesn't work out, our next choice is to copy the item to some temporary folder where a rule triggers a javascript. Then the item is automatically associated with the script. With the script you can do all things you want to do; create folders and files, copy folders and files, modify properties, transform etc. Have a look at http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/JavaScript_API. The issue that we are experiencing, is to set the version property which is addressed in http://forums.alfresco.com/viewtopic.php?t=8806.

Good luck!

[vasuki]

Patrik - thanks! This is also a possible solution. I was able to write a Javascript to do what we needed, but executing it was a chore. With the tip you provided, I was able to create a menu item to execute the Javascript.

However, as you said, there is no reference to the "document" or "space" objects, so the script is unable to function. Have you had any luck in getting a response from the Alfresco folks on how to pass the node's path to the Javascript?

Is there documentation available for any of this (action-group configuration, actionContext object, etc.)? I find the lack of documentation to be quite challenging (to put it mildly…)