Workflow Generic Question

[apaxson]

I have been actively using Alfresco for the last 2 weeks, trying to determine if it is a good fit for our Worldwide Intranet system.

One question I have is for workflow.  It is exactly what I need, but where do I go to see the workflow history?

If I apply a basic workflow to a document for review and approve, where does it tell me that it was approve and by who?  I looked at both Share and Explorer, but haven't found anything.

Thank you all!
– Aaron Paxson

[mrogers]

There is no "workflow history".  Once the task instance has ended, its gone.

You could quite easily "roll your own" workflow log though.    Either use logging, audit or simply write status information to a node as your workflow progresses.

[apaxson]

Please forgive my ignorance, but what would be the point in following an approval process if you can't "prove" the actual approval?

Thanks

[apaxson]

I will read up about finding the "Review and Approve" workflow, and modify it.

Thank you.

[apaxson]

mrogers,

Can you direct me to a wiki entry or some other guidance on how to update a custom property of the content inside the workflow?

It seems non-trivial to update all content types with "history" metadata, like date/time, user, and action taken.

But, not sure how to access the content properties from inside a workflow definition.

Thanks.

[zaizi]

There is an example workflow that ships with Alfresco. It's called lifecycle.

1. It defines a custom content model that specifies the status of the document.
2. In the workflow when the user clicks on approve it changes the status of the document from Draft to Approved.
3. You can see how it accesses the content properties and updates.
4. You can extend the custom content model and add additional properties as per your requirements.


Ainga

[mrogers]

Please forgive my ignorance, but what would be the point in following an approval process if you can't "prove" the actual approval?

Thanks

What you could store is the "result" of a workflow.   For example you could decide to have an "approved" status on the documents that are processed by a workflow with an "approved by date" and "approved by person" field.

What you won't have is a log of each state transition of the workflow.   You could build it, if that makes sense for your application.

Here's an examples setting properties in a workflow using Alfresco script.
http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/WorkflowSample_Lifecycle