Implementing Workflow in Alfresco 3

Workflow is the automation of a business process, during which documents are passed from one participant to another for action, according to a set of procedural rules. Every Content Management System implementation has its own workflow requirements. For some companies, workflow could be a simple approval process. For some companies, it could be a complex business process management system. Workflow provides ownership and control over the content and processes.

Introduction to the Alfresco workflow process

Alfresco includes two types of out of the box workflow. The first is the Simple Workflow, which is content-oriented, and the other is the Advanced Workflow, which is task-oriented.

The Simple Workflow process in Alfresco involves the movement of documents through various spaces.A content item is moved or copied to a new space at which point a new workflow instance is attached, which is based on the workflow definition of the space.

A workflow definition is unaware of other related workflow definitions.

The Advanced Workflow process is task-oriented, where you create a task, attach documents that are to be reviewed, and assign it to appropriate reviewers. The same robust workflow capabilities are available in Document Management (DM), Records Management (RM), Web Content Management (WCM), and throughout our applications, which includes Alfresco Share.

You can use the out of the box features provided by both types of workflow, or you can create your own custom advanced workflow, according to the business processes of your organization.

Simple Workflow

Consider a purchase order that moves through various departments for authorization and eventual purchase. To implement Simple Workflow for this in Alfresco, you will create spaces for each department and allow documents to move through various department spaces. Each department space is secured, only allowing the users of that department to edit the document and to move it to the next departmental space in the workflow process. The workflow process is so flexible that you could introduce new steps for approval into the operation without changing any code.

Out of the box features

Simple Workflow is implemented as an aspect that can be attached to any document in a space through the use of business rules. Workflow can also be invoked on individual content items as actions.

Workflow has two steps. One is for approval while the other one is for rejection. You can refer to the upcoming image, where workflow is defined for the documents in a space called Review Space. The users belonging to the Review Space can act upon the document. If they choose to Reject, then the document moves to a space called Rejected Space. If they choose to Approve, then the document moves to a space called Approved Space. You can define the names of the spaces and the users on the spaces, according to your business requirements. The following figure gives a graphical view of the Approved Space and the Rejected Space:

Define and use Simple Workflow

The process to define and use Simple Workflow in Alfresco is as follows:

• Identify spaces and set security on those spaces
• Define your workflow process
• Add workflow to content in those spaces, accordingly
• Select the email template and the people to send email notifications to
• Test the workflow process

Let us define and use a Simple Workflow process to review and approve the engineering documents on your intranet. Go to the Company Home > Intranet > Engineering Department space and create a space named ProjectA by using an existing Software Engineering Project space template.

Identify spaces and security

If you go to the Company Home > Intranet > Engineering Department > ProjectA > Documentation space, then you will notice the following sub-spaces:

• Samples: This space is for storing sample project documents. Set the security on this space in such a way that only the managers can edit the documents.
• Drafts: This space contains initial drafts and documents of ProjectA that are being edited. Set the security in such a way that only a few selected users (such as Engineer1, Engineer2— as shown in the upcoming image) can add or edit the documents in this space.
• Pending Approval: This space contains all of the documents that are under review. Set the security in such a way that only the Project Manager of ProjectA can edit these documents.
• Published: This space contains all of the documents that are Approved and visible to others. Nobody should edit the documents while they are in the Published space. If you need to edit a document, then you need to Retract it to the Drafts space and follow the workflow process, as shown in the following image:

  

Defining the workflow process

Now that you have identified the spaces, the next step is to define your workflow process.

We will add workflow to all of the documents in the Drafts space. When a user selects the Approve action called Submit for Approval on a document, then the document moves from the Drafts space to the Pending Approval space.

We will add workflow to all of the documents in the Pending Approval space. When a user selects the Approve action called Approved on a document, then the document moves from the Pending Approval space to the Published space. Similarly, when a user selects the Reject action called Re-submit on a document, then it moves from the Pending Approval space to the Drafts space.

We will add workflow to all of the documents in the Published space. When a user selects the Reject action called Retract on a document, then it moves from the Published space to the Drafts space. You can have review steps and workflow action names according to your business’s requirements.