enhanced workflows in cascade server by leah einecker

LEAH EINECKER

ENHANCED WORKFLOWS IN CASCADE SERVER

WORKFLOWS AT PCC

We love workflow!

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Content must be approved by administrator responsible for content area

Nobody gets publish permissions -- all publishing done by workflow

NIFTY FEATURE: WORKFLOW REPORT

Created from index block and format

This came with the system install

WORKFLOW INDEX

NIFTY FEATURE #2: APPROVER EDITS

• What if the approver wants to make a simple change to a page?

• The page is locked, so they can only send it to another step in the workflow

• Don't want to generate emails to any other user or have the chance that another user will jump on the file

• With the right trigger, you can send a workflow exclusively to yourself

APPROVER EDITS

<action identifier="approver-edits" label="Send to myself for edits" next-id="approver-edits" move="next_id"> <trigger name="com.cms.workflow.function.preserveCurrentUser"/></action>

NIFTY FEATURE #3: ESCALATIONS

• Escalations - If a workflow is ignored for a set period of time, automatically send it to the webmaster

• This is not the same as the due-date / end-date on a workflow

<step type="transition" identifier="review" label="Approver review" default-group="Administrators" escalate-to="escalate" escalation-hours="336">

ESCALATION DETAILS

CUSTOM FEATURE: WORKFLOW EMAILS

• Our users go through a lot of workflows

• Notfication email needs more information than that a workflow "needs attention" • Need to re-edit one I submitted?• Approve one sent by someone else?

• Not very helpful to say that a workflow has ended• Do I really have to log into CMS just to see if it was

approved or rejected?

SAMPLE EMAILS

CUSTOM WORKFLOW TRIGGERS

Create a new class:public class EmailProvider2 extends com.cms.workflow.function.EmailProvider

We put this class in a JAR file that contains all our custom Java (pccCustom.jar)

Put new JAR in:[cascade home]/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/lib/

WRITING A CUSTOM TRIGGER

Calling any trigger executes:public boolean process() throws TriggerProviderException, FatalTriggerProviderException

Override the process() method, while allowing most everything else to be inherited from superclass

Useful variables available inside process() method:com.hannonhill.cascade.model.workflow.adapter.PublicWorkflowAdapter workflowcom.hannonhill.commons.util.string.StringMap parameters

String mode = parameters.get("mode");

ADD TRIGGER TO WORKFLOW DEFINITION

• Triggers are defined in the <triggers> section of each workflow definition• Cannot be added in GUI workflow builder, must

edit XML

<!-- default trigger --><trigger class="com.cms.workflow.function.EmailProvider" name="EmailProvider"/> <!-- custom trigger --><trigger name="email" class="edu.pima.cascade.workflow.EmailProvider2" />

CUSTOM TRIGGER IN WORKFLOW DEFINITION

<trigger name="email" ><parameter>

<name>mode</name> <value>was-approved</value> </parameter></trigger>

DEFINING EMAIL MESSAGES

• Messages are defined in a Java properties file• Could just as well have been text, XML, etc…

• Use placeholders for common fields like workflow name and generating HTML links to the CMS

• Depending on workflow step type, emails are targeted to workflow owner (submitter) or the group owning the asset• Messages about approval being required go to the group

owning the asset, but limited to the Approval role

SAMPLE EMAIL DEFINITIONS

email.needs-approval.mailApproversOnly = 1email.needs-approval.subj = Web page needs approval - [WORKFLOW_NAME]email.needs-approval.msg = <p>A web page or document is waiting \ for your review and approval - [WORKFLOW_NAME]</p> \ <p>Use the link below to access the web workflow:<br /> \ <a href="[VIEW_WORKFLOW_URL]">View the workflow screen</a></p>

email.was-approved.subj = Web page was approved - [WORKFLOW_NAME]email.was-approved.msg = <p>A web page or document that you \ submitted to CMS workflow has been approved - [WORKFLOW_NAME]</p> \ <p>Use the link below to view the document in the web content \ management system:<br /> \ <a href="[VIEW_ASSET_URL]">View document</a></p>

CUSTOM FEATURE: ESCALATIONS

• What if you know an approver is on vacation, and you don't want to wait for the escalation timeout?

• Want to be able to find and "steal" their workflows

• The webmaster should be able to take any workflow at any time!

ON DEMAND ESCALATIONS

ESCALATION TOOL UI

• Written in JSP

• Placed in:• [cascade install]/tomcat/webapps/ROOT/pccCustom/wkflow

• Access at:• https://your.cms/pccCustom/wkflow

• Putting custom components in separate directory for safety during upgrades

ACCESS CONTROL

LoginInformationBean login = (LoginInformationBean)session.getAttribute("user");

if (!ServiceProviderHolderBean.getServiceProvider().getRoleService().userHasRoleByRolename(login.getUsername(), "Administrator"))

{ errMsg = "Only administrators can do that!";}

SEARCHING WORKFLOWS FOR USER

Results powered by com.hannonhill.cascade.model.service.WorkflowService

Must fetch both active and waiting workflows for user

List<Workflow> wkflows = wkflowService.getActiveWorkflowsForUser(username);

wkflows.addAll(wkflowService.getWaitingWorkflowsForUser( username));

HAVE WORKFLOW, WILL ESCALATE

WorkflowService has method to escalate all overdue workflows, but no method to escalate just one

We will have to do the escalation ourselves!

Find current step of the workflow

Find escalation step of current step

Advance workflow to the escalation step

AND NOW, A WORD ABOUT HIBERNATE

• By default, Hibernate uses lazy collection fetching

• If an object has an associated collection, the collection is retrieved from DB only when it is specifically requested

• If property is "many-to-one" in Hibernate XML config, it is affected unless we override lazy fetching

• The current step of a workflow is many-to-one

• As is the escalation step of a workflow step

SO WE HAVE TO MESS WITH HIBERNATE?

• We could alter the Hibernate configuration XML files• Set lazy="false" on chosen properties

• But this affects every workflow/step load in the system

• And is likely to be overwritten in an upgrade

• But it's easy to do

OR…

• Generate additional DB queries for properties as needed• How often will you manually escalate a workflow?

• No performance hit to system in general

• No modifications to existing CMS components

• This is more complicated to do!

USING JOINS

• Bean getters get lazily-initialized objects• workflow.getCurrentStep()• workflowStep.getEscalationStep()• By default both of these will yield LazyInitializationException!

• We can request objects with additional properties joined from most DAOs• HashSet<Join> joins = new HashSet<Join>();joins.add(new Join(Workflow.PROPERTY_CURRENT_STEP));workflow = workflowDao.get(workflowId, joins);

step = workflow.getCurrentStep(); // success!

EXCEPT…

The Hibernate DAO for workflow steps does not expose a way to join properties.

package edu.pima.cascade.model.dao.hibernate;public class HibernateWorkflowStepDAO extends com.hannonhill.cascade.model.dao.hibernate.HibernateWorkflowStepDAO

implements WorkflowStepDAO {/*************************************************** * Parent class assumes you would not want to join

* wkflow steps. This is probably just an oversight. */public WorkflowStep get(String id, Set<Join> joins){

//fetch() is a protected method on BaseHibernateDAO.return ((WorkflowStep)fetch(id, WorkflowStep.class, joins));

}}

ADD NEW BEAN TO CASCADE

• Spring looks for configuration files in the classpath:• com.hannonhill.cascade.config.spring.applicationContext*.xml

• Add a new configuration file • applicationContextPcc.xml• Not overwritten when upgrading Cascade Server• Want to remove all the custom components? Just remove

the XML config file from the classpath

<bean id="pccWorkflowStepDAO" class="edu.pima.cascade.model.dao.hibernate.HibernateWorkflowStepDAO" />

FINALLY: ESCALATE THE WORKFLOW

• Since we are forcing early escalation, reset the "normal" escalation timeoutescalateStep.setStartedOn(Long.valueOf(System.currentTimeMillis()));

• Do the actual escalationworkflow.setCurrentStep(escalateStep);workflowService.save(workflow); workflowMgmtService.advanceWorkflow(workflow.getId(),

"system", null, "Workflow escalation forced by administrator");

QUESTIONS? THANK YOU

Leah EineckerPima Community College

leinecker@pima.edu