Hi Charley, I owe you one meeting on the Internet to share what I've been working with you (I'll write separately to you so we can arrange an online interactive meeting with voice). Hopefully it will be open source and fully free, but to be honest I do not know yet.
>Aren't the high costs of deploying a CMS associated >with the need to custom assemble/configure the CMS >in a given environment with the building blocks >provided by the vendor? And, since so many >environments are completely different from each other, >how is a vendor to identify what is common among >environments (so it can provide those building >blocks)? Yep that is a problem that may be worth paying money to get it solved. In fact that is what most developers, architects, project managers and business users hope to get when their companies acquire a new software system. Unfortunately it seams that according to some people on this list hopes have been little more then hopes when it comes to CMS's. >However, where I get stuck is when "workflow" in the >general CM use can mean *anything*, and that's where >I don't know where workflow starts and stops nor even >what it *is*. I believe that I managed to solve that. At least I got the pillars for the solution to this problem. A lot o people have already written about what workflows are and what is their importance within the CM field. I've also stressed out the importance of it within CM in some recent posts of mine (dedicated to study of metrics in a thread still rolling and of course this thread) A Workflow is a process schema (I advise to read the literature to spare words of mine on the subject). A Workflow Engine (WE) is an electronic system that runs the process according to the schema. A Workflow Definition Application (WDA) is a software tool that allows one to define the Workflow schema. >However, where I get stuck is when "workflow" in the >general CM use can mean *anything* Yes it is impractical to make a Workflow Engine and all use cases. That is why programming languages exist also. But nevertheless technology can be provided to help solve the most common cases, and let developers deal with idiosyncrasies specific to implementation. There are a lot of generic Workflow Systems in the market. They function more or less as message routing systems. But I believe that I've managed to build one fully integrated with a CMS without the need for complex custom integration (probably other's have done also). Now, a Workflow from a programmer's point of view is a procedural pattern that has clearly defined components (again the literature). To clarify why a workflow cannot be anything within the realm of IT think of a function coded in Java. Is it anything? In other words a workflow schema can be defined using any programming language. That is why most CMS's do not implement a Workflow Engine. But then again if you want to change the workflow you have to change the program. That is why workflow engines are important within the CM field from a configuration point of view. Best regards, Nuno Lopes Independent Consultant. -- http://cms-list.org/ trim your replies for good karma.
