Hi Cameron, Looking good! Comments inline below:
On Apr 26, 2011, at 8:56 PM, Cameron Goodale wrote: > Ok OODT List I am I think I am finally getting a formal OODT-WORKFLOW > Education here. But I still have some questions related to Workflow in > general. I hope to get some understanding and to also NAIL DOWN the > vocabulary surrounding Workflow. I read the excellent Developer Guide here: > http://oodt.apache.org/components/maven/workflow/development/developer.html > but I still have some question I hope I can get clarified. Thanks for actually checking it out rather than first declaring that you don't know what's going on! :) There are a lot of documentation like that on the website and glad you found it useful. > > Vocabulary (and a sort of TRUE/FALSE, so please correct the list I am > making) > > > Workflow Heirarchy: > > - Event > - Workflow > - Task = java class > > > Event > > - This is where [ALL] workflows must begin. > - An Event initializes 1 or more workflows > - IF an Event initializes more than 1 workflow the workflows will run in > parallel Yep. > - You cannot use standard configuration to Serialize Workflows spawned > from a single Event Not sure what this means? What do you mean by "Serialize"? > - Events DO NOT generate an INSTANCE_ID Events don't -- Workflows that are turned into Workflow Instances do. The Workflow Engine is responsible for setting and returning this ID as part of creating a Workflow Instance from a Workflow (model). > > > Workflow > > - Workflows DO generate an INSTANCE_ID (Workflow Instances do -- Workflows are just models). > - Workflows must be used to initialize tasks > - Workflows are a way to logically GROUP Tasks together > - Workflows spawn 1 or more tasks Yep. > > Task > > - Lowest atomic level > - Tasks map to a single Java Class > - [Can tasks launch non-Java Code?] Yep via system calls, via CAS-PGE, via the Script task, etc. > - [Can tasks be parallelized/serialized using config?] Sure -- by creating a workflow with a single task. I'm not sure what serialized means? Are you talking about the functionality of the Workflow Instance repository, which (de-)serializes the Workflow Metadata, Task configuration and current status? > - [Do tasks generate an INSTANCE_ID?] Nope, but they generate a TaskId, which is unique. > - [Can tasks pass input/output to each other?] Sure, via the common Metadata context. > > > I think that is enough questions/statements for now. I am eager to read > your replies. Let me know what you think. Cheers, Chris ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Chris Mattmann, Ph.D. Senior Computer Scientist NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena, CA 91109 USA Office: 171-266B, Mailstop: 171-246 Email: [email protected] WWW: http://sunset.usc.edu/~mattmann/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Adjunct Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089 USA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
