It would be nice if we could integrate directly with Visio. Microsoft is
pushing Visio as their workflow editor for BizTalk. Basically, it allows
Visio models to be connected to real code through the use of XML files,
pretty much as you have suggested (except without the XSL stage--the file
format Visio writes is read directly).
At the XML One conference in London a few months back, I asked the two
Microsoft guys that were demoing a beta of the Visio workflow stuff (from
the upcoming .NET version) if they planned to publish the DTD. They didn't
really know. However, given their commitment to open standards with XML
(yes, I said that with a straight face), the DTD will likely be released to
a standards body.
If this is the case, building XSL documents to handle the conversion each
way should be straightforward.
-dan
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED].
org]On Behalf Of Craig Tataryn
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2001 5:29 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Work flow RFC
Hi, I would like your comments for the workflow item on our TODO list.
Currently this is how I've envisioned the workflow project:
1) A nice GUI type Applet or Application that has visual constructs
which can be connected in a Visio type manner to create an Activity
diagram or some other type of flow diagram.
2) This diagram will be persisted in an XML file which holds meta data
for the elements in diagram (position, type of construct (controller,
flat html page, cgi script, flow arrow, etc..)).
3) The diagram can be exported to a struts config file via XSLT (i.e.
workflow.xml -> workflow2struts.xsl -> struts-config.xml)
4) A diagram can also be imported from a struts-config.xml file via XSLT
(i.e. struts-config.xml -> struts2workflow.xsl -> workflow.xml). Of
course some sort of "pretty layout" code would have to be used to
un-jumble the mess of constructs that are sucked out of the
struts-config.xml file (i.e. take a guess at proper positioning
information).
The GUI should employ some sort of extensibility mechanism like BSF
(http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/projects/bsf) or Bean Shell
(http://www.beanshell.org/) to allow users to plug-in their own
functionality (i.e. validation code) without jeopardizing the core code
(what I call the Emeril Lagasse technique -- BAM!).
I realize this is a very high level look at the TODO but I think as we
get more comments we will get more granular and can start dishing out
segments.
Let me know what you think.
<tataryn:craig/>
