I think you misunderstood me. I'm not suggesting any SOAP interfaces or
anything. I'm simply suggesting using Visio's workflow editor to create
workflows that can be imported for Struts workflows. This should be able to
be done by simply creating 2 XSL files: one to convert Visio's workflows
into Strut's, and one to convert Strut's into Visio's.
My primary point was to say that the next release of Visio has a workflow
editor, it outputs an XML file, and the XML format will likely be public.
-dan
-----Original Message-----
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED].
org]On Behalf Of Craig Tataryn
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2001 6:52 PM
To: Dan - Blue Lotus Software
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Work flow RFC
I don't want to be platform specific though w.r.t. any tools generated from
this TODO. However, if someone wanted to create a Visio addin for the
front-end and some SOAP interfaces to the support objects I wouldn't oppose
it.
Craig.
Dan - Blue Lotus Software wrote:
> 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/>
