How to Implement a Workflow System

[eluser]CodeIgniterNewbie[/eluser]
Can someone explain the general concepts that apply to developing a workflow system? The workflow needs to support user selected steps, etc.

Was looking at http://ezcomponents.org/docs/api/latest/...kflow.html, but it seems a bit complicated. Is there a simpler approach in CI?

[eluser]WanWizard[/eluser]
Wait until we're finished, and start using our framework, it has a complete workflow engine on board.

Alternatively, if you want to write one yourself (which from experience I can say will take a while), I suggest you read http://www.tonymarston.net/php-mysql/workflow.html, which is what we used as guideline of our workflow engine.

[eluser]CodeIgniterNewbie[/eluser]
When will your framework be done? How is it different from CI?

[eluser]WanWizard[/eluser]
The backend is nearly finished (my guesstimation is in a couple of weeks). We're currently testing and tuning the workflow engine which the backend uses p.e. for the user registration and activation workflow.

It is build on top of CI, so you can use everything you're used to, but has quite a few CI extensions.

It also doesn't use the standard CI routing and one-to-one URL-controller mapping, but has an extremely modular approach to everything. All functionality is provided using installable modules. It supports multiple websites, you use the database to build you site folder structure. It uses a template engine with uses Joomla style templates. Modules export template elements (or widgets if you will), which can be placed in sections defined in the theme template (again, Joomla style). You can define site templates with layout elements that have to be applied to multiple pages (p.e. menu's, side panel elements, etc). Very flexible.

We use the Smarty template engine internally (lots of our customers have a requirement for developer/designer separation), but it support standard CI views as well.

It also has a task based RBAC system, supporting any combination of users, groups and roles. It also supports group and role nesting, so you could create a "SuperAdmin" role, and under that roles for the different admin tasks. A user assigned the SuperAdmin role will inherit all rights assigned to the underlying roles.

Have a look at our project website (see link in my signature). You'll find a link there to a v8 demo site that you can login to and look around, and access to our SVN source repository in case you want to look at the source.

[eluser]CodeIgniterNewbie[/eluser]
Are people using ExiteCMS already? What's the community support like?

[eluser]WanWizard[/eluser]
If you mean this version, the answer is no, as it's still in early Alpha stage.

We have a demo site online which is kept in sync with our repository (it runs the bleeding edge if you will), and our sponsor uses it for his public and intranet websites (as in eating your own dogfood ).

We have quite a few users using the previous version, but not a lot, as we have never promoted it as a public open source framework. It is mainly developed to support the development for intranet applications for our sponsors customers, a bit like Ellislabs has done with CI as framework for EE.

With the new version our sponsor has agreed that we make our efforts public in true open source fashion (as it should be). Once we have a stable framework released, we will start on the public frontend modules, and hope to attract other developers as well.

I think there is a lot of potential for a framework like this. A lot of threads here are always about the same issues: authentication, authorisation, routing, user and rights management, templating, etc. A framework like ours makes that you don't have to bother with backend functionality, but you can be productive from day one. The main advantage I see is that unlike some other CMS systems, ExiteCMS runs completely behind the scenes, and doesn't dictate anything towards usability or the look and feel of your website.

[eluser]CodeIgniterNewbie[/eluser]
Sounds like an interesting project. Good luck to you guys.

[eluser]Buso[/eluser]
[quote author="WanWizard" date="1273336946"]If you mean this version, the answer is no, as it's still in early Alpha stage.

We have a demo site online which is kept in sync with our repository (it runs the bleeding edge if you will), and our sponsor uses it for his public and intranet websites (as in eating your own dogfood ).

We have quite a few users using the previous version, but not a lot, as we have never promoted it as a public open source framework. It is mainly developed to support the development for intranet applications for our sponsors customers, a bit like Ellislabs has done with CI as framework for EE.

With the new version our sponsor has agreed that we make our efforts public in true open source fashion (as it should be). Once we have a stable framework released, we will start on the public frontend modules, and hope to attract other developers as well.

I think there is a lot of potential for a framework like this. A lot of threads here are always about the same issues: authentication, authorisation, routing, user and rights management, templating, etc. A framework like ours makes that you don't have to bother with backend functionality, but you can be productive from day one. The main advantage I see is that unlike some other CMS systems, ExiteCMS runs completely behind the scenes, and doesn't dictate anything towards usability or the look and feel of your website.[/quote]

that sounds great, but remember to document (almost) everything, like CI did, and make sure humans understand it.

[eluser]WanWizard[/eluser]
No worries, that's definately on the agenda.

The idea is to add it to the docs CI supplies, so you don't have to look in two places. It also makes it easier for developers already familiar with CI.