AboutEazflow
Version 2 (Roman Mackovčák, 05/27/2009 01:38 pm)
| 1 | 1 | h1. About [[/|Eazflow]] |
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| 3 | 1 | Eazflow is an '''open source workflow application''' brought to you by "Zmok":http://www.zmok.net/index.en.html. It provides a web application platform for workflows - long -running multi-actor processes within organizations. |
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| 5 | 1 | Our design focus for Eazflow was on |
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| 6 | 1 | * *flexible definition of workflows*, |
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| 7 | 1 | * *easy integration* with external applications, |
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| 8 | 1 | * *good usability* and a quick learning phase. |
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| 10 | 1 | We consider these, together with a *standard application platform* (Java), to be the critical success factors of a successful workflow solution. |
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| 12 | 1 | Eazflow is built upon *"Grails":http://grails.org/ web application framework*, using *"Groovy":http://groovy.codehaus.org/ programming language*. It will run in any Java web application server "supported by Grails":http://grails.org/Deployment. |
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| 13 | 1 | Grails and Groovy represent a fresh agile stream in the Java world, inspired by famous "Ruby on Rails":http://rubyonrails.org/. While being strongly oriented on standards and reuse ("JSR 241":http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=241, "Hibernate ORM":http://www.hibernate.org/, "Spring ":http://www.springsource.org/), they try to *bring joy and productivity back to web application development*, and gradually, they succeed. |
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| 15 | 1 | Eazflow is one of the first real-world "Grails application samples":http://grails.org/Sample+Applications, published with "open source on Grails":http://www.grails.org/OpenSource+Projects. It has been harvested and refactored from a real world application, and we plan to further develop it in a community driven effort. Our engineers have put weeks of hard earned experience into it, you may thus use it as a reference, cookbook and *best practice guide for Grails applications*. |
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| 17 | 1 | h2. Terminology |
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| 19 | 1 | Eazflow manages long running ''processes'', consisting of ''activities''. In each ''activity'', a ''user'' may read or edit a set of ''variables'', and then choose a ''transition'' into another ''activity''. |
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| 20 | 1 | * ''Process'' is the container of a workflow. Multiple process instances (run processes) may be based on one process definition. |
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| 21 | 1 | * ''Activity'' is a step in a process. Its definition may give details of what is expected in this step - a user action, background system operation, process termination, etc. |
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| 22 | 1 | * ''Variables'' create a tree of structured information collected during given process. |
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| 23 | 1 | * ''Transitions'' are named connections from one activity into another. |
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| 25 | 1 | For details, see [[EazflowReference]]. |
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| 27 | 1 | h2. References |
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| 29 | 1 | * "GrailsFlow":http://www.grailsflow.org/ is a workflow and process engine on Grails with a slightly different focus |
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| 30 | 2 | Roman Mackovčák | * "Book-Flow":http://svn.codehaus.org/grails/trunk/grails-samples/book-flow/ is an older (8/2007) Grails sample application using "Grails/Spring webflow":http://www.grails.org/WebFlow |