In this step, we explore the Activiti Workflow browser which offers graphical editing of workflow process diagrams.
If you did not do so already,
set up version 5 of the Activiti Workflow Engine locally.
Explore Process Definition
Process definitions have a unique
process identifier, a short string used as part of the file name. The file is named:
[process identifier].bpmn20.xml
It is placed in the "/resources/workflow/model" directory of the module for your workflow; in our example:
...[LabKey Home]/server/optionalmodules/labWork/resources/workflow/model/[process identifier].bpmn20.xml
You can directly edit the xml file or use the graphical Activiti Explorer to edit; iterating between them gives you many options to refine workflows. Here we explore the sample workflow using the graphical Activiti Explorer.
- Click Import.
- Select the sample file [labWork]/resources/workflow/model/labWorkflow.bpmn20.xml. You can find this file in the sample package you downloaded, or it will now also be installed in your server/optionalmodules directory on the same path.
- Click Open.
- Click Edit to see the process diagram.
- Open the labWorkflow.bpmn20.xml file in a separate text editor window to compare the xml version of the workflow with the Activiti diagram.
This workflow begins with a system notification of scientists to run one or both of two assays. Each assay path includes user tasks to run the assay and review results. Decision points, or gateways, offer a possible rerun of the assay. An intermediate catching event, in the form of a timer, is set on each assay run step to notify the scientists if the task is not completed in a timely manner. Once the necessary assays have been run and reviewed successfully, the results are archived and the process ends.
In the next step, we'll make a few changes.
