Versions Compared

Old Version 3

changes.mady.by.user Mark Diggory

Saved on

compared with

New Version 4

changes.mady.by.user Bram De Schouwer

Saved on

Key

  • This line was added.
  • This line was removed.
  • Formatting was changed.

...

The workflow actions configuration is located in the {dspace.dir}/config/spring/api directory and is named "workflow-actions.xml". This configuration file describes the different Action Java classes that are used by the workflow framework. Because the workflow framework uses Spring framework for loading these action classes, this configuration file contains Spring configuration.

...

Code Block
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans
    xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:util="http://www.springframework.org/schema/util"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.0.xsd
                           http://www.springframework.org/schema/util http://www.springframework.org/schema/util/spring-util-2.0.xsd">

    <!-- At the top are our bean class identifiers --->
    <bean id="{action.api.id}" class="{class.path}" scope="prototype"/>
    <bean id="{action.api.id.2}" class="{class.path}" scope="prototype"/>

 <!-- Below the class identifiers come the declarations for out actions/userSelectionMethods -->

 <!-- Use class workflowActionConfig for an action -->
 <bean id="{action.id}" class="orgoorg.dspace.workflowxmlworkflow.state.actions.WorkflowActionConfig" scope="prototype">
     <constructor-arg type="java.lang.String" value="{action.id}"/>

     <property name="processingAction" ref="{action.api.id}"/>
     <property name="requiresUI" value="{true/false}"/>
 </bean>

 <!-- Use class UserSelectionActionConfig for a user selection method -->
 <!--User selection actions-->
 <bean id="{action.api.id.2}" class="org.dspace.workflowxmlworkflow.state.actions.UserSelectionActionConfig" scope="prototype">
     <constructor-arg type="java.lang.String" value="{action.api.id.2}"/>

     <property name="processingAction" ref="{user.selection.bean.id}"/>
     <property name="requiresUI" value="{true/false}"/>
 </bean>
</beans>

...

Code Block
<bean id="{action.api.id.2}" class="org.dspace.xmlworkflow.workflowstate.actions.UserSelectionActionConfig" scope="prototype">
     <constructor-arg type="java.lang.String" value="{action.api.id.2}"/>

     <property name="processingAction" ref="{user.selection.bean.id}"/>
     <property name="requiresUI" value="{true/false}"/>
 </bean>

...

The configuration file for the workflow user interface actions is located in the {dspace.dir}/config/xmlui and is named "workflow-actions-xmlui.xml". BEach bean defined here has an id which is the action identifier and the class is a classpath which links to the xmlui class responsible for generating the User Interface side of the workflow action. Each of the class defined here must extend the //org.dspace.app.xmlui.aspect.submission.workflow.AbstractXMLUIAction// class, this class contains some basic settings for an action and has a method called //addWorkflowItemInformation()// which will render the given item with a show full link so you don't have to write the same code in each of your actions if you want to display the item. The id attribute used for the beans in the configuration must correspond to the id used in the workflow configuration. In case an action requires a User Interface class, the workflow framework will look for a UI class in this configuration file.

...

Currently, the authorizations are always granted and revoked based on the tasks that are available for certain users and groups. The types of authorization policies that is granted for each of these is always the same:

  • READ
  • WRITE
  • ADD
  • DELETE

Database

...

Database changes - Original text

...

There are a number of important database changes in order to support the new reviewer workflow framework.

Configuration 

The following tables have been added:

...

Database changes

The following changes tables have been made to existing added to the DSpace database. All tables are prefixed with 'xmlwf_' to avoid any confusion with the existing workflow related database tables:

tasklistitem

Entries in this table represent tasks in a task pool. The changes to this existing database table are the following:

  • Column action_id (ADD, TEXT): This column stores the action ID for which the pool tasks exist
  • Column step_id (ADD, TEXT): This column stores the step ID of the step that contains the action
  • Column workflow_id (ALTER to TEXT): This column stores the workflow process ID for the workflow that contains the step
  • Column workflow_item_id (ADD, INTEGER, REFERENCES workflowitem(workflow_id)): Contains the ID of the workflow item. This column replaces the previous workflow_id column.
  • Column group_id (ADD, INTEGER, REFERENCES epersongroup(eperson_group_id)): Because tasks in a tasks pool can be created for both groups and epersons, an additional group_id column has been added. The eperson_id column existed.

In order to make these changes backwards compatible and in order to maintain support for the old workflow in the JSPUI, the change from the workflow_id column to workflow_item_id must be addressed.

Required to support the old workflow

A number of columns in the existing workflow tables are no longer used by the new workflow framework but should probably not be removed in case the JSPUI still uses the old workflow. These columns are the following:

workflowitem

  • state
  • owner
  • multiple_titles (required for back to submission?)
  • multiple_files (required for back to submission?)
  • published_before (required for back to submission?)

Currently, these changes can be found in the {dspace.src.dir}/etc directory in the file //collection-workflow-changes.sql//. They will have to be moved to the database upgrade and creation scripts for both Oracle and PostgreSQL.

Metadata Schema

The new reviewer workflow framework uses a number of internal metadata fields to store temporary information. This information is used to keep track of the number of people who are performing their task on a workflow item and the number of people who have finished their task. This allows the workflow framework to offer the ability to require multiple people to perform the same action on one workflow item at the same time. The different metadata fields are configured in the //{dspace.dir}/registries/workflow-types.xml// file. Currently, the following metadata fields are used:

  • workflow.step.inProgressUsers: Contains the userIds of the users who are performing a step
  • workflow.step.finishedUsers: Contains the userIds of the users who are performed a step

Architectural Overview - The Configurable Workflow Data Model

Workflow Manager

The workflow process is managed by the WorkflowManager as was the case for the previous version of the workflow. The workflow manager is responsible for executing the different actions, processing their outcome and activating new ones. The WorkflowManager is being called from the user interface in order to process an action submitted by a user. In case another action follows the one executed by the user, the WorkflowManager will return this action and the user interface will show the new action page.
For the DSpace XMLUI, the submission.js flowscript file is responsible for interacting with the WorkflowManager and will show the user the correct page after submitting an action.

Workflow

The WorkflowManager uses one Workflow object for each collection. In many cases, multiple collections will use the same workflow process and for those, the same Workflow object will be used by the collection manager. A Workflow object represents one workflow process as configured in the workflow.xml and contains a number of workflow steps that the workflow item should go through. The main responsibility of the Workflow object is managing its steps and managing the different roles used in the workflow process. It contains two mappings from identifiers used in the workflow.xml configuration to the actual Java objects used by the workflow framework.

Step

A Step is a child element of the Workflow object and contains a number of actions that will sequentially be executed by one of the workflow roles once the workflow item goes through the step. Each step has the following important properties:

  • userSelectionMethod: The user selection method refers to a UserSelectionActionConfig class and is the first action that will be performed in a step. The userSelectionMethod defines how the members of the step role will be assigned to the actions that need to be executed. An example is the task pool system used by the original DSpace workflow.
  • actionConfigsMap: The actionconfigsmap contains a mapping from the processing action identifiers used in the workflow.xml to the WorkflowActionConfig objects used by the workflow system. These WorkflowActionConfig objects are the actions that are responsible for the actual execution of the step.
  • outcomes: The step also contains a list of alternative outcomes. In case one of the actions in the step returns an outcome different from 0, this list will be used to lookup the next step to activate.
  • role: The role object contains the workflow role object that is used to define the epersons or groups that are responsible for the execution of this step.

Workflow Action Config

WorkflowActionConfig objects are the children of a Step object. The actions are the different tasks that can be executed as part of one Step and will therefore be executed by the same role. There are two types of WorkflowActionConfig objects that are being used in the workflow framework:

  • WorkflowActionConfig: responsible for the execution of the different tasks in that step.
  • UserSelectionActionConfig: responsible for assigning the members of a Step role to the first WorkflowActionConfig of the step. This class subclasses the WorkflowActionConfig class because it adds a few additional functions for assigning users.

The workflow framework uses these WorkflowActionConfig object to separate the user interface classes from the API classes. Therefore, each WorkflowActionConfig object contains an Action object and a property that indicates whether the Action requires interaction with the user interface. The Action object is the API part of the action and is responsible for the actual execution of the action. In case user interface interaction is required, the action will not be automatically executed by will halt until the user interface interaction has been done.

Action

An Action object is responsible for the actual execution of the task for which it is responsible. The Action object is a part of a WorkflowActionConfig object. In order to execute the task for which the Action object is responsible, two methods are available:

  • activate: The activate method will perform a number of steps required for the task to be ready for execution. For example, an Action that is responsible for the creation of a task pool, will create the task pool in the activate method.
  • execute: The execute method will perform the actual task of the action. For the same example of a task pool feature, the execute action will claim a task for one of the users.

Workflow Factory

The WorkflowFactory is responsible for managing the different workflow objects that are being used by the different collections in DSpace. The WorkflowFactory contains a mapping from collection handles or the "default" options to Workflow objects. Each workflow object represents one workflow process containing a number of different steps. The WorkflowFactory contains all the required functions for loading the API bean classes that are required by the workflow framework. When a workflow, a step or an action is not yet available in the workflow cache, the WorkflowFactory will create the required objects based on the Spring configuration file (config/workflow-actions.xml).

Workflow flow control API

This section shortly explains how an item moves through the workflow starting from the end of the submission process and ending at the archival in DSpace.
When an item enters the workflow after the submission process, the first workflow-step in the collection workflow is selected. The first action of that step, the user selection action, is activated. From there, the workflow behaves as follows:

Case 1: the action requires UI interaction

In case an action requires interaction with the user interface, the workflow process halts after the activation of the action. The activation method will be responsible for preparing the workflow-item for user interface interaction. An example for a pool task activation task is generating a task pool. The user interface interaction will offer the users for which the pool has been generated the ability to claim the action. After interaction with the user interface, the execute method is executed. Based on the result type of this method, the workflow will proceed as explained in the transition section described below.

Case 2: the action does not require UI interaction

In case an action does not require interaction with the user interface, the execute method is executed directly after the activate method. This makes it possible to create automatic actions. An example of such an automatic action might be to calculate an average of reviewer scores and decide based on that average to approve or reject the item. Based on the result type of the execute method, the workflow will proceed as explained in the transition section described below.

Transition between actions and steps

Transitions between different actions and steps depend on the result type of the execute method. The following result types are possible:

  • TYPE_PAGE: The TYPE_PAGE result type can occur after interaction with the user interface. This means that the action has multiple pages for the user to go through in order to complete the action. The TYPE_PAGE will keep the user in the same action and this result will be used by the user interface flow to display the user the next page of the action. The user interface side of the workflow will be explained later in this document.
  • TYPE_ERROR: This means that a expectable error has occured during the execution of an action. This type can only occur while interacting with the user interface. The user interface side of the workflow will handle the error and notify the user what to do in order to solve the problem. An example of such an error results is a missing field during metadata input.
  • TYPE_CANCEL: This type is returned only if the action requires user interface interaction. It means that the user has clicked the cancel button. The user interface workflow control will return the user to the submission overview.
  • TYPE_SUBMISSION_PAGE: This restult type also only happens when interacting with the user interface. It means that the user has finished a task in the workflow and will be sent back to the submission overview.
  • TYPE_OUTCOME: The TYPE_OUTCOME result type can occur with or withour previous user interface interaction. When a result has the result type TYPE_OUTCOME, more specific information about the actual outcome is available as well. The different outcomes are the following:
    • OUTCOME_COMPLETE: Outcome complete or "0" indicates that the action has ended as it should have ended. The workflow process will in this case:
      • Activate the next action if one is available;
      • Start the next step in case this was the last action of a step and in case no other users are required to complete the step;
      • Do nothing in case this was the last action of a step but other users need to go through the step before it is completed.
    • Another outcome: Other outcomes can be any number larger than "0". These other outcomes correspond to alternative outcomes as defined in the workflow configuration. In case an action returns an alternative outcome, the workflow process will activate the step corresponding to this alternative outcome.

Architectural Design - XMLUI User Interface

Workflow XMLUI Factory

The WorkflowXMLUIFactory is responsible for creating the required UI actions that are used by the workflow framework. Currently, the WorkflowXMLUIFactory only has one method that will create an instance of the required class by using the Spring configuration file (config/workflow-actions-xmlui.xml). The caching of the different UI actions is currently being done by the Spring framework itself.

Action Interface

Each object returned by the WorkflowXMLUIFactory is an implementation of the ActionInterface object or more specific, an implementation of AbstractXMLUIAction. These objects are used by the WorkflowTransformer in order to generate the different user interface pages that are used by the workflow framework.

Workflow flow control - UI

The flow control of the workflow framework at the side of the user interface is done in flowscript, more specific in the submission.js file. In case the workflow process requires user interface interaction, tasks will be available for the user in the submission overview page in the DSpace user interface. Once the user starts one of these tasks, the workflow flow control in the flowscript file is used to perform the required tasks. These can be one of the following:

  • The user wants to see the full/simple item display page of the workflow item: Nothing happens, the page is reloaded but with another parameter. The transformer responsible for generating the page will add the full/simple item display content instead of the previous one.
  • The user wants to edit the item (reuse the submission steps): The existing DSpace submission control is used to handle this request.
  • The user clicks one of the other available task buttons: In this case, the API side of the workflow process is called in order to handle the request. The next page for the user will be one of the following, based on the outcome:
    • The same action is returned by the API: This means that an expectable has occurred or another page for that action will be displayed. The responsible AbstractXMLUIAction will generate the required content for the page.
    • Another action is returned by the API: This means that another action in the step is available for the user. The responsible AbstractXMLUIAction will generate the required content for the page.
    • No action is returned: This means the user is done for now and the submission overview page will be displayed.
    • An exception is thrown: An unexpected error has occurred.

Other issues

Backwards compatibility

For the DSpace 1.6 clients that use the new workflow framework, it is recommended to send all current items in the workflow back to the workspace since not doing this and changing the workflow might result in the loss of some workflow items. This can be done by using the following command: {dspace.dir}/bin/dsrun org.dspace.workflow.util.WorkflowItemConverter (no arguments are required).

The workflow that will be contributed in DSpace 1.8 will require the database upgrade script to convert the existing workflow items and configuration to the same state in the new workflow framework. In order to do this, the following issues need to be addressed:

...

xmlwf_workflowitem

The xmlwf_workflowitem table contains the different workflowitems in the workflow. This table has the following columns:

  • workflowitem_id: The identifier of the workflowitem and primary key of this table
  • item_id: The identifier of the DSpace item to which this workflowitem refers.
  • collection_id: The collection to which this workflowitem is submitted.
  • multiple_titles: Specifies whether the submission has multiple titles (important for submission steps)
  • published_before: Specifies whether the submission has been published before (important for submission steps)
  • multiple_files: Specifies whether the submission has multiple files attached (important for submission steps)

xmlwf_collectionrole

The xmlwf_collectionrole table represents a workflow role for one collection. This type of role is the same as the roles that existed in the original workflow meaning that for each collection a separate group is defined to described the role. The xmlwf_collectionrole table has the following columns:

  • collectionrol_id: The identifier of the collectionrole and the primaty key of this table
  • role_id: The identifier/name used by the workflow configuration to refer to the collectionrole
  • collection_id: The collection identifier for which this collectionrole has been defined
  • group_id: The group identifier of the group that defines the collection role

xmlwf_workflowitemrole

The xmlwf_workflowitemrole table represents roles that are defined at the level of an item. These roles are temporary roles and only exist during the execution of the workflow for that specific item. Once the item is archived, the workflowitemrole is deleted. Multiple rows can exist for one workflowitem with e.g. one row containing a group and a few containing epersons. All these rows together make up the workflowitemrole The xmlwf_workflowitemrole table has the following columns:

  • workflowitemrole_id: The identifier of the workflowitemrole and the primaty key of this table
  • role_id: The identifier/name used by the workflow configuration to refer to the workflowitemrole
  • workflowitem_id: The xmlwf_workflowitem identifier for which this workflowitemrole has been defined
  • group_id: The group identifier of the group that defines the workflowitemrole role
  • eperson_id: The eperson identifier of the eperson that defines the workflowitemrole role

xmlwf_pooltask

The xmlwf_pooltask table represents the different task pools that exist for a workflowitem. These task pools can be available at the beginning of a step and contain all the users that are allowed to claim a task in this step. Multiple rows can exist for one task pool containing multiple groups and epersons. The xmlwf_pooltask table has the following columns:

  • pooltask_id: The identifier of the pooltask and the primaty key of this table
  • workflowitem_id: The identifier of the workflowitem for which this task pool exists
  • workflow_id: The identifier of the workflow configuration used for this workflowitem
  • step_id: The identifier of the step for which this task pool was created
  • action_id: The identifier of the action that needs to be displayed/executed when the user selects the task from the task pool
  • eperson_id: The identifier of an eperson that is part of the task pool
  • group_id: The identifier of a group that is part of the task pool

xmlwf_claimtask

The xmlwf_claimtask table represents a task that has been claimed by a user. Claimed tasks can be assigned to users or can be the result of a claim from the task pool. Because a step can contain multiple actions, the claimed task defines the action at which the user has arrived in a particular step. This makes it possible to stop working halfway the step and continue later. The xmlwf_claimtask table contains the following columns:

  • claimtask_id: The identifier of the claimtask and the primary key of this table
  • workflowitem_id: The identifier of the workflowitem for which this task exists
  • workflow_id: The id of the workflow configuration that was used for this workflowitem
  • step_id: The step that is currenlty processing the workflowitem
  • action_id: The action that should be executed by the owner of this claimtask
  • owner_id: References the eperson that is responsible for the execution of this task

xmlwf_in_progress_user

The xmlwf_in_progess_user table keeps track of the different users that are performing a certain step. This table is used because some steps might require multiple users to perform the step before the workflowitem can proceed. The xmlwf_in_progress_user table contains the following columns:

  • in_progress_user_id: The identifier of the in progress user and the primary key of this table
  • workflowitem_id: The identifier of the workflowitem for which the user is performing or has performed the step.
  • user_id: The identifier of the eperson that is performing or has performe the task
  • finished: Keeps track of the fact that the user has finished the step or is still in progress of the execution

Backwards compatibility

Aspects and configuration files

In order to be backwards compatible with previous versions of DSpace, a number of changes have been made to the existing submission/workflow aspect. The submission aspect has been split up into muliple aspects: one submission aspect for the submission process, one workflow aspect containing the code for the original workflow and one xmlworkflow aspect containing the code for the new XML configurable workflow framework. In order to enable one of the two aspects, either the workflow or xmlworkflow aspect should be enabled in the dspace-install-dir/config/xmlui.xconf configuration file. Besides that, a workflow configuration file has been created that specifies the workflow that will be used in the back-end of the DSpace code. It is important that the option selected in this configuration file matches the aspect that was enabled. The workflow configuration file is available in dspace-install-dir/config/modules/workflow.cfg. This configuration file has been added because it is important that a CLI import process uses the correct workflow and this should not depend on the UI configuration. The workflow.cfg configration file contains the following propertu:

  • workflow.framework: possible values are 'originalworkflow' for the original workflow or xmlworkflow for the new XML configurable workflow framework.

Workflowitem conversion/migration scripts

Depending on the workflow that is used by a DSpace installation, different scripts can be used when migration to the new workflow.

SQL based migration

SQL based migration can be used when the out of the box original workflowframework is used by your DSpace installation. This means that your DSpace installation uses the workflow steps and roles that are available out of the box. The migration script will migrate the policies, roles, tasks and workflowitems from the original workflow to the new workflowframework. The following SQL scripts are available depending on the database that is used by the DSpace installation:

Java based migration

In case your DSpace installation uses a customized version of the workflow, the migration script might not work properly and a different approach is recommended. Therefore, an additional Java based script has been created that restarts the workflow for all the workflowitems that exist in the original workflow framework. The script will take all the existing workflowitems and place them in the first step of the XML configurable workflow framework thereby taking into account the XML configuration that exists at that time for the collection to which the item has been submitted. This script can also be used to restart the workflow for workflowitems in the original workflow but not to restart the workflow for items in the XML configurable workflow.

To execute the script, run the following CLI command: dspace(.bat) dsrun org.dspace.xmlworkflow.migration.RestartWorkflow -e admin@myrespository.org

The following arguments can be specified when running the script:

  • -e: specifies the username of an adminstrator user
  • -n: if sending submissions through the workflow, send notification emails
  • -p: the provenance description to be added to the item
  • -h: help

Additional workflow steps/actions and features

Work in progress...

Workflow overview features

A new features has been added to the XML based workflow that resembles the features available in the JSPUI of DSpace that allows administrators to abort workflowitems. The feature added to the XMLUI allows administrators to look at the status of the different workflowitems and look for workflowitems based on the collection to which they have been submitted. Besides that, the administrator has the ability to permanently delete the workflowitem or send the item back to the submitter.

Issues

...

Curation System

The DSpace 1.7 version of the curation system integration into the original DSpace workflow only exists in the WorkflowManager.advance() method. Before advancing to the next workflow step or archiving the Item, a check is performed to see whether any curation tasks need to be executed/scheduled. The problem is that this check is based on the hardcoded workflow steps that exist in the original workflow. These hardcoded checks are done in the CurationManager and will need to be changed.

...