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Co-Mentors: Bram Luyten, Richard Rodgers, ???

Abstract

Excerpt

In the current DSpace implementation, a workflow system is present that allows content submitters to ingest an item in the repository, that can be reviewed by simply accepting the submitted content, changing some of the submitted metadata or rejecting the item so it can be altered by the submitter. The current collection workflow system contains up to three steps for the submission of files. Except for the metadata changes, there are no possibilities for changing any of the submission content during the different steps of the workflow system.

In more demanding situations these few steps and editing functionalities can be insufficient to suit the requirements of the repository managers. Therefor the workflow system should be transformed into a series of different steps which can be individually defined, and can be configured on a per collection basis. It should be possible to configure the workflow system as a modular system. This way, the repository managers can choose the number and order of different workflow steps for each collection and configure each of these steps for its specified function. Also, it should be possible to change more and different content in each step of the submission. This means that it is possible to define steps in which it is possible to change not only the metadata but also for example the submitted files. This way the repository manager can maintain some interaction with the submitter during the submission process. Changes to the submitted files or info by the submitter can be requested between different steps of the process. This approach gives a lot more freedom and can result in better submissions that are optimally suited for the repository.

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An example of a more elaborate workflow is a peer reviewing workflow in which reviewers are invited who each have to review the given item, so that afterwards the appropriate manager can either approve or decline an item based on the individual reviews.
Differences in the editing possibilities could be that a submission initially just contains a short description and some metadata.
After the approval of these contents, extra files and information can be added to the submission and the reviewing process can continue.
Of course the existing functionalities of the workflow system will be preserved.
These contain the notification of the groups assigned to a step in the system, editing control and many more.
The new system will be completely backwards compatible with the current.

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Goal Breakdown

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• The execution of actions will be implemented using the Command design pattern
• Action types
  • Actions to choose which action to perform next
    • Have different next actions or steps
  • Actions to perform a single operation
    • Make it possible to perform an operation
    • Has a pointer to a next action or a next step

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