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Galaxia Workflow Engine

Galaxia Workflow Engine


Let's talk about Galaxia

Canada

Hello,

This forum is intended to become the central hub for all Galaxia related discussions. Galaxia is used in Tiki but also in several other leading PHP CMSs or groupwares.

Until now, all Galaxia users/developers have worked in isolation (sort of). So let's get all the action here below!

Please use the watch feature to receive a notice of new posts.

Thanks!

M ;-)

Hi,

I just wanted to let you know that I'm working on extending Galaxia to e-groupware. Most part of the code will remain the same. The biggest change will be a GUI to be able to generate the activities code automatically, so no knowledge of PHP would be required. This extensions could also be usefull for the TikiWiki project, so if anybody has any ideas on the subject let's discuss them on this forum.

Cheers,

Alejandro Pedraza

Germany

Hi !

> I just wanted to let you know that I'm working on extending Galaxia to e-groupware. Most part of the code will remain the same. The biggest change will be a GUI to be able to generate the activities code automatically, so no knowledge of PHP would be required. This extensions could also be usefull for the TikiWiki project, so if anybody has any ideas on the subject let's discuss them on this forum.

Has there something happened to integrate his work into TikiWiki?


Hi all,
Am a newbie using Galaxia workflow engine in Tiki-Wiki for configuring a workflow for internal operations in my dept in office.Am having a problem.I have built some switch activities that have an Approve/Reject otpion in them i.e. on approve some activity is executed and on reject some other activity is executed.(I have made my Switch activity auto-routing). But there is a problem here.If I select the Reject option, I want this to go back to the activity from which my current Approve/Reject activity had come.
Say activity 1 has trigerred activity 2. let activity 2 be my Approve/Reject activity. On choosing reject in activity 2 I want it to flow back to activity 1. I tried to do this by set transitions from and to options and also using a direct insert into the galaxia_transitions table in the database. In both the cases my entire Tiki-Wiki application hangs and am not able to get into the admin processes part at all even after closing and reopening my browser. Any help/suggestions to overcome this problem would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Niranjan
niranjan_r at sifycorp.com


Spain

Why Galaxia should be ripped off TikiWiki as a mod? I know you can install it later, but IMHO is step backwards.

Galaxia is the most powerful tool in TikiWiki!!!

We could live without Maps. But if someone couldn't, he still could code Maps using Galaxia (Yes, you can)

I'm not saying "don't do mods", I'm just saying: "Galaxia is not a mod"

And I guess I deserve more than an award for using it biggrin

Just a brief list of current processes we deployed/coded/studied using Galaxia:

- Managing employees as users in Tiki (adding a file gallery for each one, a CV, etc.)
- Filling a weekly worksheet with the time expended in each project.
- Requesting holidays and tracking of holidays left per year.
- Managing a whole project: creating the project, categorizing it, and gathering all the related info in the Intranet, add its documentation templates...

and I can think so many more...

I will make sure the mod system allows me to carry all this work to the next version before moving to 1.9 sad

Marc, in tiki-devel list you talked about this, but you didn't say something about Galaxia precisely. What do you think?

I'd really like to hear about your experience using Galaxia and your stategy for developing workflow content.

I have got the lame CD library example workflow running. It obviously demonstrates the enormous potential of Galaxia/Tiki, which you evidently have succeeded in harnessing for the workflows you mentioned.

What I am missing as a next step is how to move beyond "activity complete" (instead of "thank you for your order" or whatever) and the list of potential activities might be completed.

I need pages that show the requests I can make (e.g. time off), pages of requests to process for various roles (e.g requests for time off a manager need to approve/reject), reports pages (e.g. time out chart).

Just a high level view of how you did time off tracking or the weekly worksheet would be very helpful to me and others.

Spain

I'm actually not a Galaxia-god redface, since I still have some problems to make my processes have any workflow at all, that's why I code every activity as 'standalone'. Well, is a different way of doing the same thing. I also don't want my users to mess with 'processes', 'activities' and 'instances', so I use a menu entry for every activity they can run, and using no instances makes that easier (don't need the instance id at the menu)

About the processes I have done, I would love to share them with the community, and see what the community has to offer razz

As per the 'high level view', right now my users can see their entry/exit times that get updated from the door-entry system. Admins can view anyone's entries. This is just a database view of the table, with a filter by date. I would like to code some statistics when I have some time.
They can also (since today smile) request one or several holidays. That request generates an internal message for the employee's boss with the link to the 'Review holidays' activity, which he can accept or reject. These two options generate a message to the user with the result, and maybe some comment. At any moment the user can see the approved holidays. They also have a number of holidays left that gets updated with each request accepted.

About the weekly activity timesheet, I opted for not using the data coming from the door-system, and I will let the users select a project and the number of hours working on that project. Since we can have people working on two or more projects the same day, my greatest concern is having to write to the database between selections. I'm not a php-god either! frown

They can run more activities, p.e. for viewing their personal data, and I have some more administrative activities to maintain the data in the tables I created.

I would like to discuss this more with every one that wants to.

Cheers,

Miguel

Galaxia is very powerful, but it's power has not yet been explored as it should. Making it a module might reflect the poor integration with rest of Tiki we have now.

Instead, why don't we create a mod type "workflow"? This would incite people to share the XMLs of the workflow they do. We could have workflows to manage lots of things in Tiki like create users, moderate tiki objects (forums, image galleries, wiki pages, etc) creation, approve many actions common users can't do (send newsletter), etc. Tiki would have several administration profiles based on which workflows you use. If we use it more and share, Galaxia can gradually blend into Tiki.

Canada

> Marc, in tiki-devel list you talked about this, but you didn't say something about Galaxia precisely. What do you think?

The only reason why Galaxia was considered to go to mods is because it is not widely used. I agree with lfagundes that Galaxia's "power has not yet been explored as it should"

I did not think Galaxia should become a mod for 1.9 (and it has not). In general, I do not like the idea of removing existing (re: actively developped and working) features from Tiki to move to mods. However, for the future, as the mods feature evolves, it could become a place where features mature before they join the main codebase.

Again, I agree with lfagundes, I think the most important is to "incite people to share the XMLs of the workflow they do". As Galaxia become widely used, moving it to mods will no longer be considered.


> Just a brief list of current processes we deployed/coded/studied using Galaxia:
>
> - Managing employees as users in Tiki (adding a file gallery for each one, a CV, etc.)
> - Filling a weekly worksheet with the time expended in each project.
> - Requesting holidays and tracking of holidays left per year.
> - Managing a whole project: creating the project, categorizing it, and gathering all the related info in the Intranet, add its documentation templates...


Great! Can you share these?

Best regards,

M ;-)

Hey miguel

Was reading your note on your process you deved

Managing a whole project: creating the project, categorizing it, and gathering all the related info in the Intranet, add its documentation templates...

That is exactly what I've been looking for have you got any tips for me?


> Why Galaxia should be ripped off TikiWiki as a mod? I know you can install it later, but IMHO is step backwards.
>
> Galaxia is the most powerful tool in TikiWiki!!!
>
> We could live without Maps. But if someone couldn't, he still could code Maps using Galaxia (Yes, you can)
>
> I'm not saying "don't do mods", I'm just saying: "Galaxia is not a mod"
>
> And I guess I deserve more than an award for using it biggrin
>
> Just a brief list of current processes we deployed/coded/studied using Galaxia:
>
> - Managing employees as users in Tiki (adding a file gallery for each one, a CV, etc.)
> - Filling a weekly worksheet with the time expended in each project.
> - Requesting holidays and tracking of holidays left per year.
> - Managing a whole project: creating the project, categorizing it, and gathering all the related info in the Intranet, add its documentation templates...
>
> and I can think so many more...
>
> I will make sure the mod system allows me to carry all this work to the next version before moving to 1.9 sad
>
> Marc, in tiki-devel list you talked about this, but you didn't say something about Galaxia precisely. What do you think?


Spain

I'm actually not a Galaxia-god redface, since I still have some problems to make my processes have any workflow at all, that's why I code every activity as 'standalone'. Well, is a different way of doing the same thing. I also don't want my users to mess with 'processes', 'activities' and 'instances', so I use a menu entry for every activity they can run, and using no instances makes that easier (don't need the instance id at the menu)

About the processes I have done, I would love to share them with the community, and see what the community has to offer razz

As per the 'high level view', right now my users can see their entry/exit times that get updated from the door-entry system. Admins can view anyone's entries. This is just a database view of the table, with a filter by date. I would like to code some statistics when I have some time.
They can also (since today smile) request one or several holidays. That request generates an internal message for the employee's boss with the link to the 'Review holidays' activity, which he can accept or reject. These two options generate a message to the user with the result, and maybe some comment. At any moment the user can see the approved holidays. They also have a number of holidays left that gets updated with each request accepted.

About the weekly activity timesheet, I opted for not using the data coming from the door-system, and I will let the users select a project and the number of hours working on that project. Since we can have people working on two or more projects the same day, my greatest concern is having to write to the database between selections. I'm not a php-god either! frown

They can run more activities, p.e. for viewing their personal data, and I have some more administrative activities to maintain the data in the tables I created.

I would like to discuss this more with every one that wants to.

Cheers,

Miguel


Brazil

Hi,
I have been requested to seek and implement an open source workflow solution at my company. I looked at some Java-based solutions, but they're either too complex, or too heavy, or too incomplete.

I thought I had finally gotten somewhere when I stumbled upon JaWE2Openflow (http://www.cignex.com/site/OpenSource/jawe2openflow/index_html). It's a solution based on Zope/Plone, OpenFlow (the same open source workflow engine on which Galaxia is based) and JaWE (a VERY GOOD WfMC-compliant worflow process editor, DEFINITELY worth looking at). It was simpler, lighter and more standards-compliant than other solutions, but unfortunately didn't prove flexible enough for my needs. As I'm not a Zope expert, it could be my lack of knowledge, but I'm largely confident it's not the case.

And now I've finally found and tried Galaxia on Tiki 1.9. I was impressed with it, but couldn't get it to generate graphs, so now I'm downloading 1.8.5 to see if it's a bug introduced with the new release.
I have yet to find if it's what my company is seeking, but from what I've saw from my 1.9 deployment and the documentation, it might be just what I'm looking for - with the added benefit of being LAMP-based.

I'll let you know as it develops. Great work!

Georger

> Hello,
>
> This forum is intended to become the central hub for all Galaxia related discussions. Galaxia is used in Tiki but also in several other leading PHP CMSs or groupwares.
>
> Until now, all Galaxia users/developers have worked in isolation (sort of). So let's get all the action here below!
>
> Please use the watch feature to receive a notice of new posts.
>
> Thanks!
>
> M ;-)

Canada

> And now I've finally found and tried Galaxia on Tiki 1.9. I was impressed with it, but couldn't get it to generate graphs, so now I'm downloading 1.8.5 to see if it's a bug introduced with the new release.

Please let use know about the graphs. Also, please see: GraphEngine

Brazil

> > And now I've finally found and tried Galaxia on Tiki 1.9. I was impressed with it, but couldn't get it to generate graphs, so now I'm downloading 1.8.5 to see if it's a bug introduced with the new release.
>
> Please let use know about the graphs. Also, please see: GraphEngine
>
I have found the problem and came up with a decent, platform-agnostic solution. Should I post it as a patch on SourceForge, or should I do something else?
The problem is present in both 1.8.5 and 1.9.0. Fortunately, as the problem is the same on both releases, the solution is the same. I installed both versions on my box in parallel and tested - all fine.
I've also found and fixed a bug in 1.9.0 in tiki-g-admin_graph.php where an absolute filesystem path would be returned to the browser instead of an URL to the graph image. Now the graph shows up fine, and the solution is simple.
I can't stress enough the fact that Galaxia has a lot of potential. BPM (Business Process Management) is very powerful and useful but usually complicated and expensive to develop and implement, and Galaxia makes it simple, yet consistent and flexible. Great work.
Graph generation and visualization is working like a charm now in both releases. I'm looking forward to submitting patches on these issues. Regards,

Georger

Brazil

This weekend was pretty productive.
Don't get me wrong, but the documentation PDFs are in DIRE NEED of an overhaul. I had to fix several things in my deployment. This could drive away potential users. I could help with this.
Y'know, I shoud have read the "fixed: non-interactive activities and the amp bug" thread. Because I just spent FIVE HOURS working on the very same problem eek Got it solved in the end and learned a lot about the code in the process (ashuap, it's not just the amp, you should delete the ; as well, and the code is parsing config.php, not config.tikiwiki.php), especially about the code/template combination. Good smile
Well, what can I say? I think my Galaxia deployment is pretty much READY for the first real-world business process. A pretty complex one, by the way.
I'll let you know as it develops. Regards,

Georger

> > > And now I've finally found and tried Galaxia on Tiki 1.9. I was impressed with it, but couldn't get it to generate graphs, so now I'm downloading 1.8.5 to see if it's a bug introduced with the new release.
> >
> > Please let use know about the graphs. Also, please see: GraphEngine
> >
> I have found the problem and came up with a decent, platform-agnostic solution. Should I post it as a patch on SourceForge, or should I do something else?
> The problem is present in both 1.8.5 and 1.9.0. Fortunately, as the problem is the same on both releases, the solution is the same. I installed both versions on my box in parallel and tested - all fine.
> I've also found and fixed a bug in 1.9.0 in tiki-g-admin_graph.php where an absolute filesystem path would be returned to the browser instead of an URL to the graph image. Now the graph shows up fine, and the solution is simple.
> I can't stress enough the fact that Galaxia has a lot of potential. BPM (Business Process Management) is very powerful and useful but usually complicated and expensive to develop and implement, and Galaxia makes it simple, yet consistent and flexible. Great work.
> Graph generation and visualization is working like a charm now in both releases. I'm looking forward to submitting patches on these issues. Regards,
>
> Georger

Brazil

Changes so far:

1.8.5
1) lib/Galaxia/config.php: removed amp; from URI passed to tiki-g-run_activity.php. Fixes execution of non-interactive activities.
2) lib/Galaxia/config.tikiwiki.php: see #1.
3) lib/Galaxia/src/ProcessManager/GraphViz.php: patched image_and_map() function to add the proper quotes in the outputh file paths when running on Windows. Fixes graph image file generation on Windows, as long as Graphviz binaries can be found in the PATH environment variable. The setup program for Graphviz 2.2.1 adds the installation folder to PATH, so it shouldn't be a problem.
4) lib/Galaxia/src/API/Instance.php: applied patch #1175798 (http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1175798&group_id=64258&atid=506848) to fix the setOwner method.
5) templates/tiki-g-user_instances.tpl: applied patch #1063527 (http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1063527&group_id=64258&atid=506848) to properly persiste instance filters after aborting, grabbing or releasing an instance.
6) Documentation: the code for the Browse CDs activity has a hardcoded activityId (3) in its template code. If the activityId for Browse CDs in your deployment wasn't 3, the change status link in the Action column wouldn't work. You also can't use the instance->getActivityId() to abstract the Id because there's no instance running - it's a standalone activity. The documentation must EXPLICITLY state the necessity of hardcoding the activityId in the template code.
7) Documentation: several other minor flaws and typos.

1.9.0
1) tiki-g-admin_graph.php: changed $info'graph' to that it would contain an URL to the graph image file instead of an absolute filesystem path.

There were other patches and bugs in SourceForge but it seemed to me that most, if not all, had already been commited to CVS and released with 1.8.5. I focused in the most recent posts and in my own problems. For now I'm sticking to 1.8.5.
Let's see what's already merged and what isn't. Things are looking sweet now. Regards,

Georger

> This weekend was pretty productive.
> Don't get me wrong, but the documentation PDFs are in DIRE NEED of an overhaul. I had to fix several things in my deployment. This could drive away potential users. I could help with this.
> Y'know, I shoud have read the "fixed: non-interactive activities and the amp bug" thread. Because I just spent FIVE HOURS working on the very same problem eek Got it solved in the end and learned a lot about the code in the process (ashuap, it's not just the amp, you should delete the ; as well, and the code is parsing config.php, not config.tikiwiki.php), especially about the code/template combination. Good smile
> Well, what can I say? I think my Galaxia deployment is pretty much READY for the first real-world business process. A pretty complex one, by the way.
> I'll let you know as it develops. Regards,
>
> Georger

Brazil

Two more rough edges! wink
1) Graph map is generated but never used in TW 1.8.5. In 1.9.0, the map is used to graphically select an activity.
2) The getUserEmail() method is mentioned in the documentation but is not implemented anywhere. This would be VERY useful and is definitely a desirable feature.

I work at a small auto maker and I'm implementing the process PRODUCT MODIFICATION. I've already designed the visual part (activities and transitions) and I'm modeling the database. Following that I'll write the code and templates. Regards,

Georger

Brazil

SUCCESS!
I have finished implementing the first real-world workflow process in my company. A pretty big one, with 29 activities, switches, splits, joins and lots of complex business rules.
I can't share this process with the community because it would give away confidential company info, but it proves the power and flexibility of Galaxia. All TikiWiki and Galaxia devs, GREAT WORK! THANKS! YOU'RE THE BEST!
Next step? Learn CVS and commit my patches to the official source tree.
Once again, THANK YOU! YOU GUYS ROCK!
Regards,

Georger

> Two more rough edges! wink
> 1) Graph map is generated but never used in TW 1.8.5. In 1.9.0, the map is used to graphically select an activity.
> 2) The getUserEmail() method is mentioned in the documentation but is not implemented anywhere. This would be VERY useful and is definitely a desirable feature.
>
> I work at a small auto maker and I'm implementing the process PRODUCT MODIFICATION. I've already designed the visual part (activities and transitions) and I'm modeling the database. Following that I'll write the code and templates. Regards,
>
> Georger

Brazil

I guess I found a BUG in tikiwiki/lib/Galaxia/src/ProcessManager/GraphViz.php.
Running on Windows, actually. My environment: Apache 1.3.27, PHP 4.3.11, MySQL 4.1.11, TikiWiki 1.8.5, Graphviz 2.2.1.
The bug prevents Graphviz from generating new graph files after modifying something in a process, e.g. an activity.
The root cause of the problem is that on Windows folder names can have spaces. My Apache root folder, for example, is C:/Arquivos de programas/Apache Group/Apache.
To make matters worse, Graphviz is installed in the C:\Arquivos de programas\ATT\Graphviz folder.
This led to the following command line getting cooked by Galaxia:

C:/Arquivos de programas/ATT/Graphviz/bin/dot -Tpng -o c:\arquivos de programas\apache group\apache\htdocs\tikiwiki\lib\Galaxia/processes/Ferias_10/graph/Ferias_10.png c:\arquivos de programas\apache group\apache\htdocs\tikiwiki\lib\Galaxia/processes/Ferias_10/graph/Ferias_10

I got the following error:
Error: dot: can't open c:\arquivos
Error: dot: can't open de
Error: dot: can't open programas\apache
Error: dot: can't open group\apache\htdocs\tikiwiki\lib\Galaxia/processes/Ferias_10/graph/Ferias_10

All because there are space characters mixing the external command and its parameters. I changed the image_and_map function in GraphViz.php and now it looks like this:

function image_and_map($format = 'png') {
if ($file = $this->saveParsedGraph()) {
$outputfile = $file . '.' . $format;
$outputfile = '"'. $outputfile . '"'; //Georger

$outputfile2 = $file . '.' . 'map';
if(!isset($this->graph'directed')) $this->graph'directed'=true;
$command = $this->graph'directed' ? $this->dotCommand : $this->neatoCommand;
$command = '"'. $command . '"'; //Georger
$file = '"'. $file . '"'; //Georger
$command .= " -T$format -o $outputfile $file";

@`$command`;

$command = $this->dotCommand;
$command.= " -Tcmap -o $outputfile2 $file";
@`$command`;
@unlink($file);
return true;
}
}

Now my command line is like this:

"C:/Arquivos de programas/ATT/Graphviz/bin/dot" -Tpng -o "c:\arquivos de programas\apache group\apache\htdocs\tikiwiki\lib\Galaxia/processes/Ferias_10/graph/Ferias_10.png" "c:\arquivos de programas\apache group\apache\htdocs\tikiwiki\lib\Galaxia/processes/Ferias_10/graph/Ferias_10"

And my graphs show up fine biggrin
Please consider merging this in the official source tree. I suppose there are more people out there running TikiWiki on Windows with spaces in their folder names. Regards,

Georger

> Hi,
> I have been requested to seek and implement an open source workflow solution at my company. I looked at some Java-based solutions, but they're either too complex, or too heavy, or too incomplete.
>
> I thought I had finally gotten somewhere when I stumbled upon JaWE2Openflow (http://www.cignex.com/site/OpenSource/jawe2openflow/index_html). It's a solution based on Zope/Plone, OpenFlow (the same open source workflow engine on which Galaxia is based) and JaWE (a VERY GOOD WfMC-compliant worflow process editor, DEFINITELY worth looking at). It was simpler, lighter and more standards-compliant than other solutions, but unfortunately didn't prove flexible enough for my needs. As I'm not a Zope expert, it could be my lack of knowledge, but I'm largely confident it's not the case.
>
> And now I've finally found and tried Galaxia on Tiki 1.9. I was impressed with it, but couldn't get it to generate graphs, so now I'm downloading 1.8.5 to see if it's a bug introduced with the new release.
> I have yet to find if it's what my company is seeking, but from what I've saw from my 1.9 deployment and the documentation, it might be just what I'm looking for - with the added benefit of being LAMP-based.
>
> I'll let you know as it develops. Great work!
>
> Georger
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > This forum is intended to become the central hub for all Galaxia related discussions. Galaxia is used in Tiki but also in several other leading PHP CMSs or groupwares.
> >
> > Until now, all Galaxia users/developers have worked in isolation (sort of). So let's get all the action here below!
> >
> > Please use the watch feature to receive a notice of new posts.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > M ;-)


Germany

Hi !

> I just wanted to let you know that I'm working on extending Galaxia to e-groupware. Most part of the code will remain the same. The biggest change will be a GUI to be able to generate the activities code automatically, so no knowledge of PHP would be required. This extensions could also be usefull for the TikiWiki project, so if anybody has any ideas on the subject let's discuss them on this forum.

Has there something happened to integrate his work into TikiWiki?


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