The Workflow Editor is a part of the net-linx application nxApex. The users of this application are phone directory publishers. Service order is a process to import customer information like address, phone number, placement information, etc and to create and update the existing information in the customer database by creating, deleting or updating this information.
This is a rather complex process and it is different from publisher to publisher. In the past the service order module has been customized for each publisher.
The new workflow editor is used to edit flexible workflows that can be adopted easily by configuration personnel. On the development of this module external student apprentices took part together with experienced internal Java developers.
Workflow Overview
The Workflow Editor is meant for system administrator use only. The information provided in this module is technical and not meant for end user’s view.
The workflow for service order and other DAQ processes is specified in workflow configuration file.
The workflow configuration file contains all workflows. A workflow is always bound to a record type. You can define more than one workflow for a record type. The workflow which should be used must be marked as default.
A workflow can contain the following items: transformation items, validation items, search items and processing items, process flow items, and actions.
All changes made to the record data during the processing of the workflow are discarded after the workflow is finished if not otherwise specified. (See transformation item). Changes made to the administrative data (status, status messages) are saved to the database.
A workflow defines the sequence in which the rules should be processed and the actions depending on the output value of one rule. Rules are for example matching rules.
A workflow consists of a list of workflow items. These workflow items define the rules which should be used and the actions which should be taken on a specific rule output.
If no action is defined for a specific output value is defined, a default action will be used.
The default action for the output values ‘NotUsed’ and ‘Ok’ is ‘Goto Next Item’. The default action for ‘Error’ is ‘Reject Immediate’.
Every action is defined by an action code and a number of parameters.
