PHP and Workflow Engines
| From: | Pascal Schaedeli | Date: | Fri, 27 Feb 2004 20:15:32 +0000 |
| Subject: | PHP and Workflow Engines | ||
| Groups: | php.general | ||
| Request: | Send a blank email to php-general+get-179024@lists.php.net to get a copy of this message | ||
Hi,
Have you implemented or planned to implement a PHP interface to a workflow
engine instead of building the process routing logic into the PHP scripts?
The idea is to separate the processing of activities (mainly through the
interactions of users an a web form) and the connections between those
activities that route an instance of a process from start to end.
The benefits I see are mutliple, but the main ones are:
- If business logic and routing logic are not separated, then every modelled
business process must handle its own life and implement its own supporting
structure (db tables, etc.) resulting in a lot of inefficiency and
duplication.
- Processes modelled would not be flexible to change.
- Better fit in the enterprise framework: if handled by a standalone
workflow engine, processes can contain some activities executed by user over
a PHP web app, while other activities are executed on other applications
(ERP, etc).
Following are some of the points I am considering to go forward:
- Follow standards with as few deviations as possible to ease upgrade and
integrations with existing tools: http://www.wfmc.org/, XPDL,
etc.
- The workflow engine itself would probably not be built on PHP; again,
follow standards such as OMG, etc...
- Evaluate open-source wf engines: http://wfmopen.sourceforge.net/ seems
like an interesting option, but there are quite a few, most of them written
in Java.
Please let me know if you are interested in continuing this discussion.
Pascal