Workflow Training

Rita_Chandra_(CGIUser1_(Delete)_2145449)

Just wondering if anyone has developed any other training materials or has any more information on Workflows? I find the information in the manuals to be very limited and frustrating. I want to paint and launch a Workflow and build extensive logic into it, but I can't seem to figure out the logic page. Does anyone has any good examples?

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Stephanie_Martin-Young

I've been building workflows for about 7 months now.I agree with you about the lack of workflow instructionmaterial. At this point in time, I haven't developedspecific training material on "how to build a workflow"because I'm still doing "Livelink Basics" (We're addingusers based on phased-in projects and I'm the mainproject/workflow developer "consultant"). I have examples of some workflows that I have developedwith and without Adobe forms.-- Your reference to "logic page", what are you referringto? If you would like to contact me directly:Stephanie.Martin-Young@actel.com

Massimo_Massironi_(ap_mmassironi_(Delete)_2097979)

We are an Italian OpenText affinity partners. We have recently finished a quite big project based on LL workflows with Adobe forms.Firstly I would ask your opinions about the current integration between the workflow and the Adobe forms modules.I'm also interested in knowing how much did you extend the standard features/objects/modules.If you want I can send you some descriptions of the extentions we implemented as well.You can contact me by using this address:S.Mazza@quinary.it

Marie_Lindsay_(MLindsay_(Delete)_15608)

FYI, we're currently developing two courses that concern workflow:- a "Workflow Customization" course for Builder users which will explain the creation of new task types, workflow types, event triggers, and workpackage data types.- an "Advanced Workflow" course for end users which will explain the use of the off-the-shelf workflow functionality in more detail--including things like subworkflows, links, and workflow management. - The Advanced Workflow course and the Forms Workshop will both discuss the off-the-shelf functionality for using forms in workflow. The Forms Workshop will have its debut at the user conference in October. The other courses are, alas, dependent upon the schedules of the instructors who are developing the courses. We hoped to have them ready for the user conference as well, but they won't be ready until sometime next quarter.Marie Lindsay(Manager, Course Development)

Robert_Davies_(unlondonadmin_-_(deleted))

Hi MassimoWe are involved in using Livelink workflows and Adobe forms although we are still in the early stages of our work. Two problems we have come up across, so far, are (1) generic workflows, and (2) offline work.(1) Workflows tend to be designed with specific named users in certain steps. This presents problems when the same workflow map needs to be applied in different situations.To solve this we used a combination of a workflow customisation & adobe form. For each step the workflow customisation refers to a field in the adobe form to determine who to route the step to.(2) A significant amount of work is likely to be done while offline (people working from home, etc...) and this presents some problems.Our approach is to use Adobe forms and require users to have a copy of Acrobat. This is not ideal however and it's a pity that the Acrobat browser plug-in is not capable of saving a form & it's contents.We would be interested in other ways of solving this general problem.Best regards/matt.

Massimo_Massironi_(ap_mmassironi_(Delete)_2097979)

Hi Matt,first of all, I'm not Massimo, I'm Silvia. Massimo is the managing director of Quinary, we have only one account in KC that is basically used by me (this is the reason why I specified my e-mail).About task assignment, we are going to attack the problem for a role based workflow we have to develop. Our idea is using event scripts to be run at the beginning of the workflow. Such script should "decide" workflow steps performers according to information about the initiator (typically the groups he/she belongs to). We already developed a script getting current user information and storing them in a hidden field of an Adobe form.About the problem you mentioned about working offline, I do not have any suggestion at the moment. Maybe you can develop a kind of text based form to which apply a parsing script able to transform it in a FDF string to be used for updating the DB when sending on the related task.I have a question for you: our customers experienced a problem in accessing Adobe form when using MS IE4 as browser. Every now and them form were displayed as white pages. After removing all temporary internet files the situation was ok again (in a few cases this was not enough and they had to shut down and restart the PC). Obviously the solution is not a solution but just a workaround, did you experience the same problem? Any suggestion? Take into account that proposing a big organization of not computer skilled people to install a different browser (Netscape) cannot be a suitable solution, maybe in the future.S.Mazza@quinary.it

Stephanie_Martin-Young

Silvia,I'm using Adobe Forms in a workflow and I do have the blank/white pages with IE 4.0 - I sometimes have to click REFRESH several times. -- In addition, we are "losing" data that has been filled in at previous steps. If person 2 fills out a field on a form, then clicks send on, person 3 isn't seeing the data entered. Stephanie.Martin-Young@actel.com

Massimo_Massironi_(ap_mmassironi_(Delete)_2097979)

Hi Stephanie,sometimes we experienced the same problem you mentioned. The previously entered values in the form are not dispalyed when accessing the form in next workflow steps. Anyway I must say that the totally white page problem happens more often. For both cases the workaround I mentioned (removing temporary internet files -> closing and restarting the browser) seems to "solve" (patch I would say) the problem. The real issue is to convince users that this does not mean loosing all their data!!! May I ask you about another problem we had with workflows and MS IE4?What happened to our customers is that after initiating the workflow they used the browser back button and then the browser forward button generating this way another workflow instance. The reason why they did back&forward is that they are real end users, they wanted to be sure of previuos steps Unfortunately there are no solutions to this except using MS IE5 or Netscape 4.6S.Mazza@quinary.it

TCPLAdmin_(Delete)_1433496

Here at TransCanada we've been asking for role based workflow for a couple years. Until we get that I don't think there is going to be much acceptance because it just causes too much work and too much confusion not being able to specify work routes by role. My understanding is that the concept of Role will be built into the next version of Livelink Workflows. This will also mean some related changes, probably a role field in the Users profile. The closely associated concept for role is the implicit role from management hierarchy, such as the 'Reports to' role between a person and their manager. I don't know if this is being done, but I hope so as we see that as important as the explicit role names ( example: 'Department 123 Expense Report Manager' )As for the above issue of Adobe forms requiring the complete Acrobat authoring environment, that isn't needed. The free Adobe Acrobat reader can be used to fill out the fields on an Acrobat PDF form, and the browser plug-in, since it actually fores up the Acrobat Reader can too. There is a requirement to have all the associated form specific plugins installed, both those for the Actual Acrobat and for the browser Acrobat Plug-in.

Stephanie_Martin-Young

RE: Your question:"What happened to our customers is that after initiating the workflow they used the browser back button and then the browser forward button generating this way another workflow instance. The reason why they did back&forward is that they are real end users, they wanted to be sure of previuos steps. Unfortunately there are no solutions to this except using MS IE5 or Netscape 4.6."--- I've used the back and forward buttons during initiation, but I've never generated another workflow instance (maybe because I've never clicked the INITIATE button again when I did go back and forth?). I'll give it a try in the next couple of days.Stephanie.Martin-Young@actel.com

Steve_Summers_(aflac_steve_summers_-_(deleted))

Here's a workaround for saving a form and its associated data. Have Distiller watching a directory your users have access to. Install a Postscript printer driver on individual PCs and print your PDF to the Postscript printer driver, directing output to a path watched by Distiller. The user then gets the resulting PDF file back with the data on it. It is no longer an editable form, but it captures the form and associated data. This solves some uses for saving a form and its associated data.