About the Workflow system I am creating in this Blog…

Ok now it’s time to explain what I mean when I talk about creating a simple workflow system for this blog.

Without going into too much detail there are two main types of workflow system:

• Sequential Based Workflow – This is where Activities are executed one after another based on the results of a previous activities end state.
• State Base Workflow – This is where activities are executed based up a system state or event, they do not run in a logical sequence but more react to what happens inside a system.

The system I am creating for this blog will initially be a sequential based one, before i get to specifics it is better to detail the parts of a workflow system so here goes…

At a high level there are quite a few parts to a workflow these are listed below:

• Workflow system – The glue and process that enables all processing done in a workflow.
• Workflow Activity Map -  A collection of activities that has a natural start and end point with activities chained one after another in sequence. Workflow activity maps sometimes have embedded logic that helps the system select the next activity to process in a sequential workflow model. or just a collection of activities that have Zero or more dependencies in a state based workflow system).
• Workflow Activities – The actually activities that perform some process and have a return value or result. Activities also can point to the next logical activity.
• Workflow Workers – The heart of a workflow system is the worker. the worker is a token/object/item that contains context data related to what is being processed by the workflow activities in a workflow.
• Workflow States – only really useful in a state based workflow. This is a list of states that are available to be monitored by a state based workflow’s activities. (I will go into this more, when I create a simple state based workflow solution for this blog.)

A little more on Workflow Maps.

As stated above the workflow system I will create on this blog is a sequential based one that is a series of ACTIVITIES than are processed sequentially in a Workflow Map as shown below:

All sequential workflow systems have a start point where the workflow starts which basically just points to the first activity to process.

Once that activity has completed processing it will then move onto the next activity, Until it reaches the end of the workflow map.

Well I think that is enough for now, In a later post I wil explain how and where workflow workers come into play and then detail the types of activity that can be in a workflow system, and then detail which ones I plan to support in the system I am creating for this blog.