1. Kuali Enterprise Workflow Eric Westfall (Indiana University) Aaron Hamid (Cornell University)

2. Overview Core Features Highlights of Recent Work Architectural Evolution of KEW Integration Options KFS Workflow Overview & Example EDocLite Overview & Example Roadmap

3. What is KEW? Kuali Enterprise Workflow is a content-based routing engine. –Documents created from process definitions (Document Types) and submitted to the workflow engine for routing –Routing decisions made based on the content of the Document It has traditionally been used for business transactions in the form of electronic documents that require approval from multiple parties. For example: –Transfer of Funds –Requisition –Hire/Terminate Employee –Timesheet –Drop Course Composed of a set of services, APIs, and GUIs Part of the Kuali Rice framework

4. KEW Core features User Work Queue (Action List) Document Searching Document Audit Trail (Route Log) Flexible process definition (Document Type) –Splits, Joins, Parallel branches, Sub processes, Dynamic process generation Basic User and Group support –Can be overridden and customized to plug into Institutional user and groups solutions Rules Engine Email Notification

5. KEW Core features Notes and attachments Wide array of pluggable components to customize routing by process –Where to route document –Indexing of document data for searching –Email Notification Customization –Customization of Action List –Customization of Routing Rules EDocLite –Framework for creating simple documents quickly –Will see more of EDocLite later

6. KEW Core features Plug-in Architecture –Packaging and deployment of routing components to the KEW Server at runtime –Institutional Customization Transactional Processing –JTA can be used for multi-datasource transactions Can run in J2EE appservers Can run in Servlet Containers –In non-J2EE environment, can use JOTM or (coming soon) Atomikos to provide JTA transactions

7. Highlights of Recent Work Enhancements to Workgroups –Nesting –Custom Attributes and Routing Custom Document Search –More configurable search options (wildcarding, case sensitivity) –Support for range-based searches –Ability to implement custom search generators and result set processors by Document Type

8. Highlights of Recent Work KEW has been re-architected as a Rice module KEW code has been merged into the Rice code base Some pieces of KEW extracted into Rice core or other modules –Kuali Service Bus –Configuration System –JTA support –Resource Loading

9. Architectural Evolution of KEW KEW has gone through many architectural changes in it’s lifetime Most recently: –Support for using an Embedded Engine –Creation of the Kuali Service Bus –Re-architected as a Rice module and merged into the Kuali Rice framework (Kuali Rice version 0.9.1)

10. Architectural Evolution of KEW

13. Integration Options There are numerous options for integrating a client application with KEW –Web Service APIs –Thin Java Client –KEW APIs against an Embedded Engine –Create a Kuali Rice application using the KNS –EDocLite

14. KFS Routing Example We’ll show here a concrete example of a document routing in the Kuali Financial System Using Disbursement Voucher document –Used to disburse funds (i.e., pay someone) –Since its real money, there are a lot of approvals and checks needed But first, let’s look at the steps required to build and configure a document that uses KEW

15. Steps Build the document –KFS uses Rice and the KNS to build their documents –Beyond the scope of this discussion –Can learn more about this at the Kuali Rice session Create Document Type and Process definition in KEW –Identifies the route path of the document Define Rule Attributes and Rule Templates –Defines what data will be used for routing and how rules can analyze that data to make routing decisions Create Routing Rules

16. Building the Document

17. Defining the Disbursement Voucher Routing Process for Disbursement Voucher is defined as follows Ultimately defined in XML and imported

18. Rule Attributes and Rule Templates Rule Attributes and Templates are defined for each of the “Nodes” in the defined Process Account Review - a special Role attribute which decides who the Fiscal Officer is based on accounts attached to document Org Review - an attribute which climbs the Org hierarchy when evaluating rules Employee Indicator, Tax Control Code, Payment Method, etc. are defined in XML and use XPath to analyze document content and evaluate rules

19. Using XPath for Rule Evaluation The KNS handles serializing documents to XML and making XML available to KEW XPath expressions can be configured on attributes in KEW to evaluate rules based on this XML Example: Campus Code //document/campusCode = wf:ruledata('campusCode')

20. Creating Rules For all Nodes except Account Review, we create rules to define who the document should route to

21. Creating Rules Screenshot of DV Rules

22. Account Review Configuration There is a special type of rule which points to the Fiscal Officer Role for Account Review Resolution of responsible parties is handled by Java code which looks at the account numbers on the document

23. Quick Demo of Disbursement Voucher http://www.kualitestdrive.org Route Log

24. KFS Routing Example - Conclusions Conclusions –Can be simple or complex –Process definition is defined –Rule Attributes and Templates are Created –Rules are Configured –For more complex routing logic, routing components may need to be implemented –For simpler routing logic, out-of-the-box components can be used (i.e. XPath eval.)

25. eDocLite - Overview Simple, form-based system Hosted entirely within KEW No Java required, just XML Useful for small forms, and RAD prototyping Supports customizable UI and validation

26. eDocLite – UI Customization UI can be customized by registering an XSLT stylesheet with the EDL form Custom layout; standard rendering via EDL tags Security and other logic in XSLT via KEW API

27. eDocLite – XSLT

28. eDocLite – Validation JavaScript-based Required/not-required List of valid choices (drop down) Regular expression Custom JavaScript validation

29. eDocLite - Validation

30. eDocLite – Custom Validation

31. eDocLite – How To Create your DocumentType definition Create the EDL form definition Map EDL form fields to workflow attributes if necessary Implement custom JavaScript validation if desired Register custom XSLT stylesheet

32. eDocLite – Demo Office of Affirmative Action “Interview Request” form School Affirmative Action Officer(s) Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculties School Acknowledgement Initiator Acknowledgement Initiator

33. eDocLite – Form Definition

34. eDocLite – EDL Lookup

35. eDocLite – EDL Form

36. eDocLite – Logic in XSLT

38. eDocLite – Conclusion Makes creating a workflow app based on a simple form easy No Java development required No application to deploy

39. KEW - Roadmap Reorganization of Rice APIs –-api, -impl, -web –APIs published as web services Reuse of KNS in other modules Rule enhancements Integration of KEN Java Persistence Architecture Apache CXF

40. eDocLite – Rule expressions Ability to define a rule which evaluates a BSF expression

41. Growing KEW Areas for growth: process definition engine features graphical tool support documentation and developer support upgrade/migration process

42. BPEL Business Process Execution Language “Programming in the large” Structured, imperative programming Orchestration of web services Extensible language plug-in model Industry and tool support

43. BPEL for Workflow? Pro: Process definition Tool support BPEL4People Possibility of reusing an existing engine implementation Existing support community

44. BPEL for Workflow? Con: Verbose/complicated process definition Not built for workflow New development required: –Build on top of KEW engine –Use existing BPEL implementation –Write our own

45. Other options Continue to enhance KEW engine –Better pluggability of nodes –Enhance core engine –Enhance process definition language Build GUI tool for KEW –Use existing tool and convert results –Build a new tool (Eclipse GEF) Other process definition languages

46. Questions? Questions from the audience. Rice web site: http://rice.kuali.orghttp://rice.kuali.org Eric Westfall ewestfal@indiana.edu Aaron Hamid arh14@cornell.edu