Adobe PDF Workflow Documents for Kuali Rice May 19th, 2009 Aaron Godert Manager, Enterprise Integration Cornell Information Technologies

Overview Enhancement built by Cornell for Kuali Rice Allows for workflow documents to “wrap” editable Adobe Acrobat PDF forms Uses existing workflow (KEW) and application development framework (KNS) features of Rice Lowers the barrier to entry for creating workflow documents; empowers campus

How it Works PDF Adobe Acrobat Pro PDF Adobe Acrobat Pro KEW Workflow Config KEW Workflow Config Functional Person in Unit Kuali Rice Config Mgr/Dev and/or Tech-savvy Person in Unit

Business Reasons Quickly convert small paper based business processes to workflow documents Eliminate the need for programmer resources; enable non-techies Leverage existing commodity software (Adobe) Achieve rapid exposure and wide-spread adoption across Cornell Cost-benefit: cheap to build the feature (60 hrs); cheap to build each form (8 hrs – 24 hrs)

Technical Benefits Deployed in real-time; no system downtime –PDF forms displayed in real-time; can live on owner’s web server simply as.pdf files pulled in as a URL –Workflow configuration can be updated in real-time Person building the PDF is closer to users; decompose the development process Tech-savvy people (not programmers) can build these in hours and deploy out for testers Data in form is sent to KEW; standard workflow rule processing can occur

Risks and Limitations Relying on commodity software –Compatibility issues for browsers –Upgrades Limited functionality –Read-only after submission –Understanding boundaries –Control expectations

Looking Ahead Piloting at Cornell starting mid-June –Work out the kinks –Document Intend to bring to the Application Roadmap Committee (ARC) and the Technology Roadmap Committee (TRC) as an enhancement and contribution back to the Foundation