Workflow Lifecycle

Also see the document operation screen documentation, particularly the part about viewing the XML we give workflow.

Workflow Event Handling

Documents often perform business logic in response to certain workflow actions. For example, maintenance documents will modify database records in the database after all approvals are completed. Documents that post to the general ledger will mark pending entries as approved after all approvals are done.

Route Status Changes

org.kuali.rice.kns.document.doRouteStatusChange() is invoked by the KNS post processor when the document's route status (e.g. initiated, enroute, final, etc.) changes. The document's new status is accessible via the document header's workflow document (see sample code). The workflow document implements org.kuali.rice.kns.workflow.service.KualiWorkflowDocument, and its methods to retrieve a document's status begin with "stateIs".

The following code is from the base implementation of all GL posting documents.

@Override
    public void doRouteStatusChange(DocumentRouteStatusChangeDTO statusChangeEvent) {
        super.doRouteStatusChange(statusChangeEvent);
        if (getDocumentHeader().getWorkflowDocument().stateIsProcessed()) {
            changeGeneralLedgerPendingEntriesApprovedStatusCode(); // update all glpes for doc and set their status to approved
        }
        else if (getDocumentHeader().getWorkflowDocument().stateIsCanceled() || getDocumentHeader().getWorkflowDocument().stateIsDisapproved()) {
            removeGeneralLedgerPendingEntries();            
        }
    }

As we can see in the above example, if the document has just become processed, then the GL pending entries are marked as approved. If it has just been canceled or disapproved, then they are removed.

    /**
     * @see org.kuali.rice.kns.maintenance.KualiMaintainableImpl#doRouteStatusChange(org.kuali.rice.kns.bo.DocumentHeader)
     */
    @Override
    public void doRouteStatusChange(DocumentHeader documentHeader) {
        super.doRouteStatusChange(documentHeader);
        // notify CAB of document status change
        if (((AssetGlobal) getBusinessObject()).isCapitalAssetBuilderOriginIndicator()) {
            SpringContext.getBean(CapitalAssetBuilderModuleService.class).notifyRouteStatusChange(documentHeader);
        }
    }

Route Level Changes

org.kuali.rice.kns.document.Document.doRouteLevelChange(DocumentRouteLevelChangeDTO) is invoked by the KNS post processor when the document's route level changes.

The DocumentRouteLevelChangeVO parameter contains information about the new and old route level, route node name, and route node ID.

public void doRouteLevelChange(DocumentRouteLevelChangeDTO change) {
        super.doRouteLevelChange(change);
        if (StringUtils.equals(change.getNewNodeName(), AUTO_APPROVE_ROUTE_LEVEL_NAME)) {           
            CorrectionDocumentService correctionDocumentService = SpringContext.getBean(CorrectionDocumentService.class);
            OriginEntryGroupService originEntryGroupService = SpringContext.getBean(OriginEntryGroupService.class);
            //more logic here
            }
            else {
                LOG.error("GLCP doc " + doc.getDocumentNumber() + " has an unknown correction type code: " + correctionType);
            }
        }
    }

As we can see in the above code, this method will execute some logic when the document enters the workgroup approval route level. Different documents may have different integers representing the route level ID for each level.

Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Routing

When running synchronously, all workflow actions happen synchronously. However, when running asynchronously (as KFS does), some actions still happen synchronously. Since we are running the workflow engine in embedded mode, all synchronous actions occur within our transactions without us having to do any additional work.

Here's the breakdown of which actions status and route node transitions are synchronous vs. asynchronous when running embedded workflow asynchronously (regardless of whether or not a standalone workflow server is in use):

• Synchronous
  • INITIATED -> SAVED
  • INITIATED -> ENROUTE
  • SAVED -> ENROUTE
  • ENROUTE -> DISAPPROVED
  • ENROUTE -> CANCELLED
• Asynchronous
  • ENROUTE -> PROCESSED
  • ENROUTE -> FINAL
  • All Route Node/Level transitions