1Workflow::State(3)    User Contributed Perl Documentation   Workflow::State(3)
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NAME

6       Workflow::State - Information about an individual state in a workflow
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VERSION

9       This documentation describes version 1.54 of this package
10

SYNOPSIS

12        # This is an internal object...
13        <workflow...>
14          <state name="Start">
15            <action ... resulting_state="Progress" />
16          </state>
17             ...
18          <state name="Progress" description="I am in progress">
19            <action ... >
20               <resulting_state return="0" state="Needs Affirmation" />
21               <resulting_state return="1" state="Approved" />
22               <resulting_state return="*" state="Needs More Info" />
23            </action>
24          </state>
25             ...
26          <state name="Approved" autorun="yes">
27            <action ... resulting_state="Completed" />
28             ...
29

DESCRIPTION

31       Each Workflow::State object represents a state in a workflow. Each
32       state can report its name, description and all available actions. Given
33       the name of an action it can also report what conditions are attached
34       to the action and what state will result from the action (the
35       'resulting state').
36
37   Resulting State
38       The resulting state is action-dependent. For instance, in the following
39       example you can perform two actions from the state 'Ticket Created' --
40       'add comment' and 'edit issue':
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42         <state name="Ticket Created">
43            <action name="add comment"
44                    resulting_state="NOCHANGE" />
45            <action name="edit issue"
46                    resulting_state="Ticket In Progress" />
47          </state>
48
49       If you execute 'add comment' the new state of the workflow will be the
50       same ('NOCHANGE' is a special state). But if you execute 'edit issue'
51       the new state will be 'Ticket In Progress'.
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53       You can also have multiple return states for a single action. The one
54       chosen by the workflow system will depend on what the action returns.
55       For instance we might have something like:
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57         <state name="create user">
58            <action name="create">
59                <resulting_state return="admin"    state="Assign as Admin" />
60                <resulting_state return="helpdesk" state="Assign as Helpdesk" />
61                <resulting_state return="*"        state="Assign as Luser" />
62            </action>
63          </state>
64
65       So if we execute 'create' the workflow will be in one of three states:
66       'Assign as Admin' if the return value of the 'create' action is
67       'admin', 'Assign as Helpdesk' if the return is 'helpdesk', and 'Assign
68       as Luser' if the return is anything else.
69
70   Autorun State
71       You can also indicate that the state should be automatically executed
72       when the workflow enters it using the 'autorun' property. Note the
73       slight change in terminology -- typically we talk about executing an
74       action, not a state. But we can use both here because an automatically
75       run state requires that one and only one action is available for
76       running. That doesn't mean a state contains only one action. It just
77       means that only one action is available when the state is entered. For
78       example, you might have two actions with mutually exclusive conditions
79       within the autorun state.
80
81       If no action or more than one action is available at the time the
82       workflow enters an autorun state, Workflow will throw an error. There
83       are some conditions where this might not be what you want. For example
84       when you have a state which contains an action that depends on some
85       condition. If it is true, you might be happy to move on to the next
86       state, but if it is not, you are fine to come back and try again later
87       if the action is available. This behaviour can be achived by setting
88       the 'may_stop' property to yes, which will cause Workflow to just
89       quietly stop automatic execution if it does not have a single action to
90       execute.
91

PUBLIC METHODS

93       get_conditions( $action_name )
94
95       Returns a list of Workflow::Condition objects for action $action_name.
96       Throws exception if object does not contain $action_name at all.
97
98       contains_action( $action_name )
99
100       Returns true if this state contains action $action_name, false if not.
101
102       is_action_available( $workflow, $action_name )
103
104       Returns true if $action_name is contained within this state and it
105       matches any conditions attached to it, using the data in the context of
106       the $workflow to do the checks.
107
108       evaluate_action( $workflow, $action_name )
109
110       Throws exception if action $action_name is either not contained in this
111       state or if it does not pass any of the attached conditions, using the
112       data in the context of $workflow to do the checks.
113
114       get_all_action_names()
115
116       Returns list of all action names available in this state.
117
118       get_available_action_names( $workflow, $group )
119
120       Returns all actions names that are available given the data in
121       $workflow. Each action name returned will return true from
122       is_action_available().  $group is optional parameter. If it is set,
123       additional check for group membership will be performed.
124
125       get_next_state( $action_name, [ $action_return ] )
126
127       Returns the state(s) that will result if action $action_name is
128       executed. If you've specified multiple return states in the
129       configuration then you need to specify the $action_return, otherwise we
130       return a hash with action return values as the keys and the action
131       names as the values.
132
133       get_autorun_action_name( $workflow )
134
135       Retrieve the action name to be autorun for this state. If the state
136       does not have the 'autorun' property enabled this throws an exception.
137       It also throws an exception if there are multiple actions available or
138       if there are no actions available.
139
140       Returns name of action to be used for autorunning the state.
141
142       clear_condition_cache ( )
143
144       Deprecated, kept for 1.54 compatibility.
145
146       Used to empties the condition result cache for a given state.
147

PROPERTIES

149       All property methods act as a getter and setter. For example:
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151        my $state_name = $state->state;
152        $state->state( 'some name' );
153
154       state
155
156       Name of this state (required).
157
158       description
159
160       Description of this state (optional).
161
162       autorun
163
164       Returns true if the state should be automatically run, false if not. To
165       set to true the property value should be 'yes', 'true' or 1.
166
167       may_stop
168
169       Returns true if the state may stop automatic execution silently, false
170       if not. To set to true the property value should be 'yes', 'true' or 1.
171

INTERNAL METHODS

173       init( $config )
174
175       Assigns 'state', 'description', 'autorun' and 'may_stop' properties
176       from $config. Also assigns configuration for all actions in the state,
177       performing some sanity checks like ensuring every action has a
178       'resulting_state' key.
179

SEE ALSO

181       •   Workflow
182
183       •   Workflow::Condition
184
185       •   Workflow::Factory
186
188       Copyright (c) 2003-2021 Chris Winters. All rights reserved.
189
190       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
191       under the same terms as Perl itself.
192
193       Please see the LICENSE
194

AUTHORS

196       Please see Workflow
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200perl v5.34.0                      2021-07-27                Workflow::State(3)
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