1Workflow::State(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Workflow::State(3)
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6 Workflow::State - Information about an individual state in a workflow
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9 This documentation describes version 1.14 of this package
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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
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 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':
41 <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 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'.
52 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:
56 <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 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 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 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
93 get_conditions( $action_name )
94 Returns a list of Workflow::Condition objects for action $action_name.
96 Throws exception if object does not contain $action_name at all.
97 contains_action( $action_name )
99 Returns true if this state contains action $action_name, false if not.
101 is_action_available( $workflow, $action_name )
103 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 evaluate_action( $workflow, $action_name )
109 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 get_all_action_names()
115 Returns list of all action names available in this state.
117 get_available_action_names( $workflow, $group )
119 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 get_next_state( $action_name, [ $action_return ] )
126 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 get_autorun_action_name( $workflow )
134 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 Returns name of action to be used for autorunning the state.
141 clear_condition_cache ( )
143 Empties the condition result cache for a given state.
145
147 All property methods act as a getter and setter. For example:
148 my $state_name = $state->state;
150 $state->state( 'some name' );
151 state
153 Name of this state (required).
155 description
157 Description of this state (optional).
159 autorun
161 Returns true if the state should be automatically run, false if not. To
163 set to true the property value should be 'yes', 'true' or 1.
164 may_stop
166 Returns true if the state may stop automatic execution silently, false
168 if not. To set to true the property value should be 'yes', 'true' or 1.
169
171 init( $config )
172 Assigns 'state', 'description', 'autorun' and 'may_stop' properties
174 from $config. Also assigns configuration for all actions in the state,
175 performing some sanity checks like ensuring every action has a
176 'resulting_state' key.
177
179 Workflow
180 Workflow::Condition
182 Workflow::Factory
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186 Copyright (c) 2003-2007 Chris Winters. All rights reserved.
187 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
189 under the same terms as Perl itself.
190
192 Jonas B. Nielsen (jonasbn) <jonasbn@cpan.org> is the current
193 maintainer.
194 Chris Winters <chris@cwinters.com>
196perl v5.12.0 2010-05-07 Workflow::State(3)