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

6       Workflow::Factory - Generates new workflow and supporting objects
7

VERSION

9       This documentation describes version 1.51 of this package
10

SYNOPSIS

12        # Import the singleton for easy access
13        use Workflow::Factory qw( FACTORY );
14
15        # Add XML configurations to the factory
16        FACTORY->add_config_from_file( workflow  => 'workflow.xml',
17                                       action    => [ 'myactions.xml', 'otheractions.xml' ],
18                                       validator => [ 'validator.xml', 'myvalidators.xml' ],
19                                       condition => 'condition.xml',
20                                       persister => 'persister.xml' );
21
22        # Create a new workflow of type 'MyWorkflow'
23        my $wf = FACTORY->create_workflow( 'MyWorkflow' );
24
25        # Fetch an existing workflow with ID '25'
26        my $wf = FACTORY->fetch_workflow( 'MyWorkflow', 25 );
27

DESCRIPTION

29   Public
30       The Workflow Factory is your primary interface to the workflow system.
31       You give it the configuration files and/or data structures for the
32       Workflow, Workflow::Action, Workflow::Condition, Workflow::Persister,
33       and Workflow::Validator objects and then you ask it for new and
34       existing Workflow objects.
35
36   Internal
37       Developers using the workflow system should be familiar with how the
38       factory processes configurations and how it makes the various
39       components of the system are instantiated and stored in the factory.
40

METHODS

42   Public Methods
43       instance()
44
45       The factory is a singleton, this is how you get access to the instance.
46       You can also just import the 'FACTORY' constant as in the "SYNOPSIS".
47
48       create_workflow( $workflow_type, $context, $wf_class )
49
50       Create a new workflow of type $workflow_type. This will create a new
51       record in whatever persistence mechanism you have associated with
52       $workflow_type and set the workflow to its initial state.
53
54       The $context argument is optional, you can pass an exisiting instance
55       of Workflow::Context to be reused. Otherwise a new instance is created.
56
57       The $wf_class argument is optional. Pass it the name of a class to be
58       used for the workflow to be created. By default, all workflows are of
59       the Workflow class.
60
61       Any observers you've associated with this workflow type will be
62       attached to the returned workflow object.
63
64       This fires a 'create' event from the just-created workflow object. See
65       "WORKFLOWS ARE OBSERVABLE" in Workflow for more.
66
67       Returns: newly created workflow object.
68
69       fetch_workflow( $workflow_type, $workflow_id, $context, $wf_class )
70
71       Retrieve a workflow object of type $workflow_type and ID $workflow_id.
72       (The $workflow_type is necessary so we can fetch the workflow using the
73       correct persister.) If a workflow with ID $workflow_id is not found
74       "undef" is returned.
75
76       The $context argument is optional, you can pass an exisiting instance
77       of Workflow::Context to be reused. Otherwise a new instance is created.
78
79       The $wf_class argument is optional. Pass it the name of a class to be
80       used for the workflow to be created. By default, all workflows are of
81       the Workflow class.
82
83       Any observers you've associated with this workflow type will be
84       attached to the returned workflow object.
85
86       This fires a 'fetch' event from the retrieved workflow object. See
87       "WORKFLOWS ARE OBSERVABLE" in Workflow for more.
88
89       Throws exception if no workflow type $workflow_type available.
90
91       Returns: Workflow object
92
93       add_config_from_file( %config_declarations )
94
95       Pass in filenames for the various components you wish to initialize
96       using the keys 'action', 'condition', 'persister', 'validator' and
97       'workflow'. The value for each can be a single filename or an arrayref
98       of filenames.
99
100       The system is familiar with the 'perl' and 'xml' configuration formats
101       -- see the 'doc/configuration.txt' for what we expect as the format and
102       will autodetect the types based on the file extension of each file.
103       Just give your file the right extension and it will be read in
104       properly.
105
106       You may also use your own custom configuration file format -- see
107       "SUBCLASSING" in Workflow::Config for what you need to do.
108
109       You can also read it in yourself and add the resulting hash reference
110       directly to the factory using "add_config()". However, you need to
111       ensure the configurations are added in the proper order -- when you add
112       an 'action' configuration and reference 'validator' objects, those
113       objects should already be read in. A good order is: 'validator',
114       'condition', 'action', 'workflow'. Then just pass the resulting hash
115       references to "add_config()" using the right type and the behavior
116       should be exactly the same.
117
118       Returns: nothing; if we run into a problem parsing one of the files or
119       creating the objects it requires we throw a Workflow::Exception.
120
121       add_config( %config_hashrefs )
122
123       Similar to "add_config_from_file()" -- the keys may be 'action',
124       'condition', 'persister', 'validator' and/or 'workflow'. But the values
125       are the actual configuration hashrefs instead of the files holding the
126       configurations.
127
128       You normally will only need to call this if you are programmatically
129       creating configurations (e.g., hot-deploying a validator class
130       specified by a user) or using a custom configuration format and for
131       some reason do not want to use the built-in mechanism in
132       Workflow::Config to read it for you.
133
134       Returns: nothing; if we encounter an error trying to create the objects
135       referenced in a configuration we throw a Workflow::Exception.
136
137       get_persister_for_workflow_type
138
139       get_persisters
140
141       #TODO
142
143       get_validators
144
145       #TODO
146
147   Internal Methods
148       #TODO
149
150       save_workflow( $workflow )
151
152       Stores the state and current datetime of the $workflow object. This is
153       normally called only from the Workflow "execute_action()" method.
154
155       This method respects transactions if the selected persister supports
156       it.  Currently, the DBI-based persisters will commit the workflow
157       transaction if everything executes successfully and roll back if
158       something fails.  Note that you need to manage any
159       Workflow::Persister::DBI::ExtraData transactions yourself.
160
161       Returns: $workflow
162
163       get_workflow_history( $workflow )
164
165       Retrieves all Workflow::History objects related to $workflow.
166
167       NOTE: Normal users get the history objects from the Workflow object
168       itself. Under the covers it calls this.
169
170       Returns: list of Workflow::History objects
171
172       get_action( $workflow, $action_name )
173
174       Retrieves the action $action_name from workflow $workflow. Note that
175       this does not do any checking as to whether the action is proper given
176       the state of $workflow or anything like that. It is mostly an internal
177       method for Workflow (which does do checking as to the propriety of the
178       action) to instantiate new actions.
179
180       Throws exception if no action with name $action_name available.
181
182       Returns: Workflow::Action object
183
184       get_persister( $persister_name )
185
186       Retrieves the persister with name $persister_name.
187
188       Throws exception if no persister with name $persister_name available.
189
190       get_condition( $condition_name )
191
192       Retrieves the condition with name $condition_name.
193
194       Throws exception if no condition with name $condition_name available.
195
196       get_validator( $validator_name )
197
198       Retrieves the validator with name $validator_name.
199
200       Throws exception if no validator with name $validator_name available.
201
202   Internal Configuration Methods
203       _add_workflow_config( @config_hashrefs )
204
205       Adds all configurations in @config_hashrefs to the factory. Also cycles
206       through the workflow states and creates a Workflow::State object for
207       each. These states are passed to the workflow when it is instantiated.
208
209       We also require any necessary observer classes and throw an exception
210       if we cannot. If successful the observers are kept around and attached
211       to a workflow in create_workflow() and fetch_workflow().
212
213       Returns: nothing
214
215       _add_action_config( @config_hashrefs )
216
217       Adds all configurations in @config_hashrefs to the factory, doing a
218       'require' on the class referenced in the 'class' attribute of each
219       action.
220
221       Throws an exception if there is no 'class' associated with an action or
222       if we cannot 'require' that class.
223
224       Returns: nothing
225
226       _add_persister_config( @config_hashrefs )
227
228       Adds all configurations in @config_hashrefs to the factory, doing a
229       'require' on the class referenced in the 'class' attribute of each
230       persister.
231
232       Throws an exception if there is no 'class' associated with a persister,
233       if we cannot 'require' that class, or if we cannot instantiate an
234       object of that class.
235
236       Returns: nothing
237
238       _add_condition_config( @config_hashrefs )
239
240       Adds all configurations in @config_hashrefs to the factory, doing a
241       'require' on the class referenced in the 'class' attribute of each
242       condition.
243
244       Throws an exception if there is no 'class' associated with a condition,
245       if we cannot 'require' that class, or if we cannot instantiate an
246       object of that class.
247
248       Returns: nothing
249
250       _add_validator_config( @config_hashrefs )
251
252       Adds all configurations in @config_hashrefs to the factory, doing a
253       'require' on the class referenced in the 'class' attribute of each
254       validator.
255
256       Throws an exception if there is no 'class' associated with a validator,
257       if we cannot 'require' that class, or if we cannot instantiate an
258       object of that class.
259
260       Returns: nothing
261
262       _commit_transaction
263
264       Calls the commit method in the workflow's persister.
265
266       Returns: nothing
267
268       _rollback_transaction
269
270       Calls the rollback method in the workflow's persister.
271
272       associate_observers_with_workflow
273
274       Add defined observers with workflow.
275
276       The workflow has to be provided as the single parameter accepted by
277       this method.
278
279       The observers added will have to be of the type relevant to the
280       workflow type.
281
282       new
283
284       The new method is a dummy constructor, since we are using a factory it
285       makes no sense to call new - and calling new will result in a
286       Workflow::Exception
287
288       "instance" should be called or the imported 'FACTORY' should be
289       utilized.
290

DYNAMIC CONFIG LOADING

292       If you have either a large set of config files or a set of very large
293       config files then you may not want to incur the overhead of loading
294       each and every one on startup if you cannot predict which set you will
295       use in that instance of your application.
296
297       This approach doesn't make much sense in a persistent environment such
298       as mod_perl but it may lower startup costs if you have regularly
299       scheduled scripts that may not need to touch all possible types of
300       workflow.
301
302       To do this you can specify a callback that the factory will use to
303       retrieve batched hashes of config declarations. Whenever an unknown
304       workflow name is encountered the factory will first try to load your
305       config declarations then continue.
306
307       The callback takes one argument which is the workflow type. It should
308       return a reference to a hash of arguments in a form suitable for
309       "add_config_from_file".
310
311       For example:
312
313        use Workflow::Factory qw(FACTORY);
314        use My::Config::System;
315
316        sub init {
317          my $self = shift;
318
319          FACTORY->config_callback(
320            sub {
321              my $wf_type = shift;
322              my %ret = My::Config::System->get_files_for_wf( $wf_type ) || ();
323              return \%ret;
324            }
325          );
326        }
327

SUBCLASSING

329   Implementation and Usage
330       You can subclass the factory to implement your own methods and still
331       use the useful facade of the "FACTORY" constant. For instance, the
332       implementation is typical Perl subclassing:
333
334        package My::Cool::Factory;
335
336        use strict;
337        use base qw( Workflow::Factory );
338
339        sub some_cool_method {
340            my ( $self ) = @_;
341            ...
342        }
343
344       To use your factory you can just do the typical import:
345
346        #!/usr/bin/perl
347
348        use strict;
349        use My::Cool::Factory qw( FACTORY );
350
351       Or you can call "instance()" directly:
352
353        #!/usr/bin/perl
354
355        use strict;
356        use My::Cool::Factory;
357
358        my $factory = My::Cool::Factory->instance();
359

GLOBAL RUN-TIME OPTIONS

361       Setting package variable $VALIDATE_ACTION_CONFIG to a true value (it is
362       undef by default) turns on optional validation of extra attributes of
363       Workflow::Action configs.  See Workflow::Action for details.
364

SEE ALSO

366       •   Workflow
367
368       •   Workflow::Action
369
370       •   Workflow::Condition
371
372       •   Workflow::Config
373
374       •   Workflow::Persister
375
376       •   Workflow::Validator
377
379       Copyright (c) 2003-2021 Chris Winters. All rights reserved.
380
381       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
382       under the same terms as Perl itself.
383
384       Please see the LICENSE
385

AUTHORS

387       Please see Workflow
388
389
390
391perl v5.32.1                      2021-01-31              Workflow::Factory(3)
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