Workflow Extensions

This topic provides basic information about Workflow Extensions.

About Workflow Extensions

Workflow is a comprehensive term to explain a process by which members of an organization complete complex tasks. Whether your organization uses formalized or ad-hoc workflows, there is a process or pattern by which work is accomplished. One employee begins a task and passes it along to someone else for review. That person gives the project to yet a third person to finalize and then it goes back to person number two for final review, and so forth. Workflow software can automate workflow by providing automatic notification of responsibility, by presenting only appropriate options at each step in the process, and by assuring that items are acted upon in a timely manner.

Extensions

StarTeam Extensions include:

Alternate Property Editors (APEs), forms written in Java, replace the standard properties dialog boxes that come with each component of the application.
A workflow engine that reads the appropriate .Workflow.xml file and populates the APEs.
A toolbar that can be used with the StarTeam Cross-Platform Client to start applications that add new features to the application.
Various other utilities and libraries written in Java.

Workflow Designer

You must use Workflow Designer to develop custom workflows. Workflow Designer outputs .xml files that formalize the steps in a workflow, specifies who will be notified about each step and about exceptions, and so on. Each file is named item_type.Workflow.xml and can be used for an entire project or individual views within that project. The StarTeam Extensions workflow engine and StarTeam Notification Agent read from these files.

Workflow Designer can be installed separately on any workstation.

For details, see Installing Workflow Designer.

Notification Agent

The StarTeam Notification Agent monitors server configurations to determine who needs to be notified about work to be performed and about exceptions that occur in the workflow process. It must be installed and set up separately. It is usually installed on the computer that runs the StarTeam Server, but it can be installed anywhere. When the StarTeam Notification Agent is not on the same computer as the StarTeam Server, the two computers’ clocks must be synchronized. The StarTeam Notification Agent’s time cannot be ahead of the StarTeam Server’s time.

When changing the enumerated values for fields used to control notification (for example, when updating the workflow for a project or view), restart the Notification Agent so that it updates its cache.

For details, see Installing the Notification Agent.