Advanced workflows using Activiti
Simple workflows are good to implement content-oriented workflow processes. However, there are certain limitations of the simple workflow, which are as follows:
Unable to create multistate workflow definitions
Restricted to one or two exit transitions (approve, reject)
Unable to define parallel workflows
Reliance on folder structure for multistage workflow and action triggering
No notion of a task or assignment
To resolve these limitations, Alfresco has embedded two advanced workflow engines: the JBoss Business Process Management (JBPM) engine and Activiti into its core.
JBPM was the default workflow engine prior to the release of Alfresco 4.0. It is still included in the current release of Alfresco to support the older versions and upgrades.
Activiti is the default advanced workflow engine for the current version of Alfresco; Activiti is the product from Alfresco (the company).
The rest of the chapter will focus only on the Activiti workflow engine.
Activiti is an...