[Yanel-dev] Storing reviewer comments with workflow transitions

[Michael Wechner]

Hi Rob

On 11/2/10 7:06 PM, Rob Adamson wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am implementing a workflow where a reviewer can approve or reject an
> item, but if rejecting, has to enter the reason why, so that the
> author can make the necessary changes.
>
> I am implementing this using a custom form&  resource type. The form
> displays the details of the transition, and prompts the user to enter
> the reason.
>
> Q1. I assume that I should call WorkflowHelper.doTransition in
> response to the submission of my custom form, in order to actually
> apply the transition. Is this correct?

Not quite, because the WorkflowHelper is just an implementation, but
you should rather call the interface:

WorkflowableV1 workflowable = (WorkflowableV1)resource;
workflowable.doTransition(transition, revision);

Also it depends what the follow-up screen should be.

1) If you want to use the generic one, then your custom form could call 
something like

http://127.0.0.1:8080/yanel/MY_REALM/events/2010/example.html?yanel.resource.workflow.transition=reviewer_approves&yanel.resource.revision=1288774938391&yanel.resource.workflow.transition.output=xhtml

which means Yanel will do the Job for you, whereas in particular

src/webapp/src/java/org/wyona/yanel/servlet/YanelServlet.java#executeWorkflowTransition()

2) If you want to have a custom follow-up screen, then you should 
implement a custom method similar
to the YanelServlet.java#executeWorkflowTransition(), but try to prevent 
calling the implementation directly.

> Q2. What are my options for storing the reason text provided by the
> reviewer?  I need to persist this with the ability to retrieve it for
> displaying to the author on another screen.

Since each revision of a node can have a workflow instance I would 
suggest to attach
it to the revision as a property, e.g.

Revision revision = 
getRealm().getRepository("/events/2010/example.html").getRevision(REVISION_NUMBER);
revision.setProperty("reject-message", REJECT_MESSAGE);


> Q3. How to I look up the reason text? (depends on the answer to Q2).

Revision revision = 
getRealm().getRepository("/events/2010/example.html").getRevision(REVISION_NUMBER);
String rejectMessage = revision.getProperty("reject-message");

Please note that this does not provide you with a history of reject 
messages, but rather is going to be overwritten, because revisions do 
not have revisions themselves.

If this would be required, then you rather put it into a node by itself 
by using some unique mapping, e.g.

/workflow-history/events/2010/example.html_rREVISION_NUMBER.xml

HTH

Michael
> Regards,
>
> Rob