Updated tutorial: Creating custom advanced workflows in Alfresco

I have published a major revision of my “Creating custom advanced workflows in Alfresco” tutorial. Major changes include:

  • The tutorial now uses the Alfresco Maven SDK to instantiate the projects and to produce and install AMPs.
  • The tutorial no longer refers to jBPM, except to give brief historical context as to why the platforms includes both jBPM and Activiti.
  • The tutorial no longer includes any references to the old Alfresco Explorer client, except where it pertains to using the Alfresco Workflow Console, which is only available as part of the Alfresco Explorer Client.
  • Significant wordsmithing and re-organization to improve style and clarity.

I have tested the steps and the code against Alfresco 4.2.e Community Edition and version 5.14 of the Activiti Process Designer for Eclipse.

By the end of the tutorial, you will know how to:

  • Create, deploy, and run business processes using Activiti embedded within Alfresco.
  • Configure Alfresco Share to display custom forms when starting Activiti workflows or managing workflow tasks.
  • Use the Alfresco Workflow Console to deploy process definitions, start workflows, and delete workflows.
  • Add business logic to your process definitions using JavaScript and Java.
  • Assign workflow tasks to users and groups.
  • Add timers to your process definitions to take an action automatically after a specific time period.

The tutorial assumes you already know how to use the Alfresco Maven SDK. If you have never used it, take a look at this tutorial. The workflow tutorial also assumes you have worked through the Custom Content Types, Custom Actions, and Intro to Web Scripts tutorials.

The source code and the tutorial itself reside in GitHub. If you find problems or want to make improvements, please fork the project, make the change, and send me a pull request.

16 comments

  2. Davi Garcia Pereira says:

    It’s really a great work!
    Helped me a lot, but I’m having a problem with the example workflow “Publish Whitepaper to Web (Activiti)”. After start the workflow and access “My Tasks” with a Marketing or Operations user instead display the task Marketing Review or Operations Review I got “Error loading itens” and the exception http://chopapp.com/#urluoay9
    I created Marketing and Operations groups and with a user for each. (environment AC-4.2.e).
    Anyway thanks for the contribution!

  3. irvinloc says:

    Jeff,
    Many thanks for your priceless tutorials! Congratulations and thanks again for the revision to ‘mavenize’ then.
    Just in case if it’s of general interest: I have needed to do force=”true” to do advanced search by properties from aspects. Otherwise, nor the labels nor the searching itself are ok.
    I’ve found The clue in
    http://forums.alfresco.com/forum/end-user-discussions/alfresco-share/modifying-advanced-search-form-include-aspect-properties

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