Kaleo Forms Admin

You can access Kaleo Forms Admin from the Dockbar by clicking AdminSite AdministrationContent and then clicking Kaleo Forms Admin. The portlet then appears with a listing of the processes that you’ve defined. If you’re coming here for the first time, however, there won’t be any, so create one. Click Add. You’ll see the screen below. This is the first step in the New Process Wizard. For this example, give your process the name Lunar Resort News Content, add a description, and then click Next.

Figure 13.1: The first step of the New Process Wizard.

Figure 13.1: The first step of the New Process Wizard.

The second step in the New Process Wizard lets you define the fields that can appear in your forms. To the right of the To Do field, click the Actions button and select Choose. Now that you’ve chosen a field definition for your forms, you can move on to the next step in the wizard to add or define a workflow for those forms. Click Next.

Figure 13.2: The second step of the New Process Wizard. This is where you define and choose the fields for your forms.

Figure 13.2: The second step of the New Process Wizard. This is where you define and choose the fields for your forms.

The third step in the New Process Wizard is really where the meat and potatoes of Kaleo Forms Admin is. This is where you choose or define a workflow to use for your forms. The Single Approver workflow is included by default. To get a look at how it’s defined, click Actions and then Edit. The graphical interface for editing or defining a workflow appears below the Details section of the Single Approver edit screen.

Figure 13.3: The graphical view for editing or defining a workflow.

Figure 13.3: The graphical view for editing or defining a workflow.

This graphical view is where Kaleo Forms Admin can help you build a workflow without having to write any XML. There are eight types of nodes you can add to a definition. The node types are Condition, End, Fork, Join, Join XOR, Start, State, and Task. Notice that Start and End aren’t node types we’ve previously discussed; that’s because they’re actually just State nodes, with certain fields pre-filled to help streamline the creation process. Since every workflow has a start and end state, you’d have to do this anyway.

Each node you add has a pop-up menu letting you edit or delete the node. As you hover your mouse over the edges of a node, notice your mouse pointer changes to a cross. The cross indicates you can connect the current node to another node. Hold down your mouse button and drag the mouse to start drawing your transition to another node. If you stop before reaching the edge of the next node, a pop-up displays node types you can create and connect to on-the-fly. To connect with an existing node, continue dragging the connector to that node.

Figure 13.4: Create transitions to existing or new nodes. The connector pop-up lets you create and connect to new nodes on-the-fly.

Figure 13.4: Create transitions to existing or new nodes. The connector pop-up let's you create and connect to new nodes on-the-fly.

To get a feel for how the designer works, go ahead and use the workflow designer to duplicate the default workflow definition. Go back to the previous step and click Add Workflow. When you choose this option, it creates a blank workflow definition with start and end nodes. To make this work, you’ll add two tasks, fill in the relevant information, assign the tasks properly, and create the transitions.

First add two tasks, then use the edit icon to name them Review and Update.

Figure 13.5: Edit a node by clicking on its node icon and modifying its settings.

Figure 13.5: Edit a node by clicking on its node icon and modifying its settings.

Next, connect the nodes so Review has four nodes, as follows: one receiving the transition from StartNode, one sending a transition to Update, one receiving a transition from Update, and one sending a transition to EndNode.

Figure 13.6: Your workflow should look something like this.

Figure 13.6: Your workflow should look something like this.

Next, you want to add the correct assignments and notifications. Click on Review. The box on the left shows all the properties of the Review node. In the Assignments category, set the Assignment Type to Role Type, the Role Type to Regular, and the Role Name to Portal Content Reviewer

Figure 13.7: Assignment settings for the Review node.

Figure 13.7: Assignment settings for the Review node.

Now set the notifications. Double-click on Notifications and create a notification with the Notification Type set to User Notification and the Execution Type set to On Assignment.

Figure 13.8: Notification settings for the Review node.

Figure 13.8: Notification settings for the Review node.

Together, the assignment and notification settings specify that a user receives a notification in their Dockbar when assigned a form in this workflow. Now move to the Update node and assign it to the Content Creator role with its own user notification.

Next, go through all the transitions and make sure they’re named correctly. What are the transitions? Workflow transitions connect one node to another. On exiting the first node, processing continues to the node pointed to by the transition. Every time you created an arrow from one node to another, Kaleo Designer created a transition. By default, these transitions get system generated names, so we’ll rename them all to something more human-readable. First, click on the arrow going from the Start node to the Review node and set the name to Submit and set Default to true–you’ll leave all the others as false. Set the name of the Review to Update transition to Reject and the Update to Review transition to Resubmit. Lastly, set the name of the Review to Endnode transition to Approve.

Figure 13.9: Your completed workflow should look like this.

Figure 13.9: Your completed workflow should look like this.

Now look at the generated XML. It should look a lot like the default workflow, only a tiny bit messier, as the nodes are written in the order they were created, not in the logical order that happens when a human writes the code. Once you’re finished, click Publish. Your workflow is now ready to use!

Back on the third step of the New Process wizard, click ActionsChoose next to the workflow you just created. Then click Next.

The fourth and final step of the New Process wizard is for creating or assigning a form to each task you’ve defined in the workflow. Each task appears in a row with its form (if it has been assigned one) and a button that lets you assign a form. Therefore, you have create, update, and review listed as your tasks.

Figure 13.10: The fourth step in the New Process wizard lets you assign a form to each task.

Figure 13.10: The fourth step in the New Process wizard lets you assign a form to each task.

Go ahead and click on the Assign Form button next to the created task. On the next page, click the Add Form button. The screen that appears lets you create a new form. First, give the form the name Initial Form, since it’s the first form in the process. Next, take a look at the available fields. This is a simple review task so you won’t need all the fields that are in the form by default. To delete a field, mouse over it and click the Trash icon that appears. Go ahead and delete all but the Assigned To, Severity, Start Date, Status, and Title fields. Your form should now look like the one in the screenshot here.

Figure 13.11: Basic form creation.

Figure 13.11: Basic form creation.

If you delete a field by accident or simply want to add another field to your form, you can do so by dragging and dropping its icon from the Fields tab on the left to the form itself on the right. Fields already on the form that can appear on it only once are grayed out. You can also edit the settings of a field in the form by mousing over it and clicking the wrench icon. For example, the settings for the Assigned To field are shown in this screenshot.

Figure 13.12: Settings available for a field in a form.

Figure 13.12: Settings available for a field in a form.

Since you don’t need to change any of the field settings in this form, go ahead and click Save. On the next screen, choose your new form from the Actions button next to it. Now that you’re familiar with the basics of form creation and assignment, create a form titled Second Form to use for the update and review tasks. Give it the following fields:

  • Assigned To
  • Attachment
  • Comments
  • Description
  • End Date
  • % Complete
  • Severity
  • Start Date
  • Status
  • Title

Make sure you choose the new form for your update and review tasks. When you’re done assigning forms to tasks, click Save. Your new process is complete, and is listed in the Kaleo Forms Admin portlet. Congratulations!

Figure 13.13: Once created, your process is listed in Kaleo Forms Admin.

Figure 13.13: Once created, your process is listed in Kaleo Forms Admin.

Now it’s time to look at how to use workflow processes in the Kaleo Forms Display portlet.

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