Re: Workflow engine

> >>> Most engines let you define a web service (SOAP) provider where you
> >>> specify the method to invoke, required parameters;  it simply a 
> >>> matter
> >>> of defining the provider 'schema', and then method can be invoked.
> >> How is authentication handled in a real world setup?
> > Usually relies upon the HTTP layer;  the same as authenticating with 
> > an OGo XML-RPC request.  Some servers support authentication beyond BASIC, 
> > but so very eveyrone I've met supports BASIC.  And some servers choose, 
> > for  whatever unholy reason, to put authentication in the method
> > request itself (where username/secret pairs are parameters).
> Is this theory or practice? 

We query SOAP services.  All proprietary however, business partner
stuff, vertical applications.  There isn't much Open Source in that
whole space yet.

> This sounds like usability might be awkward.

I wouldn't describe it as elegant.  There are things like WDSL or UDDI
that theoretically would make it more elegant, but nothing supports
these things.  But it works and beats swapping around delimited or fixed
record length files (ack!).

> >> Would you consider starting a Mono implementation of GroupDAV?
> > Yes, I've already played with it a bit based upon the example requests 
> > in the GroupDAV document.
> > Is there any documentation on what properties OGo makes available via 
> > DAV?  I'm not terribly familiar with DAV and working with ZideStore 
> > often feels like groping in the dark.
> GroupDAV != DAV. The only real DAV used is to discover the folders. 

Ah. :)  That explains some things.

> The events itself are supposed to be contained in iCalendar and vCard 
> documents which are retrieved using GET and stored using PUT.

Right, I can GET & PUT, these work as normal HTTP operations.  

I don't think the GroupDAV document makes clear the format of the
'object'; OGo contains a great deal more information than is in a
standard vCard.  And the pitance of information in a standard vCard,
honestly, isn't terribly interesting.

I also don't see (perhaps I'm missing it) how to query for items in a
folder;   such as 'give me all contacts with a first name of steve'.
Obviously this is possible, since the Noodle plugin does it, so I
probably need to reverse engineer that.

> > The object's I've been able to pull (I can enumerate a collection, 
> > fetch an
> > object) seem rather spartan so maybe I'm missing some way to tweak my 
> > query?
> There is no good overview on what ZideStore can represent in vCard or 
> iCalendar. This should be documented and completed, but well, ...

Yep.

> >> Are  there any iCalendar parsing libraries for Mono?
> > I've looked, no luck so far.
> So this is required. But parsing basic iCalendar/vCard isn't too 
> difficult either. It would be a requirement for GroupDAV though.

I've enquired of a Dashboard/Beagle developer here in town; if there is
one he'd know about it.

> >> We once started an effort called the "trackd". This allowed XML-RPC
> >> clients to register themselves for change notifications. The trackd
> >> itself tracked changes by polling the object version.
> >> http://svn.opengroupware.org/viewcvs/trunk/Recycler/SandStorm/
> >> skytrackd/?rev=593
> > I'll take a look
> Don't try to compile/run it, it isn't worth the effort (depends on the 
> SandStorm stuff which should be very hard to get running).

:(

> >>>> Writing some own simple modeller as a web app could be done as well.
> >>>> Not sure whether people would be pleased with that though.
> >>> Like OpenWFE's droflo?
> >> Don't know what this is.
> > droflo is just the name for their workflow builder.
> Yes, like this (though it is a bit ugly ;-)
> http://lcmserv1.epfl.ch/droflo/

Yep, thats droflo.

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