This is going to be my first workflow, and I could use a little guidance.
I have a list I'm using for requests when a user needs their profile changed (eg: change of office location). The change has to be done in AD, PeopleSoft, and another database. Right now, I have it set up so requesters submit an item to a list, and Alerts go out to the different people responsible for making the updates in AD, PeopleSoft, etc. However, there has been enough frustration with missed emails and the like that I've been asked to track via workflow.
So essentially, I need to track a request that goes out to multiple users who will then need to confirm that the task has been completed. I found !(http://officeimg.vo.msecnd.net/en-us/files/989/238/ZA102615287.jpg), which is a very good representation of what I want to do, but does a very confusing job of explaining how to do it: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-help/all-about-approval-workflows-HA102771433.aspx
Can someone point me to the workflow type that I need and the steps to implement? OOB/SPDesigner please, I don't have VS on my machine.
Thanks,
Scott
I will start by saying that implementing parallel tasks in a single workflow is hard.
What you can do is customise the OOB approval workflow (the one mentioned in the article) to suit your needs. This will give you an insight on how Sharepoint Workflows work and are designed.
It will look confusing at start (very confusing) since like i said is a complex workflow to setup, until you start to understand how it works.
make sure you make a copy of the approval workflow before modifying it so you can still use it if needed.
Related
I have sequence of steps that an user does, e.g. logging on the a remote UNIX shell, creation of files/directories, changing permission, Running remote Shell scripts and commands, File deletion, File movements,
Run DB queries and basis the query results perform certain tasks exporting the results to a file or run further shell commands/scripts or DB insert statements etc etc.
doing there steps users achieves different processed or data processing and validating.
What is the best way to automate the above schenerio, Should we go for a Workflow tools like Activiti etc. or is there a better framework/way to achieve the requirements.
My requirement is to work with Open-source, and possibly Java based.
I am completely new to this so any help pointers would be appreciated.
The scenario you describe is certainly possible with a workflow tool like Activiti. Apache Camel or Spring Integration would be another possibility (as all the steps you mention are automatic system tasks).
A workflow framework would be a good option if you need one of these
you want to store the history data for 'audit purposes': who did what/when/how long did it take.
you want to visually model your steps, perhaps to discuss it with business people.
there is a need for human interaction between some of the steps
Your description reminds me of a software/account provisioning process.
There are a large number of provisioning tools on the market both Open Source or otherwise (Dell Crowbar is one options).
However, A couple of the comments you made in your response to Joram indicate a more general purpose tool such as Activiti may be an option:
"Swivel Chair" tasks - User tasks that may one day be automated
Visual model of process state
Most provisioning tools dont allow for generic user tasks and dont provide a (good) visual model of the process state.
However, they generally include remote script execution which would need to be cobbled together as a service task if using a BOM tool.
I would certainly expand my research to include provisioning tools as they sound like a better fit, however if you cant find anything that works for you, a BPM platform provides a generic framework to build what you need.
I am new to this so forgive me for not understanding the lingo.
I have been using rackspace cloud control panel to build multiple virtual servers, i use them for maybe a couple of hours then i delete them. I need these servers to all have specific and unique names such as: "server1, server2, server3, etc." I also need them to have a specific password unlike the randomly generated password that is assigned by default.
I have been creating each individual server manually (based on an image that's set up) then I have to go back and reset the password andreboot all of them. Doing each one manually is a bit time consuming and I'm sure there is an easier way. Please help me figure this out.
I've been doing some searching but I haven't found anything too relevant to my problem on top of that I'm not too familiar with programming and such.
Basically what I'm looking to do is automatically create these servers with their appropriate names and passwords already built in from the start. I'm not sure if some sort of "API" is the answer, or if there's some sort of script that can be written, or both.
Any assistance is much appreciated.
thanks,
Chris
I am trying to get a list of the programs (RPG/CL/SQL) and files a service account on the iSeries has touched. The idea is that having this list we can tie specific permissions (I know this will really complicate things) to the user account in order to achieve a more secure application specific service account. Is there any way to do this and maybe get a report by running a command. Maybe there is a SQL statement?
Please excuse me if my terms are not appropriate, I am still new to the iSeries.
The audit journal will have what you are looking for....if so configured.
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v7r1m0/topic/rzarl/rzarlusesecjnl.htm
The newest 7.1 TR includes stored procedures to allow easy read of journals.
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home/wiki/IBM%20i%20Technology%20Updates/page/DISPLAY_JOURNAL%20(easier%20searches%20of%20Audit%20Journal)
Charles
So though Charles' answer might be the one one should set up to get a thorough report. I wound up doing the following as suggested by one of my peers.
Please note that my goal though not properly explained as so, was to create an application specific user/service account for a program. This is to avoid using one with many privileges and thus gain some security.
1.Go through the source code (in my case classic ASP) and jot down all the names of the procedures used by that program.
2.Create a CL program that outputs the program references to a display file. Then export the file's contents onto Excel and massage where necessary.
PGM
DSPPGMREF PGM(MYLIB/PGM001) OUTPUT(*OUTFILE) OUTFILE(MYLIB/DSPPGMREF) OUTMBR(*FIRST *REPLACE)
DSPPGMREF PGM(MYLIB/PGM002) OUTPUT(*OUTFILE) OUTFILE(MYLIB/DSPPGMREF) OUTMBR(*FIRST *ADD)
ENDPGM
I was told however that service programs references cannot be displayed with DSPPGMREF. So the following was done for those.
PGM
ADDLIBLE LIB(ABSTRACT) POSITION(*LAST)
MONMSG MSGID(CPF0000)
WRKOBJR OBJ(SRVPGM01) OBJTYPE(*SRVPGM) OUTPUT(*OUTFILE) OUTFILE(MYLIB/WRKOBJR) MBROPT(*REPLACE)
WRKOBJR OBJ(SRVPGM02) OBJTYPE(*SRVPGM) OUTPUT(*OUTFILE) OUTFILE(MYLIB/WRKOBJR) MBROPT(*ADD)
WRKOBJR OBJ(SRVPGM03) OBJTYPE(*SRVPGM) OUTPUT(*OUTFILE) OUTFILE(MYLIB/WRKOBJR) MBROPT(*ADD)
ENDPGM
Thank you for all your help. I apologize that my answer is a little more specific than my question but in the end this was what I wanted to achieve, I had to generalize to ask the question. I'd thought i'd post post my answer anyways in case it helps someone in the future.
I created a time recording program in vb.net with a sql-server as backend. User can send there time entries into the database (i used typed datasets functionality) and send different queries to get overviews over there working time.
My plan was to put that exe in a folder in our network and let the user make a link on their desktops. Every user writes into the same table but can only see his own entries so there is no possibility that two user manipulate the same dataset.
During my research i found a warning that "write contentions between the different users" can be occur. Is that so in my case?
Has anyone experience with "many user using the same exe" and where that is using datasets and could give me an advice whether it is working or what i should do instead?
SQL Server will handle all of your multi-user DB access concerns.
Multiple users accessing the same exe from a network location can work but it's kind of a hack. Let's say you wanted to update that exe with a few bug fixes. You would have to ensure that all users close the application before you could release the update. To answer you question though, the application will be isolated to each user running it. You won't have any contention issues when it comes to CRUD operations on the database due to the network deployment.
You might consider something other than a copy/paste style publishing of your application. Visual Studio has a few simple tools you can use to publish your application to a central location using ClickOnce deployment.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/31kztyey(v=vs.110).aspx
My solution was to add a simple shutdown-timer in the form, which alerts users to saving their data before the program close att 4 AM.
If i need to upgrade, i just replace the .exe on the network.
Ugly and dirty, yes... but worked like a charm for the past 2 years.
good luck!
I am in the process of building a completely fresh version of an application that has been in existence for a good many years. I can look back with horror now at some of the things I had done, but the whole point of life is to learn as we go along. The nice thing now is that I have a clean slate from which to work, and it's because of that that I thought that I would seek some advice from you all.
User settings are great for those things that each individual user would naturally want to and ought to be able to change, a theme or visual style for example. Application settings should quite obviously apply to the entire application irrespective of whoever uses it.
Somewhere in the middle though are a set of settings that I would like to give the system administrator the opportunity to change (default work periods, appointment time slots, the currency the company wants to use as its main trading one etc etc). These can't be user settings because individual users should not be able to change them, nor should they be application settings because I as the developer have no idea what the end user (or to be more exact the senior end user) would want to set them to.
Many years ago I might have considered writing such settings to the registry, or an ini file. I could perhaps (as this is an application that is tightly integrated with its own custom database) create a one off settings table, and read in the relevant settings at program startup. I could perhaps opt for a separate 'universal settings' xml configuration file stored in the all users directory. Clearly a number of options.
What I would like to try and establish though is the most efficient way to approach this. What is the best trade off between file read and write operations as against reading everything into a set of public constants at application start-up? These are not going to be settings that will only be referred to occasionally so efficiency is going to be key.
Just so that there is no ambiguity as to what the application will be. Traditional winforms, using vs 2012 as the development ide and vb.net as the code base based on .net4.5 and ef 5.0. Backend data to be stored in either sql express or full sql server. Target operating system for end users will be windows 7 or above (so due respect for the uac will be required).
I'd welcome any suggestions that you might have.