- Flowchart is a rubygem for StateFlow(state-action-transition) and WorkFlow(user-assigned-assigner) workflow.
- Flowchart(Stateflow) works out of the box both for ActiveRecord and Non-ActiveRecord Models.
- Flowchart(Workflow) works out of the box both for ActiveRecord
- It provides an easy DSL to create a workflow for your model's object.
- State Flow + Work FLow = Process Flow
- You can not only define states-action-transitions but also do a lot more with pre-process and post-process steps
- You can independently use either of StateFlow and WorkFlow or together, the way you need it
-
gem install flowchart
-
No other gem dependencies! Tested on Ruby 1.8.7 and Ruby 1.9.3 | Rails 3.2.13 and Rails 2.3.8
flowchart do
init_flowstate :init
flowstate :init do
preprocess Proc.new { |o| p "blah blah" }
postprocess :some_method
end
flowstate :uploaded do
preprocess Proc.new :do_something
postprocess Proc.new { |o| p "File has been uploaded" }
end
action :upload do
transitions :from => :init, :to => :uploaded, :condition => :file_parsable?
end
end- By Default flowchart assumes that the model attribute it works on is "process_status. If you want to override it then
flowchart do
state_column :some_other_column
end-
Every flowstate can have options preprocess and postprocess blocks. You can mention any instance methods or Procs/lamdas to execute.
-
In Actions you can mention :condition with evaluate truth or falsity based on which the transition action(:from -> :to) is possible or not is determined. If :condition is not given transition is always evaluated to truth.
-
In Actions you can also mention :branch, when you have multiple :to states from one single :from state then you can mention a ":branch" condition which you can execute and determine which branch state will be the next! Useful in decision trees.
-
obj.{state_name}? returns boolean true/false if object is in that that state
-
obj.{action} returns the transtion to next state on executing the action
-
obj.{action}! returns the transition to next state on executing the action and save after call
-
obj.current_state returns the current_state of the object
e.g #<FlowChart::State:0x9e6e3f4 @flowstatename=:uploaded, @before_and_after_works={:postprocess=>#<Proc:0x099dc28c@(irb):30>, :preprocess=>#<Proc:0x099dc3e0@(irb):29>}>- obj.flowprocessor returns the complete tree of flowchart for the object!
e.g. #<FlowChart::FlowProcessor:0x9e6e5e8
@actions=
{:close=>
#<FlowChart::Action:0x9e6df80
@flowprocessor=#<FlowChart::FlowProcessor:0x9e6e5e8 >,
@name=:close,
@transitions=
[#<FlowChart::Transition:0x9e6dea4
@branch=nil,
@condition=:file_close?,
@from=[:init, :uploaded, :open],
@to=:closed>]>,
:upload=>
#<FlowChart::Action:0x9e6e110
@flowprocessor=#<FlowChart::FlowProcessor:0x9e6e5e8 >,
@name=:upload,
@transitions=
[#<FlowChart::Transition:0x9e6e084
@branch=nil,
@condition=:file_parsable?,
@from=[:init],
@to=:uploaded>]>,
:process=>
#<FlowChart::Action:0x9e6e070
@flowprocessor=#<FlowChart::FlowProcessor:0x9e6e5e8 >,
@name=:process,
@transitions=
[#<FlowChart::Transition:0x9e6df94
@branch=:choose_branch,
@condition=nil,
@from=[:uploaded],
@to=[:open, :closed]>]>},
@flowstates=
{:init=>
#<FlowChart::State:0x9e6e4f8
@before_and_after_works=
{:postprocess=>:notify_user, :preprocess=>#<Proc:0x099dca84@(irb):24>},
@flowstatename=:init>,
:open=>
#<FlowChart::State:0x9e6e2dc
@before_and_after_works={:postprocess=>#<Proc:0x099db8f0@(irb):35>},
@flowstatename=:open>,
:uploaded=>
#<FlowChart::State:0x9e6e3f4
@before_and_after_works=
{:postprocess=>#<Proc:0x099dc28c@(irb):30>,
:preprocess=>#<Proc:0x099dc3e0@(irb):29>},
@flowstatename=:uploaded>,
:closed=>
#<FlowChart::State:0x9e6e1d8
@before_and_after_works=
{:postprocess=>:notify_user, :preprocess=>#<Proc:0x099daf18@(irb):39>},
@flowstatename=:closed>},
@starting_flowstate=
#<FlowChart::State:0x9e6e4f8
@before_and_after_works=
{:postprocess=>:notify_user, :preprocess=>#<Proc:0x099dca84@(irb):24>},
@flowstatename=:init>,
@starting_flowstate_name=:init,
@state_column=:process_status> # Example of a Non-ActiveRecord Class using FlowChart in Ruby - showing only Work Machine
# Require 'active_record'
class User
attr_accessor :email
def initialize(email)
@email=email
end
end
u1=User.new("1@gmail.com")
u2=User.new("2@gmail.com")
u3=User.new("3@gmail.com")
u4=User.new("4@gmail.com")
class SampleWork
include FlowChart
require 'active_record'
attr_accessor :assigned_to,:assigned_by
workchart do
assigned_to_column :assigned_to
assigned_by_column :assigned_by
workowner :user do
goal_time lambda{ 2.days }
dead_line lambda{ 3.days }
end
delegate :feed_pairing_work
delegate :feed_publishing_work
delegate :confirmation_work
end
end-
By Default flowchart assumes that the model attributes for work_assignments are 'assigned_to' & assigned_by' If you want to override it then
flowchart do assigned_to_column :some_other_column1 assigned_by_column :some_other_column2 end
-
Every Workchart belongs to a workowner, here it is User Model. goal_time and dead_line are default SLA you can mention for the work! You can call these procs later to monitor the SLA in your Application.
workowner :user do goal_time lambda{ 2.days } dead_line lambda{ 3.days } end
-
There can be multiple tasks associated with a work. Each task here is knows as 'delegate'
delegate :feed_pairing_work
-
Once the object of SampleWork is created you can use your delegate tasks and assign users to them
obj.feed_pairing_work(u1,u2) #or obj.feed_pairing_work!(u1,u2) mentioning ! will save the obj object after callbacks
-
We cav have multiple delegates(tasks) which means each of these tasks can have completely separate set of WorkOwners(assigned_by, assigned_to). At any given point 'obj.current_work_owners' should give the work_owners at the moment for each delegates!
-
If you want to see the trace of WorkOwners for each delegates go through the tree 'obj.workprocessor'. You will see for every delegate actions we keep the trace of work_owners which changes i.e yesterday it might be u1,u2 today it might be u3,u4 for a delegate. Keeping trace can be an added feature that can be used for logging in your Application.
- obj.{current_work_owners} returns the set of current_work_owners for each delegate task
e.g. [{:feed_pairing_work=>{:assigned_to=>#<User:0x99e3d84 @email="1@gmail.com">, :assigned_by=>#<User:0x9a027d4 @email="2@gmail.com">}}, {:feed_publishing_work=>{}}, {:confirmation_work=>{}}]- YAML.load(obj.assigned_by) returns the set of work_owners(assiged_by) for each delegate task
e.g. [{:feed_pairing_work=>#<User:0x9eac744 @email="2@gmail.com">}, {:feed_publishing_work=>""}, {:confirmation_work=>""}]- YAML.load(obj.assigned_to) returns the set of work_owners(assiged_to) for each delegate task
e.g. [{:feed_pairing_work=>#<User:0x9ea9db4 @email="1@gmail.com">}, {:feed_publishing_work=>""}, {:confirmation_work=>""}]-
obj.{delegate}(user1obj,user2obj) assigns the delegate task where 'user2obj' is assigner and user1.obj is assigned_to
-
obj.workprocessor.work_owners returns the Hash of owner types for this work item with sla configs
e.g. {:user=>#<FlowChart::WorkOwner:0x9e6d760 @sla={:goal_time=>#<Proc:0x099d86b4@(irb):63>, :dead_line=>#<Proc:0x099d859c@(irb):64>}, @work_owner_model=User>}- obj.workprocessor.delegate_actions returns all the delegates actions for this work that has been defined
e.g. {:feed_pairing_work=>
#<FlowChart::WorkDelegateAction:0x9e6d404
@current_work_owners=
{:assigned_to=>#<User:0x99e3d84 @email="1@gmail.com">,
:assigned_by=>#<User:0x9a027d4 @email="2@gmail.com">},
@delegate_action_name=:feed_pairing_work,
@work_owners_trace=
[{:assigned_to=>#<User:0x99e3d84 @email="1@gmail.com">,
:assigned_by=>#<User:0x9a027d4 @email="2@gmail.com">}]>,
:feed_publishing_work=>
#<FlowChart::WorkDelegateAction:0x9e6d3f0
@current_work_owners={},
@delegate_action_name=:feed_publishing_work,
@work_owners_trace=[]>,
:confirmation_work=>
#<FlowChart::WorkDelegateAction:0x9e6d3b4
@current_work_owners={},
@delegate_action_name=:confirmation_work,
@work_owners_trace=[]>}- obj.workprocessor returns the complete tree of flowchart for the object!
e.g. #<FlowChart::WorkProcessor:0x9e6d814
@assigned_by_column=:assigned_by,
@assigned_to_column=:assigned_to,
@delegate_actions=
{:feed_pairing_work=>
#<FlowChart::WorkDelegateAction:0x9e6d404
@current_work_owners=
{:assigned_to=>#<User:0x99e3d84 @email="1@gmail.com">,
:assigned_by=>#<User:0x9a027d4 @email="2@gmail.com">},
@delegate_action_name=:feed_pairing_work,
@work_owners_trace=
[{:assigned_to=>#<User:0x99e3d84 @email="1@gmail.com">,
:assigned_by=>#<User:0x9a027d4 @email="2@gmail.com">}]>,
:feed_publishing_work=>
#<FlowChart::WorkDelegateAction:0x9e6d3f0
@current_work_owners={},
@delegate_action_name=:feed_publishing_work,
@work_owners_trace=[]>,
:confirmation_work=>
#<FlowChart::WorkDelegateAction:0x9e6d3b4
@current_work_owners={},
@delegate_action_name=:confirmation_work,
@work_owners_trace=[]>},
@work_owners=
{:user=>
#<FlowChart::WorkOwner:0x9e6d760
@sla=
{:goal_time=>#<Proc:0x099d86b4@(irb):63>,
:dead_line=>#<Proc:0x099d859c@(irb):64>},
@work_owner_model=User>}># Example of a Non-ActiveRecord Class using FlowChart in Ruby - showing State Machine & Work Machine = Flowchart
# requires 'active_record' for Workflow
class User
attr_accessor :email
def initialize(email)
@email=email
end
end
u1=User.new("1@gmail.com")
u2=User.new("2@gmail.com")
u3=User.new("3@gmail.com")
u4=User.new("4@gmail.com")
class SampleFlowchart
include FlowChart
require 'active_record'
attr_accessor :process_status
attr_accessor :assigned_to,:assigned_by
flowchart do
init_flowstate :init
flowstate :init do
preprocess Proc.new { |o| p "Initializing File" }
postprocess :notify_user
end
flowstate :uploaded do
preprocess Proc.new { |o| p "Validating File" }
postprocess Proc.new { |o| p "File has been uploaded in system" }
end
flowstate :open do
postprocess :notify_user
postprocess Proc.new { |o| p "File has been closed" }
end
flowstate :closed do
preprocess Proc.new { |o| p "File closed" }
postprocess :notify_user
end
action :upload do
transitions :from => :init, :to => :uploaded, :condition => :file_parsable?
end
action :process do
transitions :from => :uploaded, :to => [:open, :closed], :branch => :choose_branch
end
action :close do
transitions :from => [:init,:uploaded,:open], :to => :closed, :condition => :file_close?
end
end
workchart do
assigned_to_column :assigned_to
assigned_by_column :assigned_by
workowner :user do
goal_time lambda{ 2.days }
dead_line lambda{ 3.days }
end
delegate :feed_pairing_work
delegate :feed_publishing_work
delegate :confirmation_work
end
def choose_branch
6 > 5 ? :open : :closed
end
def notify_user
p "Notifying User!"
end
def file_parsable?
3 > 2 ? true : false
end
def file_close?
1 > 0 ? true : false
end
endYou can refer to the example codes mentioned here in 'samples' directory
For any action in Stateflow and any delgate action in Work Flow if you choose to follow it up with a '!' then the model object is saved after action call. Similarly for an action in Stateflow and any delgate action in Work Flow if you choose to not follow it up with a '!' it will only update the attributes for the model object, not save it.