2017-08-14 - Reporting SIG Notes

Presentation by Filip on Workflows UX prototype, then discussion of the prototype.

https://discuss.folio.org/t/zap-workflows-ux-iteration-3-english/1041

Summary of Filip's presentation:

• Workflows might be created and then published, or imported. The idea is to share workflows.
• Workflows have permissions which decide who can edit the workflow.
• Workflows have Triggers and Steps. Triggers initiate steps.
• Triggers can have parameters like shelf mark, item location, operator (who does it). Triggers come out of the Apps, i.e. the people who develop the Apps also develop triggers. Triggers are “automated”, i.e. there is a workflow app that listens to changes inside (and even outside) the system and then runs the workflow if applicable. One can have multiple triggers which will be independent of each other.
• Triggers provide variables which can be used in the workflows. Triggers can be made to “ask” the operator if they should start a workflow now (“semi-automated” triggers).
• A Step might be “to create a task”. Tasks can be assigned to library staff members. Other steps might be “to add a note to a record”, “to perform a search”, “to export search results” etc. pp. Steps can be made of conditional structures (if – then – else, loops). There will be a scripting language in which one can write steps, suitable for lightweight programmers. It will be editable in a browser and infrastructure and dependencies will be set up by the service itself.
• Workflow steps can be created by simply recording a workflow, e.g. by recording the changes one makes in a specfic form in the system's interface.

Questions by Filip to the group:

• What types of reports do we need ?
• What triggers do we want ? What does the system need to be listening to automatically ?
• What sort of steps / actions does the system need to perform automatically ?

Feedback to Filip out of the group can be found in anonymized form here:

https://discuss.folio.org/t/zap-workflows-ux-iteration-3-english/1041