Workflow Engine for Frappe: Has anybody seen this in the wild?

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Hi all,

I didn’t want to resurrect this thread:

https://discuss.frappe.io/t/let-us-make-erpnext-a-professional-workflow-alternative-for-real-business-use-cases-your-ideas-count/50065

I therefore start a new one :wink:

I found this here:
https://www.doria.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/177864/bjorkgren_dan.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Has anybody seen this project in use? Did it evolve further?

If not, maybe Frappe or anyone from the community might try to contact the author, maybe he could contribute his work. I am not a programmer/developer…

Best regards,
DoCa

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I am now studying the thesis.

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Hi there!

I’m the author of that thesis. I find it fascinating and somewhat intimidating that someone has found my work :sweat_smile:

I would be surprised to learn that the actual code would be in use somewhere since nobody has asked for it. I myself stopped the development as soon as my thesis was accepted and I was able to graduate.

That would mean that the code is far from production ready. It’s really not much more than a proof of concept, sorely lacking proper error handling for example.

As you can read from my conclusion, the version of Frappe I was working on was rather inconsistent in the way the different document types are structured. This means that you would need intimate knowledge of each document type, and would something change from one ERPNext version to the next, it would most likely break the customized code. I.e in practice, going this route could very well become a maintainance nightmare. OTOH everything can be solved by using another layer of indirection… :upside_down_face:

As for contributing the code… I will have to think about it…
There are three different parts to the system. The workflow engine itself, the workflow editor, and the connector/ERPNext Custom application.
I’m not sure I’m ready to take on responsibility for any of these, let alone all three, having a daytime job and other commitments. But you are free to try to convince me :wink:

/Dan

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After studied carefully your thesis, my idea is to build the process/workflow integration as independent frappe app by hooks, the ultimate solution designer/maintainer should be consultant or well educated key user who are good at both ERPNext business process and basic technical know-how on frappe/erpnext framework(doctype meta and available CRUD API etc).
I am more interested in your GO version workflow engine code.

Thanks for your great work done so far.

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Hi Dan,

Thanks for joining the forum. As wrote above, I am not a developer.
I hope the pros in the community will pick up your work and that your Thesis will serve as a basis for a community powered workflow system in Frappe.

Best regards,
DoCa

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Hi Dan,

Thanks for your thoughtful response! I completely understand the challenges and the current state of the code. It’s already impressive that you developed such a complex system as a proof of concept! No pressure on contributing the code—totally respect your other commitments. By the way, congrats on your graduation! If I had known earlier, I would’ve sent a sash as a graduation gift! If you ever decide to revisit the project, I’d be happy to support in any way I can.

Best,
Lily