New Application Infrastructures - Fedora - Kuali Enterprise Workflow Cornell Information Technology Information Systems Forum March 22 nd, 2007 Steve Lutter

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum2 Topics For both Fedora and Kuali Workflow –Introduction –Local status and expectations –Example uses –Contacts and web sites

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum3 Intro Purpose: A tool for applications to use to store and retrieve digital objects History: CU, NSF, Virginia, Mellon In essence: –A tool kit to build with –Not an expensive vendor imaging package Technology: –Java with RDBMS backend –Tomcat / Oracle for us

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum4 Local Status Dev, test, prod environments Custom ColdFusion API to facilitate use hereColdFusion API Delivered: –ARTS Admissions Student Folder product (7/2006) Expected through summer 2007: –General Purpose document router –Research Administration’s attachment replacement –Grad School Thesis Manager –OUR Transcripts –Enable use by campus techs

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum5 ARTS in context Fedora object persistence Fedora application ColdFusion ARTS App Fedora CFCs Presents the user with a web interface to the students admissions folder, with searching and Dublin Core meta data and related objects. All the parts you don’t have to design. Each application has its own namespace and data is secured to that level now. Object level security is being added. Tomcat Oracle CF MS

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum6 ARTS Admissions Student Folder Since summer 2006 Each student folder is unique. Some of the Dublin Core metadata is shown here. Each document is a related Fedora object with a datastream (the image) for each page. Each object has specific operations, reflecting the some of the capabilities of the API.

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum7 Client App Checklist Storing large number of files (>1000s) on a server? Need to have an application manage access to the files – depositing, searching, retrieving, and presenting the data? Need to have meta data about the documents? Don’t want to have to worry about managing the storage and backups of the file repository? Don’t want to design a document repository and the API to it? Using Java or ColdFusion? We are currently equipped to help with these clients.

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum8 Application design questions Will Fedora digital objects be attachments to electronic documents? Will your application's content be the actual digital object? What sort of metadata will you need to store about each digital object? What types of content or file formats will you be storing in Fedora? What types of attributes will you need to be able to search on?

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum9 Finding out more CIT IS Contacts: –API and application configuration: Phil Robinson –Service hosting: Jon Atherton –General questions: Steve Lutter Relevant links – Tutorials, history, API explanations, more technical drawings. –forge.cornell.edu/confluence/display/SOASERVICES/Homeforge.cornell.edu/confluence/display/SOASERVICES/Home Localized tech docs for our own installation and service wrappers

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum10 Kuali Enterprise Workflow: Intro Purpose: To route documents from one person to another, for approval, acknowledgement or as an FYI. In essence: –A tool kit to build with: Action List Document search front ends API –Not an expensive vendor workflow package. History: IU, Kuali, Mellon, CU IS, ATA Relation with KFS, KRA, & KualiRICE

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum11 KEW: Local Status Steering Committee: Enable the entire Cornell Community to go to one place to complete their business oriented tasks. Discovery Project by IS and ATA (2006): –Investigations –Installations –Prototypes –Core contributions

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum12 Support, partner w/units Unit tech solutions KEW Product KEW CU Investment KEW environments KEW prototypes Workflow CU Program Local building blocks KEW Pilots; nonintegrated at first Experienced core dev and support team Central, reusable routing patterns and data KEW pilots; more integrated Planning & analysis for WEICFA Design, Implement WEICFA WEICFA = Workflow Enabled, Integrated Cross Functional Apps

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum13 Most recent efforts Delivered Pilot #1: CIT HR System Access request form. Built the Web Service Layer Developed Pilot #2: General Purpose application; ad hoc routing of attached documents; Developed, not released. Identified 2 other pilots. Performed Analysis : Came up with a technical plan for enabling use of institutional routing data, such as Supervisor and Org Data.

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum14 KEW Service Layer KEW Client Application CU’s KEW Service layer Enables clients to use other databases and services, as pilot #2 does with Fedora for document management. Example use: initiate document, route document, approve document… XML Config Files Each Client app has a set of routing rule config files. KEW DB KEW application Tomcat Oracle CF MS Enables clients to be written in languages other than Java.

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum15 Pilot #1; HR Data Access request Link to Pilot #1 form

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum16 Business information drives routing rules Available actions: Approve, disapprove Request status info Support for notes and attachments

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum17 Access to: your Action List find a workflow request New “Workflow” uPortal tab provides access for workflow actors. Currently only seen by participants of pilot #1. Pilot #1; integration with uPortal

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum18 Action List The Action List: things for you to do as an individual or member of a group.

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum19 Route Log Provides detailed information about all completed and/or pending actions taken on requests.

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum20 Local technical decision Don’t use EDocLite any more It was very promising early on an XML representation of the form. Used for early prototypes and Pilot #1, release 1 Deemed too constrained for developers and too problematic to develop and debug. Functionality is now available in the Service Layer for non Java apps

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum21 Pilot #2: General Purpose Document Router KEW General Purpose App KEW Service Layer Client is written in ColdFusion. KEW, the product Fedora Service Layer Fedora, the product Used to hold the attachment. Used for routing the attachment.

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum22 Route to any person or persons affiliated with CU. Select the document to route. It could be anything, but we are targeting CIT expense reports, time away requests and other DAF forms for the pilot. As a KEW client in ColdFusion it can easily take on CU styles and any navigation needs, unlike pilot #1. Initiates the routing, including notifications.

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum23 Near term plans, in approximate order of pursuit. 1.Pilot #1: CIT HR System Access request form. –Release 2 in ColdFusion instead of pure XML. –Release 3 with Functional Enhancements 2.Pilot #4: Student Data access request; similar to the HR access request; Spec, develop, release 3.Pilot #2: Fix up this general purpose document router and release 4.Pilot #3: Clone #2 for some specific CIT document types to ease searching, tweak and release 5.Analysis: test and use limited institutional routing data such as supervisor and org data, if available. 6.Start Workflow SIG: Work with interested campus colleagues on using the API.

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum24 KEW Client App Checklist Routing something to someone or a group? Want to use institutional routing data? Don’t want your users to go to multiple, individual application queues? Want to take advantage of built-in route log, notifications? Using Java or ColdFusion? We are currently equipped to help with these clients.

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum25 Finding out more CIT IS Contacts: –API and application configuration and eventual workflow SIG: Chad Dumont –Service hosting: Jon Atherton –Program questions: Steve Lutter Relevant links –forge.cornell.edu/confluence/display/SOASERVICES/Homeforge.cornell.edu/confluence/display/SOASERVICES/Home More technical drawings concerning the service layer API explanation –SourceForge Workflow program projectSourceForge Workflow program project Program documents –IU’s Confluence spaceIU’s Confluence space Features Release expectations

March 22, 2007CIT IS Forum26 Credits for Fedora and ATA –Aaron Hamid –Aaron Godert IS –Steve Barrett –Chris Brown –Chad Dumont –Jeff Hanavan –Jay Hulslander –Bryan Hutchinson –Butch Labrecque –Rich Marisa –Phil Robinson