On Workflows in Software
I have been evaluating several packages to incorporate into the CFA's Universal Code Base. Some lack enough documentation to be usefully employed (I'm looking at you, ezComponents::Workflow!), while others need to be extracted from larger software projects. This sounds easy, but too many projects have code which depends seemingly randomly on other parts of the package which I don't need nor want (Yup, that's you, TikiWiki).
Since this seemed to be the only workflow engines in wide public use, I decided to go off onto a tangent and see if anyone had implemented a Finite State Machine. Well, guess what, someone did! And, it was housed right under my nose in the official Php repository, PEAR! Its simply called FSM (so imaginative a name, yet so useful).
I took this package for a spin right away since the documentation clearly explained how to use it. The verdict is that it will be fine for simple usage. However, I am also going to tackle the much more complex ezComponents' Workflow for more complex projects like the Admissions Portal.
