WORKFLOW

Components:

Oracle Workflow is a series of tools designed to facilitate the creation and management of business process models. Oracle Workflow is comprised of:

• Workflow engine – implements the workflow process definitions at runtime monitoring the states and coordinating the routing of process activities
• The workflow engine is a database package containing procedures run on a schedule. The workflow engine recognizes activities meeting specific criteria and only operates on those activities.
• Through the use of standard APIs, background engines can be scheduled to target activities meeting other specified criteria, such as deferred and stuck status activities.
• Business Event System – utilizes Oracle Advanced Queuing infrastructure to communicate information between systems.Employs agents watching for subscriptions to user-defined events.Event information propagated across systems via queues using specified payload (defined data structure).
• Workflow Monitor – allows monitoring and administration of defined workflows via standard web browser capable of supporting Java
• Workflow Builder - graphical tool that facilitates the modeling of business processes with simple drag-and-drop operations

Oracle Workflow Builder:

Oracle Workflow Builder displays a navigator window with a hierarchy tree containing the following tree nodes:

Item Type – classification of the components that comprise the workflow process definition
Attributes – property associated with a given item type that acts as a global variable that can be referenced or updated by any activity within a process or externally through the use of standard APIs
Processes – a collection of activities in a specific relationship
Notifications – allow for definition of how a message will be used within the process model as an activity.
Functions – defined by the PL/SQL or external program it calls, usually performing fully automated process steps

Events – a business event from the Business Event System
Messages – defines the information conveyed in a notification
Lookup Types –a static list of values that can be used by messages and activity attributes