工作流和用户过程

Workflows are used to define the behaviour of a given document. They are used by developers and system implementers to determine which object should execute which actions and at which moments. These are principally technical processes defined in a vertical way on the lifecycle of a complete object (represented by a document). Changing a workflow will have a direct impact on the behaviour of the software in response to user actions. You handle all possible exceptions there, so that the software is robust.

一个处理客户订单的流程例子

Unlike workflows, user processes represent workflows across all of a company and its documents. They are used by end-users to locate an action for more complete handling. A change of user process will not have any effect on the software but will show the user another way of working on a given problem.

一个处理客户订单的流程的例子

Processes are used by end-users to help them understand the problems which have not been handled in OpenERP. You can find actions that have no influence on the software, such as “Telephone customer to thank him”, and “Send a fax to reassure them”. As well as providing user help, processes provide functions such as:

• 随着OpenERP的帮助和公司的质量手册的整合，

• 指示用户寻找特定的文件菜单。

工作流和用户流之间的关系

User processes are thus connected to technical workflows. If you modify the software’s behaviour with a workflow, the changes will be directly visible in the user processes that are based on the modified document. So if you modify certain transitions on a workflow they will automatically be shown in the process corresponding to the modified document.

To get maximum benefit from the power of user processes and the workflow engine, OpenERP provides an integrated workflow editor and user process editor. These enable you to modify them through the client interface.

You will only work with the process editor in this chapter. If you want to view and edit the workflow of a document, click on the link Edit Workflow to the right of the document. OpenERP opens a graphical view of the workflow for the selected document type.

If you want to edit a workflow in a text-based editor, you can use the menus under Administration ‣ Customization ‣ Workflows.

有效使用流程

Regardless of which OpenERP screen you are in you can call up a process on the current document by clicking the Corporate Intelligence (question mark) icon. Depending on the document, you can have several processes defined using it. OpenERP then asks you to choose which one of them you want.

For example, if you are in a meeting form, OpenERP will ask you to choose from the processes it knows about that involve such forms:

• 方法选择和新员工入职指引，

• 售前跟踪客户订单，

• processes for visiting customers and handling expenses.

Button for entering a user process from a form

The element colored red shows the active process for the selected document. Elements in grey are the states that the selected document will not go through because of its configuration. You can use the different icons to open the document, print it, or get its documentation.

Some states have an image inside of arrows formed into a circle. These show that the state refers to another process. To go to this other process, you can click on the title of the state. For example, you can click on the invoice in the customer order management workflow to see in detail how that invoice is handled.

指向另一个工作流的状态

定义自己的用户流程

Use the menus under Administration ‣ Customization ‣ Enterprise Process to define new processes or modify existing processes. When entering a process, OpenERP shows you the list of states available for that process.

Form for defining a process

You can add a new state or modify an existing state. A state can be associated with an object (whose instances are represented by documents). If that is the case, choose it in the case object. You can set an expression that shows if the object can be found in that state or not. Expressions are in Python format. For example, for the quotation state choose the object sale.order and set the following expression object.state == ‘draft’ .

You can also link to a menu so that users can learn which menu to use to access objects in a state. You can set the conditions in which this object is in a greyed-out state in the section Conditions. These expressions, too, are encoded in Python format.

Once the node has been defined, you should set the transitions leaving this object. For each transition you can:

• Give the leaving and destination states,

• Set up a list of buttons that start various transitions in the process,

• Map between workflow transitions and the document that is selected,

• Put an explanatory notice in different languages.

Screen for defining a process transition