Abandon Workflow Engine

1 Initial Problem

The Workflow Engine was first scheduled for ILIAS 4.5 (which later became 5.0) and finally introduced in 5.2. Due to the nature of the WFE as a tool that mostly works in invisible for users and aims to connect various other components of the system, the JF demanded some documentation and procedures regarding the WFE. Specifically, the introduction of a service discovery within 2 years was demanded. These requirements were only met partially.

Furthermore, the WFE in its current state does not present itself as a usable tool:

• The testcases in Testrail already fail at the third case.
• Public Workshops promised by the maintainer did not take place.
• The documentation of the WFE mentions additions to the BPMN that are required to make a workflow run in ILIAS but yet are undocumented.

2 Conceptual Summary

We suggest to either remove the WFE completely from the ILIAS core or require the maintainer to present an actionable schedule to address the mentioned shortcomings.

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

{Please list all views (screens) of ILIAS that should be modified, newly introduced or removed.}

3.2 User Interface Details

{For each of these views please list all user interface elements that should be modified, added or removed. Please provide the textual appearance of the UI elements and their interactive behaviour.}

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

{If the proposal introduces any completely new user interface elements, you might consult UI Kitchen Sink in order to find the necessary information to propose new UI-Concepts. Note that any maintainer might gladly assist you with this.}

4 Technical Information

{The maintainer has to provide necessary technical information, e.g. dependencies on other ILIAS components, necessary modifications in general services/architecture, potential security or performance issues.}

5 Contact

• Author of the Request: {Please add your name.}
• Maintainer: {Please add your name before applying for an initial workshop or a Jour Fixe meeting.}
• Implementation of the feature is done by: {The maintainer must add the name of the implementing developer.}

6 Funding

If you are interest in funding this feature, please add your name and institution to this list.

• …

7 Discussion

Klees, Richard [rklees] 2018-04-30: To be very clear: I do not want the WFE to be removed. I want to be able to use the WFE, just like other tools in ILIAS. I've been trying to get the required to documentation for 1 1/2 year now, without success. This is the desperate and now public attempt to get an actually usable docu.

Hübsch, Wolfgang [wolfganghuebsch] 2018-05-03: I agree, too. Without documentation, its useless and maybe some day it will become a burden. 

8 Implementation

{The maintainer has to give a description of the final implementation and add screenshots if possible.}

Test Cases

Test cases completed at {date} by {user}

• {Test case number linked to Testrail} : {test case title}

Approval

Approved at {date} by {user}.