That's a cool presentation. And the module looks great... except, why do I have to program Perl inside an XML file? This makes my skin crawl: 

<workflow>
     <type>myworkflow</type>
     <state name="INITIAL">
         <action name="upload file" resulting_state="uploaded" />
     </state>
     <state name="uploaded" autorun="yes">
         <action name="verify file" resulting_state="annotate">
              <!-- everyone other than 'CWINTERS' must verify -->
              <condition test="$context->{user} ne 'CWINTERS'" />
         </action>
         ...

[download]

I'd be much happier with: 

   my $workflow = Workflow::Generator->new(type => "myworkflow");
   $state = $workflow->add_state(name => "INITIAL");
   $state->add_action(name => "upload file", resulting_state => "uploa
+ded");
   $state = $workflow->add_state(name => "uploaded", autorun => "yes")
+;
   $state->add_action(name => "verify_file", resulting_state => "annot
+ate");
   $condition = $state->add_condition(test => \&check_file);

[download]

It's more conscise and all the power of Perl is available for making repetitive structures from common data. If I ever decided to use Workflow I think Workflow::Generator would be my first project.

-sam

In reply to Re^2: Are state machines just for parsing? by samtregar
in thread Are state machines just for parsing? by samtregar

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