Workflows and triggers
A workflow does something in the background, without a user, or asks a user to do something, such as approving an object before it is published. The system gives the building blocks for business procedures; you assemble them in the administration, and a developer can add event types of their own in PHP.
Triggers
A trigger starts the chain: it is a point in a kernel operation, "before publish", "after publish", and some shop steps (such as checkout). For each trigger you choose the workflow to run. The list is in Setup > Triggers (the Advanced part in the book's menu).
The book points out that a trigger holds one workflow, but workflows can be parallel. The multiplexer event is a hub: it starts other workflows by the content class and the section, and has an exclude list of users and groups. Sections once more.
Events
A workflow is a list of events. The event types the book names were four (multiplexer, approve, wait until date,
and another). The installation's list now is in settings/workflow.ini (AvailableEventTypes[]) and holds:
| Event type | What it does |
|---|---|
Approve (event_ezapprove) | Holds the object until a user approves it, with notification to the approvers. |
Wait until date (event_ezwaituntildate) | Holds the object until a date attribute is reached. |
Multiplexer (event_ezmultiplexer) | Runs a chosen workflow by class, section and user. |
| Simple shipping, Payment gateway | Shop checkout steps. |
Finish user register (event_ezfinishuserregister) | Completes the registration of a user. |
Extensions add more (look in the list in the workflow editor).
Cronjob and processes
A workflow that waits is a process; the cronjob that handles workflows picks it up when the waited-for thing happens. If the cron is not running, the object stays pending. That is why the book puts the cron job in chapter 1 (Installing, then and now). Pending objects show on the pending items page.
Where to do it
Workflows: approvals, triggers and the processes that wait is the worked example (create the workflow, set up the Approve event, connect the trigger, make sure the cronjob runs, try it). Workflows for builders is the short version.
Next: more functions of the administration.
Source and license
Adapted from chapter 2, "Content Management with eZ publish", of Learning eZ publish: Building Content Management Solutions by Paul Borgermans, Tony Wood, Paul Forsyth, Martin Bauer, Björn Dieding and Ben Pirt (additional material by Bruce Morrison), second edition, 2024, Book-Learning-eZPublish. Copyright (c) 2004-2024 7x and Graham Brookins. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, version 1.3 or any later version, with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts (the license). Changes: rearranged and shortened; settings, labels, datatypes, tags and URLs checked against Exponential 6 and corrected; links to the current guides added.