Introduction

Recently, I studied how to setup a work flow program using python django. Believe me, Python Diango can provide you a high quality work flow web application. Let’s say I would like a simple workflow application as below diagram. I will show you how to setup the application as below instruction, and I will also show you the screen dump examples of running the application.

Step 1. Prerequisition

This Work Flow Program requires Python 3.3 or greater, and django 1.6 or 1.7. I recommend you to setup under virtual environment. Setup the following python plug-in by running the following command:

$ pip3 install Django==1.7.1
$ pip3 install WebOb==1.4
$ pip3 install WebTest==2.0.16
$ pip3 install amqp==1.4.6
$ pip3 install anyjson==0.3.3
$ pip3 install beautifulsoup4==4.3.2
$ pip3 install billiard==3.3.0.18
$ pip3 install celery==3.1.16
$ pip3 install django-fsm==2.2.0
$ pip3 install django-viewflow==0.7.0
$ pip3 install django-webtest==1.7.7
$ pip3 install kombu==3.0.23
$ pip3 install mock==1.0.1
$ pip3 install pytz==2014.9
$ pip3 install singledispatch==3.4.0.3
$ pip3 install six==1.8.0
$ pip3 install waitress==0.8.9

Step 2. Create a standard django project and application

Run the following command:

$ django-admin.py startproject demo .

$ ./manage.py startapp helloworld

$ mv helloworld/ demo/

Step 3. Edit or Create the following files

3.1 edit demo/settings.py

…

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    ‘django.contrib.admin’,
    ‘django.contrib.auth’,
    ‘django.contrib.contenttypes’,
    ‘django.contrib.sessions’,
    ‘django.contrib.messages’,
    ‘django.contrib.staticfiles’,
    ‘viewflow’,
    ‘demo.helloworld’
)

…

TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = (
    ‘django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth’,
    ‘django.core.context_processors.request’,
)

3.2 edit demo/urls.py

from django.conf.urls import patterns, include, url
from django.contrib import admin
from viewflow import views as viewflow
from .helloworld.flows import HelloWorldFlow

urlpatterns = patterns(
    ”,
    url(r’^helloworld/’,
        include([
            HelloWorldFlow.instance.urls,
            url(‘^$’, viewflow.ProcessListView.as_view(), name=’index’),
            url(‘^tasks/$’, viewflow.TaskListView.as_view(), name=’tasks’),
            url(‘^queue/$’, viewflow.QueueListView.as_view(), name=’queue’),
            url(‘^details/(?P<process_pk>d+)/$’,
                viewflow.ProcessDetailView.as_view(), name=’details’)],
                namespace=HelloWorldFlow.instance.namespace),
            {‘flow_cls’: HelloWorldFlow}),
    #url(r’^flows/’, include(viewflow.urls)),
    url(r’^admin/’, include(admin.site.urls)),
    url(r’^accounts/login/$’, ‘django.contrib.auth.views.login’, name=’login’),
    url(r’^accounts/logout/$’, ‘django.contrib.auth.views.logout’, name=’logout’),
)

3.3 create demo/celery.py

import os
from celery import Celery

from django.conf import settings

os.environ.setdefault(‘DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE’, ‘demo.settings’)

app = Celery(‘tests’)

app.config_from_object(‘django.conf:settings’)
app.autodiscover_tasks(lambda: settings.INSTALLED_APPS)

3.4 create demo/helloworld/flows.py

from viewflow import flow
from viewflow.base import Flow, this
from viewflow.contrib import celery

from . import models, views, tasks

class HelloWorldFlow(Flow):
    process_cls = models.HelloWorldProcess

    start = flow.Start(views.CreateRequestView)
        .Next(this.approve)

    approve = flow.View(views.ApproveRequestView)
        .Next(this.is_approved)

    is_approved = flow.If(lambda p: p.approved)
        .OnTrue(this.send)
        .OnFalse(this.end)

    send = celery.Job(tasks.send)
        .Next(this.end)

    end = flow.End()

3.5 edit demo/helloworld/models.py

from django.db import models
from viewflow.models import Process

class HelloWorldProcess(Process):
    text = models.CharField(max_length=250)
    approved = models.BooleanField(default=False)

3.6 edit demo/helloworld/tasks.py

from demo.celery import app as celery_app
from viewflow.flow import flow_job

@celery_app.task()
@flow_job()
def send(activation):
    print(activation.process.text)

3.7 edit demo/helloworld/views.py

from django.views import generic
from viewflow import views as flow_views

class CreateRequestView(flow_views.StartViewMixin,
                        generic.UpdateView):
    fields = [“text”]

    def get_object(self):
        return self.activation.process

class ApproveRequestView(flow_views.TaskViewMixin,
                         generic.UpdateView):
    fields = [“approved”]

    def get_object(self):
        return self.activation.process

Step 4. Start the Application Server

Run the following Command:

./manage.py createsuperuser –username=admin –email=admin@admin.com
( setup admin password )

./manage.py makemigrations

./manage.py migrate

Start the following celery in another virtual env

celery -A demo worker -l info

Start the application server:

./manage.py runserver

Step 4. Run the Application from browser

Admin Logon

http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/

WorkFlow Application Logon

http://127.0.0.1:8000/helloworld/

Step 5. Screen Dump Example of running the WorkFlow Application

Reference Document Link:

http://viewflow.io/

http://docs.viewflow.io/material_admin.html

https://pypi.python.org/pypi/django-viewflow