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Releases: sartography/SpiffWorkflow

v3.0.0

01 May 16:39
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Full Changelog: v2.0.1...v3.0.0

What's Changed

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Full Changelog: v2.0.1...v3.0.0

v3.0.0rc2

09 Feb 16:42
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v3.0.0rc2 Pre-release
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Full Changelog: v2.0.1...v3.0.0rc2

v3.0.0.0rc1

09 Feb 16:37
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Full Changelog: v2.0.1...v3.0.0rc1

v3.0.0rc0

09 Feb 14:47
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In this release of SpiffWorkflow

  • Task iteration has been refactored to make it easier and more efficient
  • Conditional Event suppor has beent added to the BPMN module
  • New 'spiffworkflow` BPMN extensions: payloads on Signal, Error, and Escalation Events
  • Various bugfixes.

What's Changed

New Contributors

Full Changelog: v2.0.0rc0...v3.0.0rc0

v2.0.1

16 Jun 19:39
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A quick update to the Readme file. Please see the v2.0.0 release notes for the full details on this latest code base.

v2.0.0

16 Jun 19:23
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What's Changed

We've done a lot of work over the last 8 months to the SpiffWorkflow library as we've developed SpiffArena, a general purpose workflow management system built on top of this library.
This has resulted in a handful of new features.
Our main focus was on making SpiffWorkflow more predictable, easier to use, and internally consistent.

Breaking Changes from 1.x:

  • We heavily refactored the way we handle multi-instance tasks internally. This will break any serialized workflows that contain multi-instance tasks.
  • Internal structure of our code, the names of some classes, and common methods have changed. Please see our [ReadTheDocs] (https://readthedocs.org/projects/spiffworkflow/) documenation for version 2.0.0.

Features and Improvements

Task States, Transitions, Hooks, and Execution

Previous to 2.0, SpiffWorklow was a little weird about its states, performing the actual execution in the on_complete() hook.
This was VERY confusing.
Tasks now have a _run() command separate from state change hooks.
The return value of the _run() command can be true (worked), false (failure), or None (not yet done).
This opens the door for better overall state management at the moment it is most critical (when the task is actually executing).
We also added new task state called "STARTED" that describes when a task was started, but hasn't finished yet, an oddly missing state in previous versions.

Improved Events

We refactored the way we handle events, making them more powerful and adaptable.
Timer events are now parsed according to the ISO 8601 standard.

Improved Multi-Instance Tasks

We refactored how Multi-instance tasks are handled internally, vastly simplifying their representation during execution and serialization.
No more 'phantom gateways.'

Improved SubProcesses

SpiffWorkflow did not previously distinguish between a Call Activity and a SubProcess, but they handle Data Objects very differently.
A SubProcess is now able to access its parent data objects, a Call Activity can not.
We also wanted the ability to execute Call Activities independently of the parent process.

  • Bugfix/subprocess access to data objects by @essweine in #296
  • start workflow while subprocess is waiting by @essweine in #302
  • use same data objects & references in subprocesses after deserialization by @essweine in #314

Improved Data Objects / Data Stores

This work will continue in subsequent releases, but we have added support for Data Stores, and it is possible to provide your own implementations.

Improved Inclusive Gateways

We added support for Inclusive Gateways.

Pre and Post Script Fixes

We previously supported adding a pre-script or post-script to any task but there were a few lingering bugs that needed fixing.

DMN Improvements

We now support a new hit policy of "COLLECT" which allows you to match on an array of items. DMN support is still limited, but
we are making headway. We would love to know if people are using these features.

BPMN Validation

We improved validation of BPMN and DMN Files to catch errors earlier.

New Serializer

There are some breaking changes in the new serializer, but it is much faster and more stable. We do attempt to upgrade
your serialized workflows to the new format, but you will definitely encounter issues if you were using multi-instance tasks.

Lightning Fast, Stable Tests

Better Errors

  • Feature/better errors by @danfunk in #283
  • Workflow Data Exceptions were broken in the previous error refactor. … by @danfunk in #287
  • added an exception for task not found w/ @burnettk by @jasquat in #310
  • give us a better error if for some reason a task does not exist by @burnettk in #311

Flexible Data Management

  • Allow for other PythonScriptEngine environments besides task data by @jbirddog in #288

Various Enhancements

Make it easier to reference SpiffWorkflow library classes from your own code.

Better Introspection

Added the ability to ask SpiffWorkflow some useful questions about a specification such as, "What call activities does this depend on?",
"What messages does this process send and receive", and "What lanes exist on this workflow specification?"

  • Parser Information about messages, correlation keys, and the presence of lanes by @danfunk in #262
  • Called elements by @jbirddog in #316

Code Cleanup

Improved Documentation

Bug Fixes

Read more

Version 2.0.0 - Release Candidate

26 May 14:04
03316ba
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What's Changed

We've done a lot of work over the last 8 months to the SpiffWorkflow library as we've developed SpiffArena, a general purpose workflow management system built on top of this library.
This has resulted in just a handful of new features.
Our main focus was on making SpiffWorkflow more predictable, easier to use, and internally consistent.

Breaking Changes from 1.x:

  • We heavily refactored the way we handle multi-instance tasks internally. This will break any serialized workflows that contain multi-instance tasks.
  • Internal structure of our code, the names classes, and common methods have changed. Please see our [ReadTheDocs] (https://readthedocs.org/projects/spiffworkflow/) documenation for version 2.0.0.

Features and Improvements

Task States, Transitions, Hooks, and Execution

Previous to 2.0, SpiffWorklow was a little weird about its states, performing the actual execution in the on_complete() hook.
This was VERY confusing.
Tasks now have a _run() command separate from state change hooks.
The return value of the _run() command can be true (worked), false (failure), or None (not yet done).
This opens the door for better overall state management at the moment it is most critical (when the task is actually executing).
We also added new task state called "STARTED" that describes when a task was started, but hasn't finished yet, an oddly missing state in previous versions.

Improved Events

We refactored the way we handle events, making them more powerful and adaptable.
Timer events are now parsed according to the ISO 8601 standard.

Improved Multi-Instance Tasks

We refactored how Multi-instance tasks are handled internally, vastly simplifying their representation during execution and serialization.
No more 'phantom gateways.'

Improved SubProcesses

SpiffWorkflow did not previously distinguish between a Call Activity and a SubProcess, but they handle Data Objects very differently.
A SubProcess is now able to access its parent data objects, a Call Activity can not.
We also wanted the ability to execute Call Activities independently of the parent process.

  • Bugfix/subprocess access to data objects by @essweine in #296
  • start workflow while subprocess is waiting by @essweine in #302
  • use same data objects & references in subprocesses after deserialization by @essweine in #314

Improved Data Objects / Data Stores

This work will continue in subsequent releases, but we have added support for Data Stores, and it is possible to provide your own implementations.

Improved Inclusive Gateways

We added support for Inclusive Gateways.

Pre and Post Script Fixes

We previously supported adding a pre-script or post-script to any task but there were a few lingering bugs that needed fixing.

DMN Improvements

We now support a new hit policy of "COLLECT" which allows you to match on an array of items. DMN support is still limited, but
we are making headway. We would love to know if people are using these features.

BPMN Validation

We improved validation of BPMN and DMN Files to catch errors earlier.

New Serializer

There are some breaking changes in the new serializer, but it is much faster and more stable. We do attempt to upgrade
your serialized workflows to the new format, but you will definitely encounter issues if you were using multi-instance tasks.

Lightning Fast, Stable Tests

Better Errors

  • Feature/better errors by @danfunk in #283
  • Workflow Data Exceptions were broken in the previous error refactor. … by @danfunk in #287
  • added an exception for task not found w/ @burnettk by @jasquat in #310
  • give us a better error if for some reason a task does not exist by @burnettk in #311

Flexible Data Management

  • Allow for other PythonScriptEngine environments besides task data by @jbirddog in #288

Various Enhancements

Make it easier to reference SpiffWorkflow library classes from your own code.

Better Introspection

Added the ability to ask SpiffWorkflow some useful questions about a specification such as, "What call activities does this depend on?",
"What messages does this process send and receive", and "What lanes exist on this workflow specification?"

  • Parser Information about messages, correlation keys, and the presence of lanes by @danfunk in #262
  • Called elements by @jbirddog in #316

Code Cleanup

Improved Documentation

Bug Fixes

Read more

1.2.1

19 Oct 14:18
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What's Changed

  • do not install importlib-metadata if greater than python 3.7 w/ burnettk by @jasquat in #253

New Contributors

Full Changelog: v1.2.0...v1.2.1

V1.2.0

14 Oct 18:23
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Data Objects, Messages and Services

Note: there are some minor breaking changes in this release, please see "Minor Breaking Changes and their Fixes" below for how to fix them.

This Version of SpiffWorkflow adds support for Data Objects, Messages, and Service Tasks. These are powerful new tools for managing workflows as they grow in complexity. Details below.

This is also our first step towards a larger ecosystem. One that includes a customized Diagram Editor that is still under development, but available on GitHub and perfectly serviceable. You will need the editor to take full advantage of the new features mentioned above. A new project, code named SpiffArena is also under heavy development. SpiffArena will connect this SpiffWorkflow library to the new BPMN Editor and provide a complete Workflow Engine with a backend and frontend that can be configured to manage and execute a collection of your own BPMN diagrams. Keep an eye out for an initial release before the end of the year.

In addition to major new features, we've improved some existing core features. The Python Expression Engine is now easier to extend and modify for custom deployments, and SubProcesses have a far stronger and more consistent internal representation and are easier to control. We've also added the ability to unit test your script tasks - to make it much easier to write small python scripts to re-structure your data.

Finally, we undertook hours of effort to clean up the code base, so that imports are consistent, circular dependencies are removed, and code smells are eliminated. It is by no means perfect, but we are arcing in the right direction.

Major Changes

Data Objects, Inputs and Outputs

We now support Data Objects, providing powerful tools for controlling the scope and access of variables within a workflow.
For an overview of how Data Objects work, please check out our article "Understanding BPMN Data Objects". Detailed information is also available in our ReadTheDocs page.

  • explicitly add data associations on serializing MI tasks by @danfunk in PR
  • add messages to data object exceptions by @essweine in PR

Messages

Communication between running workflow instances is a powerful tool as workflows become more complex. For a detailed overview of this topic, please check out our article "Understanding BPMN Messages"

Service Tasks

Service Tasks are now supported, and offer an easy way for BPMN Developers to make calls to external APIs. Examples for
working with this critical new tool will be documented in our ReadTheDocs page.

  • First pass of ServiceTask handling by @jbirddog in PR
  • Service task connector delegate by @jbirddog in PR
  • Store service task response in task data by @jbirddog in PR
  • get description aka name when parsing service tasks by @burnettk in PR
  • Follow up on service task bug fix, quote string literals by @jbirddog in PR
  • Pass task data to service task delegate by @jbirddog in PR

Custom BPMN Editor Support

Still in heavy development is a custom BPMN Editor, which you can find on GitHub
This new editor provides the tools that will make creating valid Service Tasks, Data Objects, and Messages possible.
Many thanks to the BPMN.js community for this highly extensible diagramming library!

  • Support for Spiff pre/postscript extensions by @essweine in PR
    z* parses out spiffworklow:property tags in bpmn extensions and makes th… by @danfunk in PR

Improved Script Engine

A Script Engine that is overall easier to understand and extend.

  • Feature/improved script engine by @essweine in PR
  • make globals an argument in the script engine by @essweine in PR

Script Task Unit Testing

Added the ability to create, store, and execute assertions against Script Tasks. Allows you to define a Json data
structure as input, and an expected Json data structure as output. So you can assert your script is producing exactly
the right data.

  • Script Task Unit Test Extensions (Attempt #2) by @danfunk in PR

New spec_type attribute

Given the ability to overload classes, and mix-in properties, it could be difficult to look at a Task Spec's class
to determine if it was a User Task or Script Task, etc... All Task Specs now have a spec_type attribute, containing a descriptive string of the type, expect to see "User Task", "Script Task", "Start Event" etc...

  • add spec type property to task specs with BPMN names by @essweine in PR

Improved Subprocess Handling

  • Allows recursive calls to subprocesses, and improves serialization and execution by @essweine in PR
  • add bpmn spec mixin functionality to subworkflow tasks by @essweine in PR
  • handle all data copying in bpmn subworkflow task by @essweine in PR

Vastly Faster Tests!

  • Profile and improve run time of the test suite by @jbirddog in PR
  • Improve test suite run time, part 2 by @jbirddog in PR
  • ParallelTest.py split by @jbirddog in PR
  • Up some sleep times in tests for CI stability by @jbirddog in PR

Bug Fixes

  • fix loop reset task to handle multiple subprocess properly by @essweine in PR
  • Bugfix/separate subprocess dict for serializer by @danfunk in PR
  • Update make tests to run tests per the README, remove unused test runners by @jbirddog in PR
  • Bug/service task variable by @jbirddog in PR
  • Fix for failures with Python 3.7 by @jbirddog in PR

Code Cleanup and Documentation Changes

  • Support custom JSON encoder/decoder in BpmnWorkflowSerializer by @soby in PR
  • Add Python 3.10 to CI by @jbirddog in PR
  • list dependencies by @danfunk in PR
  • Feature/centralized logging by @essweine in PR
  • [FIX] Use self.spec_class instead of direct use of base object by @Giulios74 in PR
  • add more documentation about serializer migration by @essweine in PR
  • docs: Fix a few typos by @timgates42 in PR
  • Fix a few docstring typos in the tests by @jbirddog in PR
  • Remove unused imports by @jbirddog in PR
  • Reorganized parser PR
  • fix for a serialization bug by @danfunk in PR
  • fix serialization bug by @essweine in PR
  • Don't use bpmn exception from core spec by @jbirddog in PR
  • added task name to the spiff logs by @burnettk in PR
  • Remove navigation.py, tests and related bpmn files by @jbirddog in PR
  • Remove bpmn imports from task.py by @jbirddog in PR
  • Remove bpmn references from dict.py and json.py by @jbirddog in PR
  • Remove some lingering bpmn imports by @jbirddog in PR
  • Empty SpiffWorkflow/init.py by @jbirddog in PR
  • Various fixes as I attempted to get our CR-Connect application working against the lastest SpiffWorkflow build by @danfunk in PR

Minor Breaking Changes and their Fixes

This Minor Release includes a few minor breaking changes that should be easy
to correct. Please apply these fixes as appropriate

  1. Top Level Imp...
Read more

Updated Serializer

20 May 12:20
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What's Changed

This push covers a major overhaul of our JSON serializer, which previously depended on using pickle making the json difficult to read and parse outside of Spiff and creating some potential security concerns.

IMPORTANT: If you have existing workflows stored as JSON you will need to migrate them to the new version, you can do this on the fly by following the Migration Instructions

New Contributors

Full Changelog: v1.1.6...v1.1.7