Step 6: Execute Workflows
This part of the tutorial steps you through the process of executing the two workflows created in Step 3 of this tutorial. Workflows can be activated, currently, in one of two ways. A user can activate workflows using the workflow monitor or a software program, such as a Web submission form, can activate a workflow using the Metis API. We shall activate our workflow in this tutorial using the Web submission form created in Step 5 of this tutorial.
1. After creating and installing the Web submission form in Step 5 of this tutorial, activate Tomcat and load your new Web form. The form is accessible at a URL similar to:
http://localhost:8080/examDL/index.html
2. Fill in the form with reasonable values. The URL listed in the URL of Submission field will be downloaded into the directory specified by the downloadURL action of the admin-workflow. This directory needs to be writeable by your Tomcat server in order for this action to work. Below, we show one way in which the form can be completed (although the selection of "Physics" as the paper's topic area is somewhat questionable!).
3. Click the Submit Paper button. If all goes well, a confirmation form will be displayed, and Metis activates the admin-workflow and the review-workflow in the background. Note: if the admin role is bound to your user, then you should receive an e-mail message that shows the values of the submissionReceived event that was published when you clicked the Submit Paper button. The values of the submissionReceived event should match the values you entered into the Web submission form.
4. Go to the home page of your Metis installation and click on the Workflow Monitor. You will see that there are two active workflows: one instance of the admin-workflow and one instance of the review-workflow.
5. Select the admin-workflow listed under Active Workflows and click the View Status button. The workflow monitor display's the workflow (see below). The green circle next to the submissionReceived event indicates that this event has been received. The red circle next to the submissionProcessed event indicates that Metis is waiting for this event to be published.
6. Click on the submissionReceived event to see the values that Metis stored for this event.
7. Click on the submissionProcessed event to see a form that allows the admin to enter values for this event and publish it. The admin would use this form after he or she had looked at the submission and determined that it was eligible for review. (Ineligible submissions are currently out-of-scope for this review process. It would be straightforward to extend both workflows to handle such submissions.
8. Within the context of a real digital library, the admin would place the submission at a URL that can be used to internally review it. For the purposes of this tutorial, you can enter any URL into the URL field of the submissionProcessed event. For the id field, enter the value that was provided by the Web submission form in the submissionReceived event. If this is the first time you used the submission form, the id should be 0. Enter values for both fields and click on the Publish button.
9. After the event has been published, the workflow monitor may show the status of the workflow before the event has been processed. If this is case, click on your browser's "reload" button until the status display is replaced by the workflow monitor's "home page". The status display goes away because the submissionProcessed event is the last event in the admin-workflow and hence this workflow is no longer active. The review-workflow is still active, however.
10. Select review-workflow listed under Active Workflows and click the View Status button.
11. Click on the actionEditorAssigned event, enter values for its associated fields, and click on the Publish button. At this step of the process, the editors of subcommitteeA (the subcommittee assigned to handle physics submissions) discuss the paper among themselves and then select one of the committee members to handle the review of the submission. As such, enter the name and e-mail address of one of the members of subcommitteeA into the fields of this event. Be sure to enter the correct value for the id field.
12. Refresh the status display until the reviewAssigned event becomes active. At this stage, the action editor will find a reviewer for the paper. Once selected, the action editor enters the reviewer's name and e-mail address into the system. Enter a name and e-mail address into the form, fill in the correct value for the id field, and click the Publish button. Note: The URL field should point to the URL sent by the admin in the submissionProcessed event. Also, be aware that Metis will create a new Metis user in its registry, if you enter a name and e-mail address that it has not encountered before.
13. The deadlineAssigned and reviewComplete events are now active. Select the deadlineAssigned event, which is used by the action editor to assign the reviewer a deadline by which his/her review must be complete.
14. Enter a value for the deadline field, that is two minutes away from your current time. The value should be in the format "yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss zzz". Examples of valid strings include "2003/02/23 11:20:00 MST" for 11:20 AM and "2003/02/23 23:20:00 MST" for 11:20 PM on February 23, 2003. Once the deadline has passed, Metis will automatically publish the deadlinePassed event, which causes an e-mail to be sent to the action editor to remind him/her that the deadline has passed and the reviewer should be asked for the review. (Wait two minutes, then keep refreshing the status display until the deadlinePassed event has been received.) In a "real world" process, we could set a new deadline for our reviewer. For now, we move on.
15. Select the reviewComplete event and enter values for its fields. The status field should be one of "accept", "reject", or "revise & resubmit". The url field should point to the URL of the review. Note, this review is published by the reviewer, when he or she has finished their review. This event causes an e-mail message to be sent to the action editor, informing him that the review is done.
16. Once the reviewComplete event has been processed, the "author notified" events become active. Select one and enter the URL for the submission's review into the url field. Make sure the correct value for the id field is entered. Then click the Publish button to generate a formatted e-mail message to the author notifying him or her of the review result.
The review process is now complete, and so is this tutorial!