Workflow Manager Integration

The Designer API (DAPI) provides a set of tools that allow the development of implementation-specific applications of Designer. Workflow Manager provides seamless integration between the Designer API and your third-party application (e.g., WMS, CIS). This section discusses specifically how Workflow Manager and the Designer API are integrated with your WMS.

When implementing Designer and Workflow Manager, you will need to create Message Processors that allow your third-party tools communicate with Workflow Manager and the Process Framework application. Communication between Workflow Manager and Designer is handled using tools provided by the Designer API. You do not need to implement any of these tools. This communication between Designer and Workflow Manager works out of the box. This section describes the integration between Designer and Workflow Manager only to help you understand how it works. No additional implementation is required.

Integration between the Work Management System (WMS) and Designer is facilitated through the use of XML and the Designer API. The DAPI presents a series of methods to talk to Designer through XML. It allows you to load a design XML into Designer. Once the design XML is loaded, Designer will hydrate all the design objects from the XML. Workflow Manager maintains this integration without the need for customization.

This integration between Designer and Workflow Manager handles the following basic tasks.

Writing design information stored in the WMS into a Designer-compliant XML object or file
Loading the design XML into the Designer environment
Writing the design information back to the WMS from Designer
Version management through the design process
Possible integration, at some level, of the Designer CU Library and the CU definitions in the WMS

This section discusses how Designer uses XML to communicate with Workflow Manager and provides the information contained within the XML.