Embedding a web-based workflow management system in a functional language

Authors:
Jan Martin Jansen;Rinus Plasmeijer;Pieter Koopman;Peter Achten
Affiliations:
Netherlands Defence Academy, Den Helder, the Netherlands;Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands;Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands;Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Venue:
Proceedings of the Tenth Workshop on Language Descriptions, Tools and Applications
Year:
2010

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Abstract

Workflow management systems guide and monitor tasks performed by humans and computers. The workflow specifications are usually expressed in special purpose (graphical) formalisms. These formalisms impose severe restrictions on what can be expressed. Modern workflow management systems should handle intricate data dependencies, offer a web-based interface, and should adapt to dynamically changing situations, all based on a sound formalism. To address these challenges, we have developed the iTask system, which is a novel workflow management system. We entirely embed the iTask specification language in a modern general purpose functional language, and generate a complete workflow application. In this paper we report our experiences in developing the iTask system. It not only inherits state-of-the-art programming language concepts such as generic programming and a hybrid static/dynamic type system from the host language Clean, but also offers a number of novel concepts to generate complex, real-world, multi-user, web based workflow applications.