wftk core: action handler adaptor

An action uniquely describes something which the system is supposed to do. An action may be performed immediately, or the permissions configuration for the action may indicate that an approval process is required, in which case the action is deferred. Once the process completes, the action is actually performed. Checking of permissions is not required of the action handler, however; the action handler just has to take the action. Think of an action handler as an API encapsulation.

These are the functions exposed by an action handler adaptor:

Function Parameters Purpose

0: init Initialize adaptor instance

1: free Clean up instance before shutting down

2: info Return XML describing the adaptor

3: do Action Performs the action

Individual adaptor class handlers may implement additional functions, which will then presumably be available to scripting engines or something.

Implementations:

ACTION_wftk does things wftk-related by calling the library.
ACTION_system: calls the shell to execute things.
(TO DO) ACTION_perl, e.g.: calls a scripting language to do things. This will be most powerful when wftk is embedded within that scripting language, of course. Targets: Perl, Python, Tcl, Java.

This code and documentation are released under the terms of the GNU license. They are additionally copyright (c) 2000, Vivtek. All rights reserved except those explicitly granted under the terms of the GNU license. This presentation was prepared with LPML. Try literate programming. You'll like it.

Function	Parameters	Purpose
0: init		Initialize adaptor instance
1: free		Clean up instance before shutting down
2: info		Return XML describing the adaptor
3: do	Action	Performs the action