Help using Workflow's states with Rules

Is workflow-current-state-name a cck field? If so you can use the 'Field has value' condition.

Yes, I know it's a token - but who creates this token? Is this a cck-field?

@mrtm3050: Please help us fill in the gaps so we know how Rules and Workflow can work together.

Since Rules documentation doesn't explicitly say, "Use CCK fields as workflow states," it makes sense that people will install both.

Workflow now has integration with two new modules, that require testing with Rules: Revisioning and Module Grants. Could someone please post their experiences with these modules here?

Check this out: http://drupal.org/node/156317

I think for supporting revisions revision moderation is a good choice. In 5.x there was already workflow-ng integration that needs to be ported to rules. Also there is http://drupal.org/node/376468.

@workflow:
I think we should also support workflow module with rules, there was workflow-ng support in 5.x.

The "cck way" currently misses a way to log changes, as there is no rules logging module yet.

I'm using workflow and rules together (6.x) and with the patch here: http://drupal.org/node/327144 they work well together using the Textual Comparison and the Tokens for workflow state. HOWEVER at this moment there is no way to have a condition that is along the lines of "If workflow has changed" - this presents a fundamental problem which I'm trying to deal with at the moment but my lack of php knowledge doesn't help.

To give an example:

We have a "member" content type which has the workflow: (Creation)/Check/New Application/Approved/Declined. A simple rule set up does a textual comparison to see if state was previously "New Application" and current state is "Approved" then an e-mail is sent to the user. This works when the state is changed from New Application -> Approved and the e-mail is sent. The problem is that if you then edit the member (for example change a field) when you click on save, then it still sends the e-mail notification. Now I understand that logically this makes sense, but it would be perfect to have a "If workflow has changed" condition - that I presume would act just like the "If field has changed" condition. This would result in perfect integration with the modules (as far as I can see).

Unfortunately, I don't have the skills to code this. But if anyone else does I'd be prepared to pay a bounty of $100 if achieved within a day or two... because I'm desperate for this!! :)

Thanks,

Adam

I would appreciate it if someone would tell me how to get the "Send a Tokenized Mail" option. I have Rules 6.x-1.0-beta5, Token 6.x-1.11, and Workflow 6.x-1.1 installed. I have disabled Token actions (per the FAQ at http://groups.drupal.org/node/10270/faq#missing-token-module).

When I attempt to add an action to a rule, the only options pertaining to email that I see are:
- Send a mail to a user
- Send a mail to all users of a role
- Send a mail to an arbitrary mail address

I've tried using the Send a mail to a user option with token placeholders listed in the email, but the email comes back to me exactly as written without replacing the tokens with their respective values. For example:
Node:
[nid]
[type]
[type-name]
[title]
[author-uid]
[author-name]
[author-mail]
[node:workflow-old-state-name]
[node:workflow-current-state-name]

The reason I'm trying to do this is to figure out what the values are for [node:workflow-old-state-name] and [node:workflow-current-state-name], because when I try to do a Rules check on a Textual comparison of [node:workflow-current-state-name] to either (creation) or Draft (a workflow state I put in place), it always evals to false.

Thank you for any information!

Comment #10:
Adshill, I also have the same issue. I've yet to find a solution

Comment #11:
If the tokens are not being replaced, you probably need to install the development snapshot of the Tokens module. This is noted on the Rules project page http://drupal.org/project/rules.

Installation notes
To get token replacements in your actions, install the latest development snapshot of token! You need a snapshot which stems from >27.08.08

Hi dooug,

I found the solution in the end through a bit of advice and some playing, and it's actually quite simple. All you need to do is set up a negated condition so that the rule only happens if the CURRENT STATE in the saved content is NOT equal to the CURRENT STATE in the unsaved content. This way it will only process if the state is actually changed on that occassion. Sorry for not posting that here earlier and sorry to fago for not replying to your PM, I've just been completely swamped in a development.

Let me know if that works or if you have any problems. Best,

Adam

There is a performance here when use that way than have a workflow state change event. You still need an event to check a rule, it may be "After updating exitsting content"..., so if you just save post but not change state, this event occur and rule will need to check condition.

I get this when I use view with editablefield in some field, it save post every time I add a value.

And as I know, token get value after rule excute, so the token [node:workflow-current-state-name] not get true value if use in rules.

I had this issue too, fixed it by using "Check a Textual Value" rather than "check a truth value" comparison.

adshill

The solution you gave here is unfortunately not working for me. The Updated Content and Unchanged Content tokens are giving me the same values: I have states: submitted, cancelled, approved etc. When I move from submitted to cancelled, here are the token values I get:

Updated Content
[node:workflow-current-state-name] : submitted
[node:workflow-old-state-name]: cancelled

Unchanged document
[node_unchanged:workflow-current-state-name]: submitted
[node_unchanged:workflow-old-state-name]: cancelled

As a result I can't use the tokens to test if a workflow state has changed. Can anyone assist?

P/S:
To add more information I'm using the following versions:

Rules 6.x-1.0
Workflow 6.x-1.x-dev
Workflow Fileds 6.x-1.x-dev

I'm writing the rule condition and action on event "After updating existing content" I will be glad to provide additional specific information if necessary to solve this issue.

I added more info to my previous post

Hello Mitchell,

I have been working integrating Rules, Workflows, Revisioning and Module Grants and you can see the status of my latest work here:
http://drupal.org/node/493246#comment-1744306

Hope you find it helpful and if you have any insights I would appreciate hearing them.

Steve

Chalee,

Did you try the patch mentioned in my post? http://drupal.org/node/327144

Let me know if that helps... if not then in what you've provided I'm not sure why you're getting the same token values. Does the same occur between other states? As I don't currently use workflow fields I don't know if/how this could affect things - maybe you could disable it and test again to see if it makes any difference?

Let me know how you get on and I'll do my best to respond. Good luck.

Thanks,

Adam

Also what version of tokens are you using? See Comment #12.

I'm also trying to accomplish pretty much the same.

I have a lot of different states in Workflow and based on these states I want the node to publish or set it to unpublished.

I think I have to make 2 scenarios: one for newly created content, and one for updated / changed content.

But I can't get the validation on workflow states accurate, even when it doesn't validates it executes the action.

My condition is a textual comparison:
Negate, [node_unchanged:workflow-current-state-name], [node_unchanged:workflow-old-state-name]

But this outputs:

0.761 ms Executing the rule Workflow publish - Updating content on rule set After updating existing content
2.808 ms Condition Textual comparison evaluated to FALSE.
2.941 ms Action execution: Show a configurable message on the site
3.048 ms Evaluation of After updating existing content has been finished.

Why do I still get this "Action execution"?

The only way I could set it up differently is adding triggers (action: publish/unpublish) to all workflow changes. But having around 20 custom content types and 10 workflow states, I really don't like the idea of adding all these triggers manually..

Hope that someone knows a resolution to my problem!

> Why do I still get this "Action execution"?

Because yo have negated your condition, which evaluates to FALSE, so the action is executed.

Your rule fires, if [node_unchanged:workflow-current-state-name] and [node_unchanged:workflow-old-state-name] are not equal.

Check out this: http://drupal.org/node/370111#comment-1892040

Using this integration doesn't require fiddling around with tokens, so it's easier (and also faster).