by Nathan Van Gheem and T. Kim Nguyen -- Tools and ideas to make your intranet viable and relevant, bringing users back to it day after day... without flogging!

1. Killer Workflow Apps!
Get Rich Quick With an
Intranet!
Nathan Van Gheem -- Wildcard Corp.
T. Kim Nguyen -- U of Wisconsin Oshkosh,
PloneEdu.org

2. What We'll Cover
● How is an Intranet different?
● Features to drive repeat visits
● What is a workflow application?
● Example workflow apps
● Workflow app design tools & demo

3. How is an Intranet Different?
● Used for communication, collaboration
● Content rich vs. glitz
● Dynamic interaction to drive repeat visits
● User customization ("portal")

4. Features to Drive Repeat Visits
● Content is king
○ highlight new; ratings; suggestions
● Intuitive navigation
● Interactive, dynamic content
● Forms
● Workflow apps

5. Content
Organized hierarchically, by org unit, eg.:
● HR
● Administrative Services (business office)
● Facilities Management (work orders)
● Library
● Information Technology (support, policies,
requests, projects)
Work with small "curator" groups; training;
meetings

6. Navigation
● Make it the default home page for browsers
● Quick links to commonly accessed info
● Prominent search box
● Have a dual navigation structure:
● by hierarchy/org units
● by role or job function ("lenses")

7. Dual Navigation
HR
Accounts
Staff Students
Library

8. Navigation by Role/Job Function
● Faculty
○ Department chairs
○ Tenure-track
○ Adjunct Instructors
● Staff
○ Administrative assistants
○ Classified staff
● Students
○ Junior, senior, etc.
○ Student employees
○ Students living in residence

9. Interactive, Dynamic Content
● discussion forum (integrated with email lists)
● uwosh.meeting
● jarn.xmpp.* collaborative editing and real
time chat
● "to do" checklists, issue/request trackers
● email notification on changes
● enable commenting
● project / group work spaces
● social (follow someone / group / keyword)

10. User Customization
● flexibility for gaps in fixed navigation
● pinning content
● dashboard, group dashboards
○ need AJAX and more functionality from anz.
dashboard, collective.idashboard, ftw.dashboard.* to
get into Plone roadmap

11. Forms
At UW Oshkosh, online PloneFormGen forms
address these issues:
● forms are always current
● there is one consistent way to fill them out
● can prefill names, email addresses, LDAP
directory data if login required

12. Workflow Applications
"Online forms plus backend multi-state
business processes":
● Save staff time, paper; accelerate business
● Business process illumination
private submit pending publish published

13. Some Workflow Applications
● Office of International Education study
abroad: saved half a staff person's time
● College of Business internship program
● Add/drop card
● Personnel transaction form
● Travel expense form

14. Workflow App Design Tools
● plone.app.workflowmanager
● uwosh.northstar
● PloneFormGen
● uwosh.pfg.d2c
● dexterity
● collective.pfg.dexterity

15. The Plone Workflow Manager

16. Walkthrough
● create workflow
● create form
● add save data to content adapter
● apply workflow locally
● create type
● apply workflow through workflow manager

17. Create workflow

18. Create form

19. Apply local workflow policy

20. Create type

21. Assign workflow to type

22. Other related cases to think about...
● Placeful content types with uwosh.pfg.d2c
● allow any user to create pseudo content type
● Dexterity is full-fledged available anywhere
content types
● fill dexterity content with ploneformgen
submission
● generate product from TTW design

23. Future Directions
● more UI help for creating & adding a
workflow policy "here" without having to
bounce around Site Setup or ZMI
● adding metadata & indexes to portal_catalog
● workflow queue management: alerts, manual
overrides, manager station

24. Killer Workflow Apps!
Get Rich Quick With an
Intranet!
vangheem@gmail.com
http://nathanvangheem.com
nguyen@uwosh.edu
http://uwosh.edu/plone
http://ploneedu.org