Elementary Statistics Purchase Analysis

371 Figure 24.5: Relationship between workflow and user process User processes are thus connected to technical workflows. If you modify the software’s behaviour with a workflow, the changes will be directly visible in the user processes that are based on the modified document. So if you modify certain transitions on a workflow they will automatically be shown in the process corresponding to the modified document. To get maximum benefit from the power of user processes and the workflow engine, OpenERP provides an integrated workflow editor and user process editor. These enable you to modify them through the client interface. You will only work with the process editor in this chapter. If you want to view and edit the workflow of a document, click on the link Edit Workflow to the right of the document. OpenERP opens a graphical view of the workflow for the selected document type. If you want to edit a workflow in a text-based editor, you can use the menus under Administration → Customization → Workflows.

24.2.1 Using processes effectively

Regardless of which OpenERP screen you are in you can call up a process on the current document by clicking the Corporate Intelligence question mark icon. Depending on the document, you can have several processes defined using it. OpenERP then asks you to choose which one of them you want. For example, if you are in a meeting form, OpenERP will ask you to choose from the processes it knows about that involve such forms: • processes for selecting and inducting new employees, • tracing customer orders in pre-sales, • processes for visiting customers and handling expenses. 372 Figure 24.6: Button for entering a user process from a form The element colored red shows the active process for the selected document. Elements in grey are the states that the selected document will not go through because of its configuration. You can use the different icons to open the document, print it, or get its documentation. Some states have an image inside of arrows formed into a circle. These show that the state refers to another process. To go to this other process, you can click on the title of the state. For example, you can click on the invoice in the customer order management workflow to see in detail how that invoice is handled. Figure 24.7: A state that refers to another workflow

24.2.2 Defining your own user processes

Use the menus under Administration → Customization → Enterprise Process to define new processes or modify existing processes. When entering a process, OpenERP shows you the list of states available for that process.