Events
Certain actions, like sending a Notification to a user, can be programmatically linked to an 'Event'. An Event can be anything, like:
- changing the status of a document from 'draft' to 'active',
- a user downloading a document,
- a document being updated to a newer version.
Each of these event can be programmed to result in one or more Users being notified of the specific event.
Tasks
One of the modules in the Portal is the 'Task Center'. The Task Center provides an overview of the tasks awaiting for user(s). Similar to events, tasks can be programmatically set.
For example, a document workflow could be defined where Investigators are allowed to upload doucment into the Portal. Such documents could be automatically set to status = 'draft'. Uploading a document by an investigator could be defined as an Event, resulting in a Notification being sent to document administrator(s). A Task could be set for document administrator(s) to review any Investigator uploaded documents and set their status to 'Active'. Each document to be reviewed would then be listed in the Task Center.
Timed Triggers
Timed Triggers are a very useful component in handling workflow. Most of the actions in a Portal are 'user-triggered', like a notification being sent when an Investigator uploads a document. Timed Triggers are actions which can be set to be executed at certain points in time (eg each Monday at 9:00 AM). This can be used to check each Site if a reminder has be sent for any missing documents. Or to send a weekly, or daily, reminder to document administrator(s) to review any documents with status 'Draft'.
Example of a weekly 'Timed Trigger' email which notifies users of documents which have been uploaded in a TMF.