WF spanning multiple branches

Andy Knipp

OK, so here is the scoop. I have an implementation with 2 branches mapping to separate project (A&B). There has been no sharing of information between the 2 branches at all. My WF is ubiquitous, working for both branches the same. One restriction is that the WF was written to be on 1 branch at a time.

Now a manager has said they want a template on branch A, to read some data from branch B and push it live. OK, not too tough. The issue I am seeing is how to, if Joe edits the DCR on B, how should I push the updated data on A live ?

My choices (none of which I like) are:

A. Rewrite my workflow, so that it can handle multiple branches at a time. Significant effort, likely not worth the cost but the best solution.

B. Add a nested workflow (maybe a subset of the primary WF) that I can kick off in certain circumstances. Easier than above, though there are some restrictions with this that I may need to give on functionality. I never allow a file to be in 2 active jobs at the same time, but I do not know if I can enforce this restriction.

C. Manual process. Someone edits B, they need to remember to push A live. Otherwise know as not my problem. Since B will be updated weekly and the DCR on A every other week, not an awesome solution.

D. Hack. Write an external task that runs iwpt_compile, iw_submit, and opendeploy on its own and pushes the A DCR live if the B DCR is pushed. This is wrong on so many levels.

Any other options ? I am on 6.7.1 Win 2003 using WFTs and a very custom workflow.

Andy