This is a new feature so should be made against the 6.3-dev branch not the 6.2 branch

This is a new feature so should be made against the 6.3-dev branch not the 6.2 branch and the sql files need to be renamed accordingly

Thanks for the thorough review @brianteeman. All the suggestions are in.

you still need to move this to the 6.3dev branch and rename the sql files accordingly. (does it even need two files or can they be combined into a single file now)

A walkthrough for anyone testing this
This is what it looks like and the fastest way to see it working in no time.

The two minute version
If you only do one thing, do this.

1. Apply the patch, npm ci && npm run build.
2. Content, Articles, Options, Integration, set Enable Workflows to Yes.
3. Content, Workflows, open Basic Workflow, Transitions, open Publish
4. Open the new Automation tab. Switch it on, choose Delay, set 1 minute, set Run as to your admin user. Save.
5. Content, Articles, set any article's stage to Unpublished so it is sitting where that transition starts from.
6. Wait a minute, then System, Scheduled Tasks, open Workflow Automation and click Run. Or php cli/joomla.php scheduler:run if you prefer the CLI.

The article is now Published, and nobody clicked anything. Everything below is detail untop of that.

The rule itself

A rule lives on a transition, not on an article. It fires either after a delay counted from the moment an item entered the stage, or on a cron schedule.

Run as is the part worth poking at. The transition executes as that user with exactly their permissions, so the rule can never do something that user could not do by hand. Try setting a run-as user who lacks permission for that transition and watch it refuse rather than silently succeed. A super user can pick anyone; anyone else can only keep the user already stored on the rule, or pick themselves.

Choosing which items it applies to

Two separate questions, kept separate on purpose. A filter decides which items the rule applies to. A condition decides whether now is the right moment to fire.

Eight checks are built in: category, tag, author group, hits, day of week, date, days in stage, days since last edited. By default they are joined with AND and that is all the interface shows. OR, Not and nested groups live behind an Expert Mode switch in the Workflow Automation plugin, because most people never need them.

Preview is the bit I would most like tested. It lists the items your filter currently matches, before you save.

Seeing what is queued


Every workflow has an Upcoming Transitions tab, and there is a site-wide list with workflow and stage fitlers and paging. These are computed live rather than stored, so they cannot drift out of sync with the rules.

If you need more power


Turning on Expert Mode in the Workflow Automation plugin unlocks OR, Not and nested groups in the same builder. It is off by default because most rules never need it, and a simple rule is easier to get right. A rule that already uses those constructs always opens in the full builder, so switching the option off never hides part of a rule you have saved.

Seeing what happened

Every run is logged with an exit code: succeeded, refused, skipped, or failed. A failure records why, holds the item back instead of retrying it forever, and is reported through the existing task notification plugin.

To see a failure on purpose: as a super user, set Run as to an account that has no permission for that transition, for example a Registered user. The scheduler then refuses the transition and records the reason in the log.

If you are testing as anything other than a super user you will not be able to reproduce this, since the picker only offers you yourself or the user already stored on the rule.

Things worth trying to break

• Set a rule on a transition from stage is "any". These are every transition in the default Basic Workflow.
• Move an item by hand in between the scheduler picking it up and acting on it.
• Turn workflows off, create some articles, turn workflows back on. Those items should still be picked up, because each run reconciles against #__workflow_associations.
• Save a filter with a check that has no value chosen. It should refuse, rather than quietly saving as "no filter" and matching everything.
• Two rules on different transitions that could both fire for the same item.

What it deliberately does not do
Per-article, scheduling was in the original proposal and was dropped: rules live on transitions only, so there is on place to look when something unexpectedly. Loop support was dropped for the same reason.

Questions are welcome.

in other places where we have a link like this to open a plugin we do it in a modal

example

try to save an automation with rule type = cron and an empty cron expression

"Save failed with the following error:" but there is nothing following

try to save an automation with rule type = cron and an empty or invalid cron expression

"Save failed with the following error:" but there is nothing following

try to save a cron with an expression that matches the hint "/5***"

try to save a cron with an expression that matches the hint "/5***"

Try to save an automation with a filter that is empty

The second line of the error message says "Save failed with the following error:" but nothing follows

Try to save an automation with a filter or condition that is empty

The second line of the error message says "Save failed with the following error:" but nothing follows

There is no indication that automated transions are enabled for a transition in the list view. It is visible in the graph view

Placeholders in fields that disappear are generally considered to be bad for accessibility and should be avoided (https://www.nngroup.com/articles/form-design-placeholders/)
This is especially true for this field where it is hard to tell that the hint is
/5 * * * *
and not
/5**

Placeholders in fields that disappear are generally considered to be bad for accessibility and should be avoided (https://www.nngroup.com/articles/form-design-placeholders/)
This is especially true for this field where it is hard to tell that the hint is
*/5 * * * *
and not
*/5****

The css class text-muted fails accessibility contrast rules. It should be enough just to use small

small text-muted

small

where possible I would avoid adding css classes and just use existing classes - less to maintain and easier when a non-atum admin template is used

Example

custom css from this pr

existing small

Thanks for the in-depth review @brianteeman
All comments have been addressed.
Quick question on the custom CSS point though, could you say which element you had in mind? I have dropped text-muted throughout the builder, but I would rather remove the right class than guess and break a layout.

Two notes. Testing the save-error report turned up a second bug: the form stored whichever fields were posted, and since showon hides an input without stopping it from submitting, a delay rule kept the last cron expression typed, valid or not. So the form itself could write a row that would not parse. Fixed in the same commit.

On the Expert Mode modal, I left off data-reload-on-close. Core uses it from list views, but this opens from inside the transition edit form and reloading would discard unsaved work. The trade-off is that the builder only picks up the new setting on the next load. Happy to change it if you would rather match the pattern exactly.

Thanks for the in-depth review @brianteeman
All comments have been addressed.
Quick question on the custom CSS point though, could you say which element you had in mind? I have dropped text-muted throughout the builder, but I would rather remove the right class than guess and break a layout.

Two notes. Testing the save-error report turned up a second bug: the form stored whichever fields were posted, and since showon hides an input without stopping it from submitting, a delay rule kept the last cron expression typed, valid or not. So the form itself could write a row that would not parse. Fixed in the same commit.

The Expert Mode link uses the same data-joomla-dialog pattern, including data-reload-on-close.

This is not a suitable solution as only a mouse user can access the information

I suggest that you look at how the checkout icon and information is displayed and adopt that code pattern

Create an autiomated rule with both an invalid filter AND an invalid condition and try to save

I would expect to get two error messages but I only get one

I have dropped text-muted throughout the builder,

I am still seeing text-muted

If I disable all three plugins should I still be able to create automations? Because I can

Thanks for the comments @brianteeman I was able to address them and I also found some other bugs and loopholes in the process which I handled as well. Please keep testing and let me know, thanks again

Create an autiomated rule with both an invalid filter AND an invalid condition and try to save

I would expect to get two error messages but I only get one

still only getting one message

Workflow Task Plugin disabled

when disabled you get a message that the plugin is disabled but it would be better if you also got a link to enable the plugin - see redirects for example

Workflow Automation Plugin disabled

When this plugin is disabled you still get an automation tab but it is empty with no explanation to the user why or what they need to do

accessibility

it is not possible to reach the tooltip here using the keyboard

I am pretty confused about this - or maybe i found a new problem?

with the sample data installed I created an automation for the publish transition

then I created a new article which by default is unpublished

after saving the article it says a transition will take place in 5 minutes

not sure why it says that because the automation is on the publish transition and this is unpublished

after waiting the required minutes nothing changes to the state of the article (which is what i expected as there was no automation on the unpublished transition) but the tooltip is updated to say due now

and in the article itself it says

I am pretty confused about this - or maybe i found a new problem?

with the sample data installed I created an automation for the publish transition

then I created a new article which by default is unpublished

after saving the article it says a transition will take place in 5 minutes

not sure why it says that because the automation is on the publish transition and this is unpublished

after waiting the required minutes nothing changes to the state of the article (which is what i expected as there was no automation on the unpublished transition) but the tooltip is updated to say due now

and in the article itself it says

update

now i am really confused - after returning some time later these articles are now published

Create an autiomated rule with both an invalid filter AND an invalid condition and try to save
I would expect to get two error messages but I only get one

still only getting one message

@brianteeman both errors are raised, but core keeps only one. FormField::validate() applies SubformRule to any subform field automatically, and SubformRule::test() returns $errors[0] and discards the rest, at [SubformRule.php:66] and again at line 79. The comment there says as much: "Pass the first error that occurred on the subform validation."

The filter and condition builders both live in the automation subform, so from the parent form's point of view they are one field and can carry one error. The message does name which builder is at fault and marks that field, so fixing it and saving surfaces the next one.

I could collect both into a single combined sentence by validating at the subform level instead, but then the error attaches to the whole subform rather than the builder that is wrong, which loses the field marking. That seemed a worse trade, but please let me know if that would be better

Thanks @brianteeman please take a look and let me know if anything else comes up.

I cant comment on the way that the code displays the error. I can only comment that you should display all errors

I cant comment on the way that the code displays the error. I can only comment that you should display all errors

Got it @brianteeman I just made some changes. Please test again and let me know how it goes, thanks!