Best Online Examples of Workflow Patterns?

g8orade writes "In his bestselling book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman lists workflow management software in the top 5 Flatteners. During my work for a shipping startup, I have analyzed our software's many UI weaknesses, particularly related to workflow management, and am currently searching for the best online examples of various UI application patterns / widgets that address managing transaction flows. What are the best examples you know of that are commonly viewable on the web?" "Our software UI is Oracle (9i) Forms compiled to run with Java, through the web. We're using RT for our internal ticket tracking and it has many of the features listed. Also, we're evaluating several commercial document management systems as bolt-ons or companions to our in-house application. Here are some patterns we'd like to improve:

• Queue with count beside it. Example: 'Unshipped orders (5)'
• Screen for UI building of a search and ability to save the search as a queue
• List of queues showing all transaction counts and their various states
• Transaction list / table screen (should have an many possible features as a standard spreadsheet: pick your columns, column order, sort order, clickable column headings, export to various formats, print view, etc.)
• Detail view screen (one transaction, may include too many fields to display at once, requiring tabs, scrolling up and down, left to right, etc., should have a good printable view)
• Contact database built-in or connection to one from another system
• Auto messaging of various statuses to contacts and lists of contacts, above
• Full web accessibility and security model to allow our suppliers and clients access to their own queues for 'pull queries', in addition to what we email them.
• Ability to create a list of values for a field, then incorporate that into the query for a queue.
• Journal of a transaction
• Screen showing progression of a transaction
• Screen showing Parent / child parts of a transaction"

Comments

i think google's search workflow engine is best:

[ghee22]

Although you can click on "Web Images Groups News Froogle Local Scholar", google takes your input in the general homepage (google.com) and intelligently sorts it as what it should be with an answer given at the same time.

Such as searching for "restaraunts near 90210" will not only get you to local.google.com, but will give the restaraunts near 90210 making the click local.google.com OPTIONAL.

same goes for google with "100 abc dr 90210 to 100 main st las vegas, nv".

Re:Friedman and followers don't get it ...

[sanman2]

Since when does cheap energy allow globalization? Cheap LABOR allows globalization. And when you're spending more bucks on energy, then you've got to scrimp on the labor costs, meaning that you're going to go globalized even faster!

IT/telecom has made globalization more possible than ever, and IT/telecom are the least energy-consuming industries (besides the booming industry of sitting on your fat ass and whining at others for working harder than you.)

New TLD?

[Skudd]

http://www.patternlanguage.comtarget/ ?