做了几个项目，一直被流程的控制所困扰，决定学习工作流方面的知识，从网上了解到osworkflow是一个轻量级的又极为灵活的工作流引擎（详细情况请访问：http://www.opensymphony.com/osworkflow），所以拿来学习。
折腾了一个下午，终于把自带的example运行起来了。我的测试环境：winxp tomcat4.1.30 oracle8.05 jdk1.4.2。
首先，下载https://osworkflow.dev.java.net/files/documents/635/4647/osworkflow-2.7.0.zip 。解压后，将osworkflow-2.7.0-example.war拷贝至tomcat的webapp下，启动tomcat，访问http://localhost/osworkflow-2.7.0-example，一切都很easy。
osworkflow提供了多种持久化机制MemoryStore (default), SerializableStore, JDBCStore, OfbizStore等等。由于下载的example是为了方便初学者尽快的将程序运行起来，所以采用了MemoryStore。呵呵，实际的系统可不会让数据全呆在内存里哦。改成JDBCStore试试。
1、修改tomcat的sever.xml,添加：
<Context path="/osworkflow-2.7.0-example" docBase="osworkflow-2.7.0-example"
debug="5" reloadable="true" crossContext="true">
<Logger className="org.apache.catalina.logger.FileLogger"
prefix="localhost_osworkflow_log." suffix=".txt"
timestamp="true"/>
Resource name="jdbc/mydb" auth="Container"
type="javax.sql.DataSource"/>
<ResourceParams name="jdbc/mydb">
<parameter>
<name>factory</name>
<value>org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSourceFactory</value>
</parameter>
<parameter>
<name>driverClassName</name>
<value>oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver</value>
</parameter>
<parameter>
<name>url</name>
<value>jdbc:oracle:thin:@127.0.0.1:1521:orcl</value>
</parameter>
<parameter>
<name>username</name>
<value>oswf</value>
</parameter>
<parameter>
<name>password</name>
<value>oswf</value>
</parameter>
<parameter>
<name>maxActive</name>
<value>20</value>
</parameter>
<parameter>
<name>maxIdle</name>
<value>10</value>
</parameter>
<parameter>
<name>maxWait</name>
<value>-1</value>
</parameter>
</ResourceParams>
</Context>
2、修改WEB-INF/classes/osworkflow.xml(红色部分根据您的数据库作相应修改)
<osworkflow>
<persistence class="com.opensymphony.workflow.spi.jdbc.JDBCWorkflowStore">
<!-- For jdbc persistence, all are required. -->
<property key="datasource" value="jdbc/mydb"/>
<property key="entry.sequence" value="SELECT seq_os_wfentry.nextVal from dual"/>
<property key="entry.table" value="OS_WFENTRY"/>
<property key="entry.id" value="ID"/>
<property key="entry.name" value="NAME"/>
<property key="entry.state" value="STATE"/>
<property key="step.sequence" value="SELECT seq_os_currentsteps.nextVal from dual"/>
<property key="history.table" value="OS_HISTORYSTEP"/>
<property key="current.table" value="OS_CURRENTSTEP"/>
<property key="historyPrev.table" value="OS_HISTORYSTEP_PREV"/>
<property key="currentPrev.table" value="OS_CURRENTSTEP_PREV"/>
<property key="step.id" value="ID"/>
<property key="step.entryId" value="ENTRY_ID"/>
<property key="step.stepId" value="STEP_ID"/>
<property key="step.actionId" value="ACTION_ID"/>
<property key="step.owner" value="OWNER"/>
<property key="step.caller" value="CALLER"/>
<property key="step.startDate" value="START_DATE"/>
<property key="step.finishDate" value="FINISH_DATE"/>
<property key="step.dueDate" value="DUE_DATE"/>
<property key="step.status" value="STATUS"/>
<property key="step.previousId" value="PREVIOUS_ID"/>
</persistence>
<factory class="com.opensymphony.workflow.loader.XMLWorkflowFactory">
<property key="resource" value="workflows.xml" />
</factory>
</osworkflow>
3、在WEB-INF/classes里新建propertyset.xml
<propertysets>
<propertyset name="jdbc"
class="com.opensymphony.module.propertyset.database.JDBCPropertySet">
<arg name="datasource" value="jdbc/mydb"/>
<arg name="table.name" value="OS_PROPERTYENTRY"/>
<arg name="col.globalKey" value="GLOBAL_KEY"/>
<arg name="col.itemKey" value="ITEM_KEY"/>
<arg name="col.itemType" value="ITEM_TYPE"/>
<arg name="col.string" value="STRING_VALUE"/>
<arg name="col.date" value="DATE_VALUE"/>
<arg name="col.data" value="DATA_VALUE"/>
<arg name="col.float" value="FLOAT_VALUE"/>
<arg name="col.number" value="NUMBER_VALUE"/>
</propertyset>
</propertysets>
4、修改WEB-INF/classes下的osuser.xml
<opensymphony-user>
<provider class="com.opensymphony.user.provider.jdbc.JDBCAccessProvider">
<property name="user.table">OS_USER</property>
<property name="group.table">OS_GROUP</property>
<property name="membership.table">OS_MEMBERSHIP</property>
<property name="user.name">USERNAME</property>
<property name="user.password">PASSWORDHASH</property>
<property name="group.name">GROUPNAME</property>
<property name="membership.userName">USERNAME</property>
<property name="membership.groupName">GROUPNAME</property>
<property name="datasource">java:comp/env/jdbc/mydb</property>
</provider>
<provider class="com.opensymphony.user.provider.jdbc.JDBCCredentialsProvider">
<property name="user.table">OS_USER</property>
<property name="group.table">OS_GROUP</property>
<property name="membership.table">OS_MEMBERSHIP</property>
<property name="user.name">USERNAME</property>
<property name="user.password">PASSWORDHASH</property>
<property name="group.name">GROUPNAME</property>
<property name="membership.userName">USERNAME</property>
<property name="membership.groupName">GROUPNAME</property>
<property name="datasource">java:comp/env/jdbc/mydb</property>
</provider>
<provider class="com.opensymphony.user.provider.jdbc.JDBCProfileProvider">
<property name="user.table">OS_USER</property>
<property name="group.table">OS_GROUP</property>
<property name="membership.table">OS_MEMBERSHIP</property>
<property name="user.name">USERNAME</property>
<property name="user.password">PASSWORDHASH</property>
<property name="group.name">GROUPNAME</property>
<property name="membership.userName">USERNAME</property>
<property name="membership.groupName">GROUPNAME</property>
<property name="datasource">java:comp/env/jdbc/mydb</property>
</provider>
<!--
Authenticators can take properties just like providers.
This smart authenticator should work for 'most' cases - it dynamically looks up
the most appropriate authenticator for the current server.
-->
<authenticator class="com.opensymphony.user.authenticator.SmartAuthenticator" />
</opensymphony-user>
5、在sql-plus里运行下载包里的 src\etc\deployment\jdbc\oracle.sql
6、启动tomcat
7、OK。