I am creating - actually rebuilding from Coldfusion - an application that - among many other things - handles production work flow. Here is one scenario that is indicative of many more I will have to create:
User enters order for a product(in my case, a dress). Some of the details of this order that are captured are:
- Stylenumber - the stylenumber is a content type that uses node relationships from several other content types to define/describe it. This relationship creates a costcard which is the heart of a production app.
- Date required. This date is used to create the job dates.
- Customer Type. This is used to determine how the dress is to be made - whether it requires pattern work, or special alterations.
- Customer Fittings. A node reference to a fitting appointment content type. For customers who are coming in for fittings we need to use these dates - not date required to schedule jobs.
Once the order is created I need to create job nodes. One order has at least two and as many as five jobs attached to it. (cutting, sewing, pattern work etc). In addition to the node refernce pointing to the order detail nid, I also have to automate and insert the job date (dateadd - 21days date required or customer fitting), along with info grabbed from the costcard (how many cutting, sewing etc labor hours.)
This is just the tip of the iceberg. I will have to do stuff like this over and over. For example, as a order goes through various stages of production lots of related tables need to be updated. Fabric and trim inventories are adjusted along with employee scheduling.
How should I approach creating these rules? In the above case the date handling and grabbing the costcard info (from the stylenumber nid) seems a bit beyond the UI of Rules and VBO. I know I don't want to store custom php in the db.
I'm thinking I'll need to start writing custom modules that rules can use. Any suggestions would be wonderful. Thanks.