AND vs OR Patterns: How Symfony Workflows Really Work

The Two Workflow Types

Symfony offers two types: workflow (Petri net) and state_machine.

• state_machine: Exactly one place is active at a time. Simple linear flows.
• workflow: Multiple places can be active simultaneously. Supports parallel execution.

AND Patterns (Workflow Type Only)

AND-Split (Fork)

A single transition with multiple target places:

transitions:
    start_review:
        from: draft
        to: [checking_content, checking_spelling]

Both checking_content and checking_spelling become active simultaneously. The entity is in two places at once.

AND-Join (Synchronization)

A single transition with multiple source places:

transitions:
    publish:
        from: [content_approved, spelling_approved]
        to: published

Both content_approved AND spelling_approved must be marked for the transition to fire.

OR Patterns

Separate transitions from the same place create an OR choice:

transitions:
    approve:
        from: review
        to: approved
    reject:
        from: review
        to: rejected

From review, you can go to approved OR rejected — firing one consumes the token, so the other becomes unavailable.

How SymFlowBuilder Shows the Difference

• AND patterns: Edges sharing the same transition name display an AND or FORK badge
• OR patterns: Separate transition nodes from the same place — no badge needed
• In the simulator: AND-joins require all source places to be marked before the transition enables