How to transition directly to a specific state instead of triggering a transition name?

[vanasis]

Hello,

I'm using Stateless to manage a state machine with predefined states and transitions, and I would like to make my state machine work by targeting specific states rather than by triggering transitions by name. My goal is to simplify the usage so that, if I specify a target state (e.g., GoToState("Approved")), the state machine would check if a valid transition exists to that state from the current state. If the transition is valid, it would perform it; if not, it would block it.

To clarify, I want to:

Specify the target state directly instead of calling Fire() with a trigger name.
Check for a valid transition path from the current state to the target state before making the transition.
Is there a way to implement or extend Stateless to support this kind of "state-based" transition approach, rather than using trigger names?

[mclift]

Hi,

If I understand correctly, this sounds a lot like an A*-shaped problem as you want the application to find its own path from State A to State B based on the available transitions. This should be doable with static, Permit transitions, but if you have dynamic or conditional transitions whose target states could be affected by entry/exit functions being executed by previous transitions then the problem could become much harder.

Is this along the right lines?