Difference between revisions of "Workflow Designer"

Latest revision as of 15:24, 14 June 2016

The Workflow Designer is a component in UBIK^® which appears on many occasions, namely every time when there is a Workflow to be displayed or edited. It features a full re-hosted version of the designer for the Microsoft Workflow Foundation, extended with manipulation capabilities for UBIK^® objects.

Workflow Designer used in the Workflow Editor control

Basics

Toolbox

The Toolbox features a broad range of activities that cane be used within your Workflows. There are generic activities as well as activities specific for the manipulation of UBIK^® objects.

Standard activities

Activity	Category	Purpose
AddToCollection<T>	Collection	Adds an Item to a Collection
ClearCollection<T>	Collection	Removes an Item from a Collection
ExistsInCollection<T>	Collection	Clears a Collection, removing all items stored in it
RemoveFromCollection<T>	Collection	Verifies if an Item exists in a Collection; if the item exists, its Result argument will yield True
DoWhile	ControlFlow	Executes its Body until the Condition evaluates to True; the Body will be executed at least once
ForEach<T>	ControlFlow	ForEach activity contains a list of Values and a Body; at runtime, the list is iterated and the body is executed for each value in the list
If	ControlFlow	The If activity selects a child activity for execution based on the value of a Boolean expression; if the Boolean expression Condition yields True (and “Then” activity is configured), the Then activity is scheduled; if the expressions yields False (and Else activity is set), the Else expression is scheduled
Parallel	ControlFlow	Parallel activity allows parallel execution of its children; it operates by scheduling each WorkflowElement in its Branches collection at the beginning of its execution; it completes when all of its Branches complete or when its CompletionCondition property evaluates to true
ParallelForEach<T>	ControlFlow	The ParallelForEach activity enumerates the elements of a collection(Values) and executes an Activity for each element of the collection, in a similar way than the ForEach activity does; the main difference is that the embedded statement is executed in a parallel fashion; just like the Parallel Activity, ParallelForEach has a CompletionCondition, so that the ParallelForEach activity could complete early if the evaluation of the CompletionCondition returns true; the CompletionCondition is evaluated after each iteration is completed
Pick	ControlFlow	The Pick Activity provides event-based control flow modeling in WF; the only valid children for a Pick activity are PickBranches; at the beginning of a Pick execution, all the Trigger activities from all its Branches are scheduled; when the first Trigger completes its corresponding Action activity is scheduled, and all other Trigger activities are canceled
PickBranch	ControlFlow	PickBranch represents a branch in a Pick; it consists of a Trigger and Action; PickBranch can only be added to a Pick activity
Sequence	ControlFlow	The Sequence activity allows for the execution of one or more Activities in order
Switch<T>	ControlFlow	Switch activity is similar to switch statement in C#; it contains an Expression and a set of Cases (each case has a key and an activity); after the expression is evaluated, the Switch activity looks for a Case with a key that matches the result of the expression and if found, it schedules the activity associated with that Case
While	ControlFlow	The While activity executes it's Body while a Boolean Condition is True
Rethrow	ErrorHandling	Throws a previously thrown exception from within a Catch activity
Throw	ErrorHandling	Throw activity throws an exception within a workflow; Throw activity has an Exception property that contains the exception that will be thrown at execution time
TryCatch	ErrorHandling	TryCatch activity is similar to the try...catch construct in C#: all activities in the Try block are executed and if an exception occurs, it will schedule the Catch block that best matches that exception (if no matching catch is found, the workflow is aborted); all Catch blocks are contained in a collection called Catches; TryCatch activity also has a Finally block that is executed after the Try (and any eventual Catch); a note on unhandled exceptions: TryCatch provides exception handling at the workflow level; when an unhandled exception is thrown, the workflow is aborted and therefore the Finally block won’t be executed; this behavior is consistent with C#
FlowChart	FlowChart	This is the root for a Flowchart; since Flowchart is an activity like any other, it can be composed inside any container activity; for example, we can add a Flowchart inside of a Sequence or a Flowchart inside another Flowchart; the green ball in the image at the right represents the start node of the Flowchart
FlowSwitch<T>	FlowChart	FlowSwitch activity selects a next node depending on the value of an expression; FlowSwitch can be seen as the equivalent of the procedural Switch activity in the Flowchart world
FlowDecision	FlowChart	FlowDecision models conditional forks within a Flowchart; tt can be seen as the equivalent of the procedural If activity in the Flowchart world; this activity contains a Boolean expression Condition; if the expression evaluates to “True”, the true path is executed (otherwise, the false path is scheduled)
Assign	Primitives	The Assign activity assigns the value of its Value argument to its To argument; the types of both arguments must be compatible; this compatibility is verified at runtime
Assign<T>	Primitives	The Assign<T> activity assigns the value of its Value argument to its To argument; the types of both arguments must be compatible; this compatibility is verified at design time
Delay	Primitives	Delay Activity, as its name suggests, will block the current workflow execution path for a Duration specified by user; after the duration expires, the workflow continues execution as expected; the duration of the delay is set using a TimeSpan
InvokeMethod	Primitives	InvokeMethod is the activity that allows you to call an existing CLR instance or static method; to invoke a method all you need to do is provide the owner of the method (TargetType for static methods, TargetObject for instance methods), the MethodName, and its Parameters
WriteLine	Primitives	Writes text to the configured output console
Persist	Runtime	Persists the workflow instance. Persistence will be done using the configuration of the WorkflowInstance that is being executed (this activity doesn’t have any arguments)
TerminateWorkflow	Runtime	Terminates the running workflow instance, raises the Completed event in the host, and reports error information; once the workflow is terminated, it cannot be resumed
CancellationScope	Transaction	The CancellationScope activity consists of two main parts, the Body and the CancelHandler; the body is the code path that normally executes; if the activity gets canceled, then the cancel handler is called
CompensableActivity	Transaction	CompensableActivity is used to define a potentially long running activity with accompanying Compensation and Confirmation logic; compensation allows the user to specify corrective action to be taken on an activity based upon activity which occurs after the successful completion of the Body of the activity
Compensate	Transaction	Compensate is used to explicitly invoke the compensation handler of a CompensableActivity
Confirm	Transaction	Confirm is used to explicitly invoke the confirmation handler of a CompensableActivity
TransactionScope	Transaction	The TransactionScopeActivity provides the mechanism for initializing a new transaction, making the transaction handle ambient (a workflow execution property) and calling complete on the transaction once the Body of the TransactionScope activity has completed

UBIK^® activities

Activity	Category	Purpose (Short)
DebugMessage	UBIK Control Flow	Writes a debug Text
WriteLogEntry	UBIK Control Flow	Writes a log entry via the workflow logging mechanism
InvokeInterface	UBIK Control Flow	Invokes a UBIK^® Interface component
InvokeWorkflow	UBIK Control Flow	Invokes a UBIK^® Workflow object
SendEmail	UBIK Control Flow	Sends an Email To recipients via an SMTP Host
CreateCSVScope	UBIK Data Exchange	Creates a new csv document for flat data export
CreateCSVRow	UBIK Data Exchange	Creates a single row in a csv file
CreateCSVValue	UBIK Data Exchange	Creates a single value (column) in a csv row
CreateXMLScope	UBIK Data Exchange	Creates a new xml document for hierarchical data export
CreateXMLElement	UBIK Data Exchange	Creates a new xml element in an xml document
CreateXMLAttribute	UBIK Data Exchange	Creates a new xml attribute on an xml element
ReadCSVDocument	UBIK Data Exchange	Reads a csv file for flat data import
ReadXPathDocument	UBIK Data Exchange	Reads an xml file for hierarchical data import
GetXPathResult	UBIK Data Exchange	Evaluates an XPath-expression in a csv or xml document
CreateOLEOracleScope	UBIK Data Exchange	Creates a connection to an Oracle data source via OLE
CreateOLESQLScope	UBIK Data Exchange	Creates a connection to a SQL server data source via OLE
CreateOLEExcelScope	UBIK Data Exchange	Creates a connection to an Excel data source via OLE
CreateOLETableScope	UBIK Data Exchange	Creates a connection to a single table in an OLE data source
CreateOLERow	UBIK Data Exchange	Creates a new row (record) in an OLE table
EditOLERow	UBIK Data Exchange	Edits a single row of an OLE table
EditOLEValue	UBIK Data Exchange	Edits a single value of an OLE row (record)
AssignToNamedRelation	UBIK Object Primitives	Assigns a Child object via the named RelationName to a Parent object
AssignToSystemRelation	UBIK Object Primitives	Assigns a Child object via the given Relation to a Parent object
CreateInstance	UBIK Object Primitives	Creates a new instance of a given MetaClass
DeleteObject	UBIK Object Primitives	Deletes a UBIKObject (Deep delete by default, ShallowDelete optional)
GetObjectsByPropertyValue	UBIK Object Primitives	Queries instances of MetaClass where PropertyName has a certain value
GetObjectsByQuery	UBIK Object Primitives	Delivers the result of Query
GetObjectsByView	UBIK Object Primitives	Delivers the children the UBIKObject has in View
GetObjectByID	UBIK Object Primitives	Attempts to load an object via its GUID
GetCustomizedSystemObject	UBIK Object Primitives	Attempts to load an object that is configured as the customizing derivate of a systemobject
GetPropertyValue	UBIK Object Primitives	Gets the Value of the property named PropertyName from UBIKObject
RemoveFromNamedRelation	UBIK Object Primitives	Removes a Child object via the named RelationName from a Parent object
RemoveFromSystemRelation	UBIK Object Primitives	Removes a Child object via the given Relation from a Parent object
SaveObject	UBIK Object Primitives	Saves the UBIKObject (Deep save by default, ShallowSave optional)
SetPropertyValue	UBIK Object Primitives	Sets the Value to the property named PropertyName of the UBIKObject
AssignIconToBaseClass	UBIK UI Primitives	Assigns a selectable icon image to the UBIKObject
SelectSourceFile	UBIK UI Primitives	Brings up an open file dialog
SelectTargetFile	UBIK UI Primitives	Brings up a save file dialog
ShowUnsavedObjectsHierarchy	UBIK UI Primitives	Brings up the Unsaved Objects dialog
UserDecisionYesNo	UBIK UI Primitives	Brings up a Yes/No dialog with configurable Title and Text
UserInputText	UBIK UI Primitives	Brings up an input box with configurable Title and Text
EditClassDetail	UBIK Wizards	Brings up the Class Details control for UBIKObject in a Wizard
EditObject	UBIK Wizards	Brings up the Object Editor control for UBIKObject in a Wizard
EditRelation	UBIK Wizards	Brings up the Relation Editor control for UBIKObject and UBIKRelationship in a Wizard
EditRelationData	UBIK Wizards	Brings up the Object Editor control to edit RelationData between UBIKObject and Child in a Wizard
ReplicateInstance	UBIK Replication	Creates a replicate of the given source object based on the given ReplicationConfiguration.

Design canvas

The design canvas is in the center of the control. This is the space where activities can be placed and arranged, typically with Drag&Drop from the Toolbox.

Property window

The property window consumes the right area of the control and is there to configure a single workflow activity. A typical configuration consists of supplying parameters with expressions or variables. All parameters are directed, which means they are either

In
Out
Both

These directions are always from the perspective of the activity.

There is no design restriction that comes with that, it is more a supporting feature telling something about the argument: an inbound parameter will never write to a variable supplied and an outbound parameter will never read a value supplied to it.

Working with the designer

Toolbar

Item	Purpose
Open file	Opens a dialog to load a previously saved UBIK^® workflow file (.uwf) into the design canvas
Save to file	Saves the current design canvas into a file (.uwf)
Toggle breakpoint	Sets/Removes a breakpoint at the currently selected activity (async execution only)
Resume	Resumes execution if a breakpoint was hit (async execution only)
Delay between activities	Execution delay in Milliseconds between activities (async execution only)

Context menu

This control doesn't feature any context menu yet.

Designing workflows

Designing a workflow is fairly easy and typically involves placing, configuring and connecting various activities. All available activities are listed in the Toolbox on the left side. Use Drag&Drop to place an activity on the canvas in the middle. Select an activity on the canvas and use the context menu or the Del key to remove it again.

Unless the activity is of type FlowChart or Sequence, you will not be able to add more than one activity to the canvas

Typically we want to start with a Sequence or a Flowchart, which are both able to host child (nested) activities

The Sequence executes its nested activities sequentially, one after the other
The FlowChart executes its nested activities in the order you link them with connecting lines

After placing a new activity, use the Property window to configure its arguments. Misconfiguration of an argument typically leads to a red exclamation mark on the activity, where the tooltip text displays the details of the error.

Some activities expose special designers, that allow you to edit selected arguments directly in the canvas. However, this is just a different and limited view, the property window will always show all available arguments

Arguments

Arguments are parameters that are either passed into the workflow on start up or returned by it when it exits.

They can be created in the arguments editor which is located at the bottom area of the design canvas. Once created, an argument can be referenced by its name in the activities.

Every argument you create has to be supplied to the workflow, missing arguments will lead to an exception!

Variables

Variables are meant to pass values between activities and are therefore very important for the logic of a workflow. So if you want to i.e. pass a string from activity A to activity B, you need to

create a variable of type String
assign it to an out string parameter of activity A
assign it to the in string parameter of activity B

Variables can be created in the variables editor which is located at the bottom area of the design canvas. Once created, a variable can be referenced by its name in the activities.

Variables are only accessible in the defined scope, so please make sure to set the scope right

Expressions

Most of the arguments and variables can be supplied with expressions instead of fixed values. Expressions will be evaluated at runtime and provide a powerful way to solve complex problems. Due to the underlying Microsoft Workflow Foundation, expressions are exclusively coded in VB.NET - unlike any other coding in UBIK^® which is typically done in C#.

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 ===Toolbox===
-The Toolbox features a wide range of Activities that cane be used within your Workflows. There are generic activities as well as activities specific for the manipulation of {{UBIK}} objects.
+The Toolbox features a broad range of activities that cane be used within your Workflows. There are generic activities as well as activities specific for the manipulation of {{UBIK}} objects.
 ====Standard activities====
-{| class="wikitable sortable" | width = "50%"
+{| class="wikitable sortable" | width = "80%"
 |-
 ! Activity!! Category !! Purpose
@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 | While|| ControlFlow || The While activity executes it's ''Body'' while a Boolean ''Condition'' is True
 |- align="left"
-| Rethrow|| ErrorHandling || -
+| Rethrow|| ErrorHandling || Throws a previously thrown exception from within a Catch activity
 |- align="left"
 | Throw|| ErrorHandling || Throw activity throws an exception within a workflow; Throw activity has an Exception property that contains the exception that will be thrown at execution time
@@ Line 65: / Line 65: @@
 | Persist|| Runtime || Persists the workflow instance. Persistence will be done using the configuration of the WorkflowInstance that is being executed (this activity doesn’t have any arguments)
 |- align="left"
-| TerminateWorkflow|| Runtime || -
+| TerminateWorkflow|| Runtime || Terminates the running workflow instance, raises the Completed event in the host, and reports error information; once the workflow is terminated, it cannot be resumed
 |- align="left"
 | CancellationScope|| Transaction|| The CancellationScope activity consists of two main parts, the ''Body'' and the ''CancelHandler''; the body is the code path that normally executes; if the activity gets canceled, then the cancel handler is called
@@ Line 77: / Line 77: @@
 | TransactionScope|| Transaction|| The TransactionScopeActivity provides the mechanism for initializing a new transaction, making the transaction handle ambient (a workflow execution property) and calling complete on the transaction once the ''Body'' of the TransactionScope activity has completed
 |}
 ===={{UBIK}} activities====
-{| class="wikitable sortable" | width = "50%"
+{| class="wikitable sortable" | width = "80%"
 |-
 ! Activity!! Category !! Purpose (Short)
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity DebugMessage|DebugMessage]]|| UBIK Control Flow || Writes a debug ''Text''
+| [[Activity:DebugMessage (Activity)|DebugMessage]]|| UBIK Control Flow || Writes a debug ''Text''
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity InvokeInterface|InvokeInterface]]|| UBIK Control Flow || Invokes a {{UBIK}} Interface component
+| [[Activity:WriteLogEntry (Activity)|WriteLogEntry]]|| UBIK Control Flow || Writes a log entry via the workflow logging mechanism
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity InvokeWorkflow|InvokeWorkflow]]|| UBIK Control Flow || Invokes a {{UBIK}} Workflow object
+| [[Activity:InvokeInterface (Activity)|InvokeInterface]]|| UBIK Control Flow || Invokes a {{UBIK}} Interface component
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity SendEmail|SendEmail]]|| UBIK Control Flow || Sends an Email ''To'' recipients via an SMTP ''Host''
+| [[Activity:InvokeWorkflow (Activity)|InvokeWorkflow]]|| UBIK Control Flow || Invokes a {{UBIK}} Workflow object
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity CreateCSVScope|CreateCSVScope]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a new csv document for flat data export
+| [[Activity:SendEmail (Activity)|SendEmail]]|| UBIK Control Flow || Sends an Email ''To'' recipients via an SMTP ''Host''
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity CreateCSVRow|CreateCSVRow]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a single row in a csv file
+| [[Activity:CreateCSVScope (Activity)|CreateCSVScope]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a new csv document for flat data export
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity CreateCSVValue|CreateCSVValue]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a single value (column) in a csv row
+| [[Activity:CreateCSVRow (Activity)|CreateCSVRow]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a single row in a csv file
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity CreateXMLScope|CreateXMLScope]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a new xml document for hierarchical data export
+| [[Activity:CreateCSVValue (Activity)|CreateCSVValue]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a single value (column) in a csv row
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity CreateXMLElement|CreateXMLElement]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a new xml element in an xml document
+| [[Activity:CreateXMLScope (Activity)|CreateXMLScope]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a new xml document for hierarchical data export
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity CreateXMLAttribute|CreateXMLAttribute]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a new xml attribute on an xml element
+| [[Activity:CreateXMLElement (Activity)|CreateXMLElement]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a new xml element in an xml document
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity ReadCSVDocument|ReadCSVDocument]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Reads a csv file for flat data import
+| [[Activity:CreateXMLAttribute (Activity)|CreateXMLAttribute]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a new xml attribute on an xml element
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity ReadXPathDocument|ReadXPathDocument]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Reads an xml file for hierarchical data import
+| [[Activity:ReadCSVDocument (Activity)|ReadCSVDocument]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Reads a csv file for flat data import
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity GetXPathResult|GetXPathResult]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Evaluates an XPath-expression in a csv or xml document
+| [[Activity:ReadXPathDocument (Activity)|ReadXPathDocument]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Reads an xml file for hierarchical data import
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity AssignToNamedRelation|AssignToNamedRelation]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Assigns a ''Child'' object via the named ''RelationName'' to a ''Parent'' object
+| [[Activity:GetXPathResult (Activity)|GetXPathResult]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Evaluates an XPath-expression in a csv or xml document
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity AssignToSystemRelation|AssignToSystemRelation]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Assigns a ''Child'' object via the given ''Relation'' to a ''Parent'' object
+| [[Activity:CreateOLEOracleScope (Activity)|CreateOLEOracleScope]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a connection to an Oracle data source via OLE
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity CreateInstance|CreateInstance]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Creates a new instance of a given MetaClass
+| [[Activity:CreateOLESQLScope (Activity)|CreateOLESQLScope]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a connection to a SQL server data source via OLE
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity DeleteObject|DeleteObject]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Deletes a ''UBIKObject'' (Deep delete by default, ''ShallowDelete'' optional)
+| [[Activity:CreateOLEExcelScope (Activity)|CreateOLEExcelScope]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a connection to an Excel data source via OLE
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity GetObjectsByPropertyValue|GetObjectsByPropertyValue]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Queries instances of ''MetaClass'' where ''PropertyName'' has a certain value
+| [[Activity:CreateOLETableScope (Activity)|CreateOLETableScope]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a connection to a single table in an OLE data source
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity GetObjectsByQuery|GetObjectsByQuery]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Delivers the result of ''Query''
+| [[Activity:CreateOLERow (Activity)|CreateOLERow]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Creates a new row (record) in an OLE table
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity RemoveFromNamedRelation|RemoveFromNamedRelation]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Removes a ''Child'' object via the named ''RelationName'' from a ''Parent'' object
+| [[Activity:EditOLERow (Activity)|EditOLERow]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Edits a single row of an OLE table
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity RemoveFromSystemRelation|RemoveFromSystemRelation]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Removes a ''Child'' object via the given ''Relation'' from a ''Parent'' object
+| [[Activity:EditOLEValue (Activity)|EditOLEValue]]|| UBIK Data Exchange || Edits a single value of an OLE row (record)
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity SaveObject|SaveObject]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Saves the ''UBIKObject'' (Deep save by default, ''ShallowSave'' optional)
+| [[Activity:AssignToNamedRelation (Activity)|AssignToNamedRelation]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Assigns a ''Child'' object via the named ''RelationName'' to a ''Parent'' object
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity SetPropertyValue|SetPropertyValue]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Sets the ''Value'' to the property named ''PropertyName'' of the ''UBIKObject''
+| [[Activity:AssignToSystemRelation (Activity)|AssignToSystemRelation]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Assigns a ''Child'' object via the given ''Relation'' to a ''Parent'' object
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity AssignIconToBaseClass|AssignIconToBaseClass]]|| UBIK UI Primitives || Assigns a selectable icon image to the ''UBIKObject''
+| [[Activity:CreateInstance (Activity)|CreateInstance]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Creates a new instance of a given MetaClass
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity SelectSourceFile|SelectSourceFile]]|| UBIK UI Primitives || Brings up an open file dialog
+| [[Activity:DeleteObject (Activity)|DeleteObject]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Deletes a ''UBIKObject'' (Deep delete by default, ''ShallowDelete'' optional)
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity SelectTargetFile|SelectTargetFile]]|| UBIK UI Primitives || Brings up a save file dialog
+| [[Activity:GetObjectsByPropertyValue (Activity)|GetObjectsByPropertyValue]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Queries instances of ''MetaClass'' where ''PropertyName'' has a certain value
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity ShowUnsavedObjectsHierarchy|ShowUnsavedObjectsHierarchy]]|| UBIK UI Primitives || Brings up the [[Unsaved Objects]] dialog
+| [[Activity:GetObjectsByQuery (Activity)|GetObjectsByQuery]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Delivers the result of ''Query''
 |- align="left"
-| [[Activity UserDecisionYesNo|UserDecisionYesNo]]|| UBIK UI Primitives || Brings up a Yes/No dialog with configurable ''Title'' and ''Text''
+| [[Activity:GetObjectsByView (Activity)|GetObjectsByView]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Delivers the children the ''UBIKObject'' has in ''View''
 |- align="left"
-|[[Activity  UserInputText|UserInputText]]|| UBIK UI Primitives || Brings up an input box with configurable ''Title'' and ''Text''
+| [[Activity:GetObjectByID (Activity)|GetObjectByID]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Attempts to load an object via its GU''ID''
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:GetCustomizedSystemObject (Activity)|GetCustomizedSystemObject]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Attempts to load an object that is configured as the customizing derivate of a systemobject
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:GetPropertyValue (Activity)|GetPropertyValue]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Gets the ''Value'' of the property named ''PropertyName'' from ''UBIKObject''
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:RemoveFromNamedRelation (Activity)|RemoveFromNamedRelation]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Removes a ''Child'' object via the named ''RelationName'' from a ''Parent'' object
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:RemoveFromSystemRelation (Activity)|RemoveFromSystemRelation]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Removes a ''Child'' object via the given ''Relation'' from a ''Parent'' object
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:SaveObject (Activity)|SaveObject]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Saves the ''UBIKObject'' (Deep save by default, ''ShallowSave'' optional)
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:SetPropertyValue (Activity)|SetPropertyValue]]|| UBIK Object Primitives || Sets the ''Value'' to the property named ''PropertyName'' of the ''UBIKObject''
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:AssignIconToBaseClass (Activity)|AssignIconToBaseClass]]|| UBIK UI Primitives || Assigns a selectable icon image to the ''UBIKObject''
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:SelectSourceFile (Activity)|SelectSourceFile]]|| UBIK UI Primitives || Brings up an open file dialog
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:SelectTargetFile (Activity)|SelectTargetFile]]|| UBIK UI Primitives || Brings up a save file dialog
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:ShowUnsavedObjectsHierarchy (Activity)|ShowUnsavedObjectsHierarchy]]|| UBIK UI Primitives || Brings up the [[Unsaved Objects]] dialog
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:UserDecisionYesNo (Activity)|UserDecisionYesNo]]|| UBIK UI Primitives || Brings up a Yes/No dialog with configurable ''Title'' and ''Text''
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:UserInputText (Activity)|UserInputText]]|| UBIK UI Primitives || Brings up an input box with configurable ''Title'' and ''Text''
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:EditClassDetail (Activity)|EditClassDetail]]|| UBIK Wizards || Brings up the [[Class Details|Class Details control]] for ''UBIKObject'' in a [[Wizard|wizard]]
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:EditObject (Activity)|EditObject]]|| UBIK Wizards || Brings up the [[Object Editor|Object Editor control]] for ''UBIKObject'' in a [[Wizard|wizard]]
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:EditRelation (Activity)|EditRelation]]|| UBIK Wizards || Brings up the [[Relation Editor|Relation Editor control]] for ''UBIKObject'' and ''UBIKRelationship'' in a [[Wizard|wizard]]
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:EditRelationData (Activity)|EditRelationData]]|| UBIK Wizards || Brings up the [[Object Editor|Object Editor control]] to edit [[RelationData]] between ''UBIKObject'' and ''Child'' in a [[Wizard|wizard]]
+|- align="left"
+| [[Activity:ReplicateInstance (Activity)|ReplicateInstance]]|| UBIK Replication|| Creates a replicate of the given source object based on the given [[ReplicationConfiguration]]. {{Version/ServerSince|2.5.1}}
 |}
 ===Design canvas===
+The design canvas is in the center of the control. This is the space where activities can be placed and arranged, typically with Drag&Drop from the Toolbox.
 ===Property window===
+The property window consumes the right area of the control and is there to configure a single workflow activity. A typical configuration consists of supplying parameters with expressions or variables.
+All parameters are directed, which means they are either
+* In
+* Out
+* Both
+These directions are always from the perspective of the activity.
+There is no design restriction that comes with that, it is more a supporting feature telling something about the argument: an inbound parameter will never write to a variable supplied and an outbound parameter will never read a value supplied to it.
 ===Working with the designer===
 ==Toolbar==
-{| class="wikitable" | width = "50%"
+{| class="wikitable" | width = "80%"
 |-
 ! Item !! Purpose
@@ Line 170: / Line 216: @@
 ==Designing workflows==
-Designing a workflow is fairly easy and typically involves placing, configuring and connecting various Activities. All available activities are listed in the Toolbox on the left side. Use Drag&Drop to place an Activity on the canvas in the middle. Select an activity on the canvas and use the context menu or the {{key press|Del}} key to remove it again.
+Designing a workflow is fairly easy and typically involves placing, configuring and connecting various activities. All available activities are listed in the Toolbox on the left side. Use Drag&Drop to place an activity on the canvas in the middle. Select an activity on the canvas and use the context menu or the {{key press|Del}} key to remove it again.
-{{Hint|Unless the activity is of type ''FlowChart'' or ''Sequence'', you will not be able to add more than one Activity to the canvas}}
+{{Hint|Unless the activity is of type ''FlowChart'' or ''Sequence'', you will not be able to add more than one activity to the canvas}}
-Typically we want to start with a Sequence or a Flowchart, which are both able to host child (nested) Activities
+Typically we want to start with a Sequence or a Flowchart, which are both able to host child (nested) activities
-* The Sequence executes its nested Activities sequentially, one after the other
+* The Sequence executes its nested activities sequentially, one after the other
-* The FlowChart executes its nested Activities in the order you link them with connecting lines
+* The FlowChart executes its nested activities in the order you link them with connecting lines
-==Other functionality==
+After placing a new activity, use the [[#Property window|Property window]] to configure its arguments. Misconfiguration of an argument typically leads to a red exclamation mark on the activity, where the tooltip text displays the details of the error.
+{{Hint|Some activities expose special designers, that allow you to edit selected arguments directly in the canvas. However, this is just a different and limited view, the property window will always show all available arguments}}
+===Arguments===
+Arguments are parameters that are either passed into the workflow on start up or returned by it when it exits.
+They can be created in the arguments editor which is located at the bottom area of the design canvas. Once created, an argument can be referenced by its name in the activities.
+{{Attention|Every argument you create has to be supplied to the workflow, missing arguments will lead to an exception!}}
+===Variables===
+Variables are meant to pass values between activities and are therefore very important for the logic of a workflow. So if you want to i.e. pass a string from activity A to activity B, you need to
+* create a variable of type ''String''
+* assign it to an out string parameter of activity A
+* assign it to the in string parameter of activity B
+Variables can be created in the variables editor which is located at the bottom area of the design canvas. Once created, a variable can be referenced by its name in the activities.
+{{Attention|Variables are only accessible in the defined scope, so please make sure to set the scope right}}
+===Expressions===
+Most of the arguments and variables can be supplied with expressions instead of fixed values. Expressions will be evaluated at runtime and provide a powerful way to solve complex problems.
+Due to the underlying Microsoft Workflow Foundation, expressions are exclusively coded in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Basic_.NET VB.NET] - unlike any other coding in {{UBIK}} which is typically done in C#.
 ==See also==
 * [[Workflow Editor]]
-* [[Code- and Workflow Debugger]]
+* [[Debugger|Code- and Workflow Debugger]]
+{{Category/Version|2.5.1}}
-[[Category:Workflows]]
+[[Category:2.5.1|Workflow Designer]]
+[[Category:Workflow|Workflow Designer]]