Workflow Designer

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 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.

Standard activities

Activity	Category	Purpose
AddToCollection<T>	-	-
Assign	-	-
Assign<T>	-	-
AddToCollection<T>	-	-
CancellationScope	-	-
ClearCollection<T>	-	-
CompensableActivity	-	-
Compensate	-	-
Confirm	-	-
Delay	-	-
DoWhile	-	-
ExistsInCollection<T>	-	-
FlowChart	-	-
FlowSwitch<T>	-	-
FlowDecision	-	-
InvokeMethod	-	-

UBIK^® activities

Activity	Category	Purpose (Short)
DebugMessage	UBIK Control Flow	Writes a debug Text
InvokeInterface	UBIK Control Flow	Invokes a UBIK® Interface component
InvokeWorkflow	UBIK Control Flow	Invokes a UBIK® Workflow object
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
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

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

See also

• Workflow Editor
• Code- and Workflow Debugger