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[XPDL] Structured Activity Node User Interface [message #25774]

Wed, 11 April 2007 01:10

Eclipse User

Originally posted by: steve.egbert.bull.com

I was putting this observation in my metamodel document, but it is not
really relevant to that discussion, so I'll put it here. Note that due to
terminology overloading between AgilPro and XPDL, I have adopted the colon
namespace type notation to simplify clarifying the domain for the term that
I am using, where appropriate.

An XPDL:BlockActivity coresponds to an AgilPro:StructuredActivityNode.
An XPDL:Activity coresponds to an AgilPro:Action

I would suggest that we are going to find that the current user interface
provided for Structured Activity Nodes in AgilPro is unworkable in actual
production type usage. To my mind, the whole point of having an
XPDL:BlockActivity is so that you can reduce the complexity of the node
diagram by representing a self contained group of activities as a single
activity symbol. If you had a workflow containing, say, a dozen
AgilPro:Actions and an AgilPro:StructuredActivityNode that itself contained
a dozen AgilPro:Actions, I think it will be very difficult to graphically
manage the items inside the Structured Activity Node, using the curent
AgilPro user interface for this element. Then envision a workflow with a
Structured Activity Node inside a Structured Activity Node. It is entirely
permissible to nest XPDL:BlockActivities to any level.

I would suggest a better approach would be to make the AgilPro editor a
MultiPageEditorPart. The Structured Activity Node would be shown on the main
workflow diagram as an Action. It could be differentiated from an ordinary
Action by color, shape, or the addition of some small logo to the Action
symbol in the diagram. When the user double clicks on the Structured
Activity Node, or selects it for editing in some other manner, a new editor
page is opened which displays the node diagram contained in the Structured
Activity Node. The different pages that are open in the editor show as tabs
at the bottom of the window, allowing for easy navigation amongst them. This
approach would allow easy visualization and manipulation of elements in the
Structured Activity Nodes, and would support nesting them to any level
desired.

Steve

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Re: [XPDL] Structured Activity Node User Interface [message #25814 is a reply to message #25774]

Wed, 11 April 2007 09:36

Florian Lautenbacher

Messages: 61
Registered: July 2009

Member

Steve,

thanks for that input. You are right, an AgilPro:StructuredActivityNode is
not very useful if one wants to get an overview about a complicated
process. Therefore, we already worked on the meta-model and designed an
AgilPro:ActivityLinkNode which will have all the symbol, icon and
behaviour you mentioned. This AgilPro:ActivityLinkNode has been
implemented on a seperate repository for test purposes and will be
included into the trunk soon.

I don't know whether we will already include it into the upcoming version
1.2.0 which will hopefully be available during the next week, where we
already created a multi-page modeler as you mentioned in your comments.
Most of the other bugs you mentioned will be fixed in this version, too,
and it will include a sum of new features which I will list as soon as the
new version is available for download.

Regards,

Florian

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