Graph

The Graph is the main component of Together Workflow Editor. It displays the graph representing the selected process or activity set. It offers the possibility to insert new elements into the graph and to visually define the flow / logic of the workflow process you are modelling.

Figure 2.5. The Graph Panel

The Graph Panel

The Graph has its own toolbars with action Shortcuts to customize the view of the process, inserting new process elements or modify existing process elements.

The toolbar on top of the graph consists of the following actions:

This action saves the graphical view of the current graph into a JPG format file.

This action saves the graphical view of the current graph into an SVG format file.

This action zooms into the graph.

This action displays graph in its actual size.

This action zooms out of the graph.

This action moves the selected participant up or left depending on the current participant orientation of the graph.

This action moves the selected participant down or right depending on the current participant orientation of the graph.

This action displays the part of the graph shown before the current part.

This action displays the part of the graph shown after the current part.

This action inserts the start and end bubbles into the graph.

This action removes the start end bubbles from the graph.

This action changes the graph's participant orientation from left/right to top/bottom and vice versa.

This action performs an automatic layout of the graph.

This action inserts a new activity set.

This action inserts an existing participant into the graph.

This action selects an existing activity set.

The toolbar on the left hand side of the graph consists of the following actions:

This action switches the mouse cursor to the selection mode.

This action inserts a new participant into the graph.

This action inserts a new "free text expression" participant into the graph.

This action inserts a "common expression participant" into the graph.

This action inserts a start of a process or activity set.

This action inserts an end of a process or activity set.

This action inserts an activity without implementation (manual activity performed by a human) into the graph.

This action inserts a tool activity into the graph

This action inserts a subflow activity into the graph.

This action inserts a block activity into the graph.

This action inserts a route activity into the graph.

This action inserts a transition into the graph.

This action inserts an exception transition into the graph.

The Graph provides all functions to handle participants, activities and transitions. All standard editor functions like insert, delete, move and select are supported.

New elements are inserted into the graph in two steps. First select the button of choice in the graph toolbar to change the mouse cursor into the appropriate insert mode. Then click into the graph to insert the selected element. The mouse cursor will remain in the current insert mode until you click the right mouse button, press the ESC key on your keyboard or switch to another mode by selecting a different button in the graph toolbar.

Inserting transitions into the graph is somewhat different: Transitions begin and end points must be activities. Clicking on the empty background of the graph while inserting a transition will insert a graphical break/routepoint. If insertion of a transition is started and the right mouse button or the ESC key is pressed, the current insert operation is cancelled and the mouse cursor stays in transition insert mode.

Elements in the graph are selected with by simply clicking on them with the left mouse button. You can select a group of elements by clicking with the left mouse button on the empty background of the graph and dragging a rectangle around some elements or by using the SHIFT or CTRL key during left mouse clicks on the individual elements.

To move elements to a new location just drag them with the left mouse button whereever you like.

Double clicking on a graph element opens the property dialog for the element (except for block and subflow activities for which the appropriate graph will be opened).

A right mouse click on an element in the graph will open the context popup menu of the element. The content of the context popup menu depends on which element was clicked on:

Figure 2.6. Graph element context popup menus

Graph element context popup menus

If a Graph is empty (i.e. when a new process is created) the first thing to be added drawn is a participant. When at least one participant swimlane is visible you can add activities and transitions.

The available types of participants are:

The available types of activities are:

The available types of transitions are:

When inserting new participants into the graph, the default participant type is "Role". To change the participant type double left click on the swimlane title to get its property panel. Inserting new participants (as opposed to referencing existing ones) means creating a new participant on the selected process level.

Free text expression participant and Common expression participant are not participants in the sense of XPDL but a special visualization of performer expressions of activities.

The Graph represents activity performers as swimlanes. When an activity is inserted or moved into a particular swim line, it's performer will be updates to the participant represented by the swimlane. In the case of Common expression and Free text expression participants the activity's performer will be set to the expression defined as a property of the graph's common expression participant swimlane object. When the activity is inserted or moved into the free text expression participant any expression can be set for the activity performer field but by default performer expression won't be defined.

Normal activity enables you to insert an activity that will be performed by a human (so called manual activity) - it will appear in the user's worklist.

Tool activity enables the definition of applications that are required for the enactment engine to run in order to perform the activity.

Subflow activity is a type of activity whose implementation is another workflow process definition.

Block activity executes an ActivitySet (set of self-contained activities/transition maps). It is something like an embedded subflow process.

Route activity does not implement any action. It is used for synchronization and conditional branching only.

A transition binds two activities but it can also be a circular transition from a certain activity to itself. A straight line with an arrow pointing to the target object represents the transition in the Graph. The toolbar offers two kinds of transitions: A Condition transition (normal transition) or an exceptional transition. The type of a transition can be changed through its property panel.

The Graph configuration is done through the

togwegraphcontroller.properties file.

The following parameters can be set:

As with all other components, you are also able to change the content of the toolbar and the order of toolbar buttons.