[news.eclipse.technology.jwt] [XPDL] Structured Activity Node User Inter

["Steve Egbert" <steve.egbert@xxxxxxxx>]

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