Working with blocks, schemes, files, and links are described in the following scenarios:

Adding a block to the scheme

In the Workflow constructor the user has the possibility to customize schemes, which, in turn, consist of blocks (workflow steps). To place a block on the workspace of the scheme, the user has to select the required block and, by clicking the left mouse button, move the block to the required place on the workspace.

Block operations

Selecting a block

You can select a block in the workflow scheme by clicking on it with the left mouse button:

The block control points are located along the boundaries of the selected block:

  • white markers at border vertices - block resizing points
  • on the right side of the rectangle a red marker with a white cross - a button to remove the block scheme from it
  • green marker with > sign - point of outgoing connector (arrows)

Changing the block size

By dragging one of the white markers you can resize the block.

Deleting a block

By clicking on the red marker with a white cross you can remove a block from the scheme.

Connecting to a neighboring block

If you click on the green marker, a guide appears, which can be connected to any selected block in the scheme.

Block properties

When you select a block, a panel will appear to the right of the editor workspace, where you can set the block properties.  

The following properties are common for all blocks:

  • block name
  • block description
  • block dimensions
  • block fill color

Blocks can have properties specific to each of them. 

Input and result parameters of blocks

When working with parameters, it is important to understand the following issues:

  1. All blocks have input and resulting parameters:

    • Start

    • Robot

    • Screen Form

    • Workflow

  2. The Finish block has only resulting parameters.
  3. The Start and Screen Form blocks have the same resulting parameters as the input parameters.  These are the same parameters. It should be noted that input parameters do not contain values unlike resulting parameters, for example: input parameter - last name, resulting parameter - last name: Smith. Sometimes the input parameters of the Start block are called workflow parameters, which makes sense because they are available to all other blocks in the block scheme.
  4. Resulting parameters of Robot and Workflow  blocks are not displayed in the properties of these blocks. But they are available by selecting values for the input parameters of other blocks.

General scheme of linking input parameters of one block with results of other blocks

The main task is to link the results of some blocks to the input parameters of other blocks. 

Let's show how it is done on the example of the workflow, the scheme of which is presented in the following figure:

Sequence of workflow steps:

  1. Block Start.
  2. Then the user task with SF No.1 is executed.
  3. Then the workflow is parallelized into 2 simultaneously executing branches. In one of them the robot Increasing a number to a degree is executed, in the second one the robot Calculating the area of a circle is executed.
  4. The results of the execution of these robots are passed to the third robot Adding 2 numbers.
  5. The workflow ends with the Finish block.

The plan for working with the parameters is as follows:

  1. In the screen form of EF No. 1, there are two parameters a and b that the user has to fill in for further transmission to the robots.
  2. The Increasing a number to a degree block has 2 parameters x and n. We bind the parameters a and b respectively to the parameters x and n.
  3. The Calculating the area of a circle block has 1 parameter r. The user can bind to this block any of the parameters of the screen form EF No. 1. 
  4. The Adding 2 numbers block has 2 parameters a and b. To them we bind the output parameters of the blocks Increasing a number to a degree - y and Calculation of the area of a circle - s.
  5. Then in the Finish block we create the Result parameter, to which we bind our final value, which will be in the Adding 2 numbers block - c.

Illustrate this with screenshots.

  1. In the screen form, the user enters values into the corresponding fields. The values entered in the fields First term and Second term are automatically linked to the parameters a and b:
           
  2. The Increasing a number to a degree block has 2 parameters x and n. Parameters a and b from the screen form SF No. 1 are bound to parameters x and n, respectively:

  3. The Calculating the area of a circle block has 1 parameter r. The parameter b from the screen form SF No. 1 is bound to the parameter r accordingly:

  4. The Adding 2 numbers block has 2 parameters a and b. We bind to them the output parameters in the results of the blocks Increasing a number to a degree - y and Calculating the area of a circle - s.

         
  5. In the Finish block, we create the Result parameter, to which we bind the output result of the Adding 2 numbers block - c.
      

Autosave the Workflow Project scheme

The Editor provides step-by-step auto-saving of the scheme in the database. This means that any update of the scheme - whether it is placing a block on the scheme or changing its properties - is immediately saved in the database. No actions are required from the user to save the scheme.

Changes in the scheme are saved automatically.


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