Workflow Model Elements

Overview

Nodes on a workflow represent items that either exist in your application or are place holders for future items. Place holders allow you to create workflows without having all of the items available at the time of creation and they act as a design document for anyone creating your application to follow. 

The nodes are representations of the item they are linked to or will be linked to, therefore they can be given different names to the actual items. This gives workflow designers greater flexibility and clarity when creating a workflow. Clicking on an node on a workflow opens its properties.

Nodes

IconDescription

screen Screen

see Designing Screens

A workflow item that represents a screen which either exists or is a place holder for a future screen. These are designed to represent touch points with users in your business process. For this reason it is possible to have the same screen on a workflow multiple time and to give the instance of the screen a specific name.

Double-clicking this icon opens the screen if one exists or prompts you to create a new one if it does not exist. 

 Actionflow

see Understanding Actionflows

This represents an actionflow in your application. When a new  actionflow is dragged onto a Workflow from the toolbar, PhixFlow immediately creates it in your application.

Double-clicking the actionflow opens the instance.


 Workflow

see Creating Workflows

This represents an entire workflow. Placed within a workflow it represents a separate embedded workflow that covers a different business process.

Double-clicking the workflow opens the embedded workflow in a new tab.

This represents an analysis model.

Double-clicking the analysis model opens it in a new tab.

 Custom item


Provides a representation of an activity which occurs outside of PhixFlow, such as a user receiving an email. Clicking on this option on a toolbar provides a dropdown of common external tasks with associated icons. Custom icons will be provided in the future.

Node Properties

NameDescription
NameName displayed on the workflow

Application element the node represents

For example: Screen

The actual part of the application the node represents such as the screen or actionflow.
DescriptionThe description displayed when a user places the mouse over the node.

Connectors

Connectors link nodes in a workflow together. They can be labelled to indicate the flow of activity in a business process such as decisions or options selected.

Connector Properties

PropertyDescription
An input DatasourceThe node where the connector originates.
TargetThe node where the connector terminates.
Type

Sequence Flowdefines the execution order of the activities within a workflow.

Message Flowindicates a flow of messages between nodes that send and receive them.

Association: is used to associate nonflow nodes with nodes participating directly in the workflow. 

LabelText displayed o the connecting lines to indicate the role of the connector.
Dash ArrayDetermines the size of the dashes and gaps of a connecting line. The value entered needs to be a whole number and is interpreted as a pixel size.