Designer: Working with Diagrams

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INUBIT Workbench > Designer tab

In the Designer tab, all diagram types are managed which are contained within the functional scope of the INUBIT software and which are available for the current user according to her right configuration in the User Manager.

The Designer consists of the following areas:

You can open one or multiple diagrams at the same time for editing.

Diagrams can only be edited in local directories. Thus, diagrams stored on the INUBIT Process Engine are copied to a local directory.

While a diagram is being edited, other users receive a warning message if they try to edit the same diagram.

Diagrams are released for editing by other users only after they have been published or deleted in the local directory.

Proceed as follows

→ The diagrams are copied, the copies are moved into the appropriate local directory and displayed. You can now edit the diagrams.

Editing linked diagrams

For linked diagrams, you can selectively open a diagram in a local directory without unnecessarily having to open any other linked diagrams.

Proceed as follows

Double-click the link point while holding down the Ctrl key.

→ The linked diagram is opened for editing in a local directory and displayed.

Inserting elements

In many diagrams (e.g. in Business Process Diagrams, Business Object Diagrams, Organizational Diagrams and Technical Workflows) you can insert an element or module by dragging and dropping it on the connection line between two already existing elements or modules.

If it is syntactically correct to insert the selected element or module, the connection is highlighted in blue.

Deleting elements

If you delete an element from a diagram (e.g. from a Business Process Diagram or Technical Workflow), the resulting gap is closed automatically.

Prerequisites

If you open one or more diagrams and/or modules for editing, they are locked automatically for other users, displayed as deactivated or grayed out, and with a padlock icon next to the diagram’s or module’s name. Other users can only view a locked diagram/module but cannot edit, rename, or delete it. At the top of the diagram view/module view in the work space, a message bar is displayed informing the user who has locked the diagram/module.

If a locked diagram or module needs to be unlocked, only a user is allowed to unlock it who has the right to unlock diagrams.

Proceed as follows

Executable diagrams such as Technical Workflows must be activated before they can be executed. Until the diagrams are activated they can only be started manually, for example, for test purposes.

As long as diagrams are not active, their diagram symbol is grayed out, e.g.:

A new diagram version is created each time the diagram is activated/deactivated!

The following functions are not available for deactivated diagrams:

Proceed as follows

→ The diagrams are activated and the diagram symbols are represented in color:

Proceed as follows

→ A check is made to see if the name is already in use. If the name is unique, the copy is created.

When copying a Technical Workflow, the modules contained in that Technical Workflow are also copied. Modules that are not re-usable, such as system connectors for example, are automatically renamed during the copy so that their names are also unique on the INUBIT Process Engine. This is done by adding a hyphen and number to the module names. You are notified when modules are renamed.

Unit tests of the workflow are not copied.

You can move one or more diagrams from the same diagram folder, and complete diagram folders, between the users and user groups that are visible to you on the Designer tab.

Prerequisites

Proceed as follows

→ The diagrams are moved and are displayed in the new position.

When modeling Business Process Diagrams, Business Object Diagrams, Technical Workflows and Organizational diagrams, you can use the validation to check the syntactic correctness of the diagrams.

The validation identifies incorrect elements/modules and reveals potential for optimization when modeling.

Proceed as follows

If the diagram is valid, a corresponding message is displayed. If the diagram is not valid, the validation result is displayed below the working area in a docking window, e.g.

You can configure which results are to be displayed: e.g. to only display errors, you deactivate the Warning and Information options in the docking window.

To display the explanations for a message, click the corresponding message. At the same time, the defective module/ element is highlighted in color so that you can identify it quickly.

Users can check the integrity of their diagrams published.

Proceed as follows

→ If the integrity has been checked successfully, a corresponding message is displayed. If the integrity check has failed, all inconsistent workflows and/or modules are displayed. By selecting an entry, the element will be marked in the designer in background, and you can correct the error.

You can improve the readability of a diagram by grouping modules and elements related by content using frames. Grouped elements can be moved collectively.

Example

Proceed as follows

→ A dialog opens. Display the Element tab and enter the name. Specify the position in the Name alignment tab.

You can add explanations or notes to diagrams and elements. Such comments help other users to become acquainted with the function of the diagram or elements.

Comments are displayed in the Comment tab, if you have selected a diagram in the directory tree resp. an element or module in the working area.

The image shows the comment to the middle frame, highlighted in red:

Additionally, you can add a Comment artifact to the diagram to describe certain sections of a diagram in detail.

Proceed as follows

You can assign a name to the connection between two elements, as for example frames, comments, activities, pools, roles or firewalls, and edit the displayed connection.

Proceed as follows

You can align elements of all diagram types.

The following options are available:

Proceed as follows

You can adapt individually the layout of diagram elements as, for example, frames, comments, activities, pools, roles, firewalls, by changing the following aspects:

Additional options are available in the diagram element context menu:

Proceed as follows

Overview

Almost all different diagram types can be linked together. This offers the following advantages:

You can insert any graphics into diagrams, e.g. in order to represent individual applications in system diagrams.

You can link these graphics to other diagram elements and append metadata to them.

Proceed as follows

→ The dialog closes and the image is inserted.

A diagram profile defines the elements you can use for modeling diagrams. If you have a role with the right to use multiple diagram profiles, you can change between these profiles.

For information about creating diagram profiles refer to Diagram Profiles: Profiles for Modeling Elements.

Proceed as follows

→ In the Tools docking window, the number of displayed modeling elements changes.

You can delete an individual diagram, multiple diagrams or diagram groups.

Proceed as follows

→ The diagram or diagram group together with its versions and — if chosen — the modules that are not used in other diagrams are deleted.

Usage

To improve the performance of the Process Engine, you can delete old diagram versions.

Proceed as follows

→ The dialog closes. All versions of the selected diagrams being not specified in the Retain versions section are deleted and will no longer be displayed in the Designer.

You can import all diagram types either individually or in groups. Version histories or tags are not imported.

However, you can enter, choose, or create a tag and assign it to all diagrams using the Apply tag(s) field.

If no tag is set, imported diagrams automatically become head versions.

Proceed as follows

The diagram is imported. The following rules apply:

After the import, an import protocol is displayed.

Refer to Protocols

You can import process models that are in the following formats:

Proceed as follows

→ The file is imported and displayed in the Server tab of the Designer. After the import an import protocol is displayed.

Refer to Protocols

You can export all diagram types individually or in groups using the context menu on the tree structure in the "Designer" tab. Different export formats are supported:

Usage

Export/import Business Process Diagrams (BPD) as XPDL 2.1 or XPDL 2.2.

Refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XPDL.

There are templates with the corresponding settings for some systems:

You can export and import Business Process Diagrams as a BPMN 2.0-DI standard (file type: .bpmn).

Refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Process_Model_and_Notation.

Export Diagram

Import Diagram

In the Protocols dialog, you can save import information as XML or load already created protocols.

For exchanging one or more diagrams between different installations and INUBIT versions, you can export them as compressed (*.zip) XML files.

During export, all Repository files referenced in the diagram are automatically referenced, too, e.g. referenced XML Schemas or graphics from the Repository. If paths or IDs change during a later import, e.g. because another user is imported, the references are automatically adapted.

If you use Tagging, you define while exporting whether the head version or any other version is to be exported.

Prerequisites

You have displayed the Designer > Server tab.

Exporting a single diagram (head or tagged version)

Proceed as follows

Alternatively do the following

Exporting several diagrams (head or tagged version)

Exporting tagged diagram versions directly

→ You are prompted to specify where you want to store the export file and to provide a name for it. The file is then exported to the specified directory.

You can create screenshots of diagrams in Designer’s work area and store them in PNG format, in PDF format, and in EMF format to the clipboard. The current display size of the diagram is always retained.

Prerequisites

Both Process Engines are installed with an INUBIT version as of 8.0.

Proceed as follows

You can create, maintain, display and export labels in reports, comments on diagrams and elements as well as names of elements and Ad hoc process starters in more than one language (in addition to the default language).

You can have your diagrams automatically adjusted. For this, you can use the auto-layout function in order to optimally align all elements contained in you diagram. For this, you can use the auto-layout function in order to optimally align all elements contained in you diagram.

Prerequisites

The auto-layout function is activated.

Refer to Burger Menu.

Proceed as follows

→ The objects in the diagram are automatically aligned.

The diagram properties wizard is used to create and edit a diagram. It consists of the following tabs.

Refer to:

You can find explanations of the various diagram types in the related sections.

Refer to:

Usage

Controls the indexing behavior for timestamp columns in Infinispan tables.

Property

indexEnabled={true|false}

Values

By default, this property is set to false.