OtfWorkflowDesigner

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Overview

The Workflow Designer is the central interface to input and arrange OTX nodes. It helps the authors create, edit and understand the test sequences graphically. The following main tasks will be implemented with the OTX Designer:

• Specification
• Realization
• Documentation

The structure and functions of the Workflow Designer are described in the following sections.

Structure

In the Workflow Designer, test sequences can be edited graphically, see the image below. The Designer may consist of one or many tabs, each tab corresponds to a procedure ( a flow sequence/a workflow???). Within a sequence, the various activities (OTX nodes) are drawn together into a sequence on a white page. These activities can be configured through the dockable Properties window or the Properties dialog box. The activities are executed sequentially from top to bottom.

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The sequences are presented in the form of a generic flowchart. This means that the author has only the ability to add individual items to, edit and adjust the presentation details. However, it has no direct influence on the position of the elements. It may include such activities so do not move the mouse to another location, such as in MS Visio. This supports the generic approach of OTX and has the following advantages:

• The representation is generated solely from the OTX data without further meta data
• The depiction of the sequence is independent of the flavor of the author
• The same OTX sequence is the same on different computers
• The author does not have to worry about layout details

A flow consists of the head region and the drawing page. In the head region, the relevant information of the procedure are presented below:

• Name
• Parameter (In-, Out- and InOut- parameters)
• ValidFor
• Implemented Signature
• Specification

The drawing page contains the actual sequence of a procedure. It consists of a series of activities, see the image above.

Some elements in the Workflow Designer have the context menus which supports editing the element or adding variables or parameters for the procedure ect. Below are the short descriptions and guidelines for the context menus:

Right click on any where in the drawing page except the activites (nodes), there will be a context menu with the following entries:

Menu entry	Description
Show in SolutionExplorer	Finds and focuses on the current procedure in the Solution Explorer (expanding the parent item or scrolling the tree-view control, if necessary).
New Procedure In-Parameter	Adds a new in-parameter to the current procedure.
New Procedure Out-Parameter	Adds a new out-parameter to the current procedure.
New Procedure In/Out-Parameter	Adds a new in/out-parameter to the current procedure.
New Local Variable	Adds a new local parameter to the current procedure.

Right click on an activity (or one activity of the selected activities, see below), there will be a context menu with the following entries:

Menu entry	Description
Cut	Cuts the activity or the selected activities.
Copy	Copies the activity or the selected activities.
Delete	Deletes the activity or the selected activities.
Paste	Pastes the copied or cut activity (or selected activities) below the current activity.
Add Comment	Adds a new comment and link to the current activity.
Surround With >> Group	Creates a new Group activity to surround the current activity or the selected activities (i.e. the activities will be moved into the new Group activity).
Surround With >> Handler	Creates a new Handler activity to surround the current activity or the selected activities (i.e. the activities will be moved into the Try-branch of new Handler activity).
Extract Procedure	Extracts the activity or the selected activities into a new procedure and creates a new ProcedureCall to call the new procedure (see the ????section below for more information).
Disable/Enable	Disables/Enables the activity or the selected activities. Note that the disabled activities will not be executed and all the errors and warning related to these activities will not be displayed except the check rule Core-Chk011.
New Local Variable	Adds a new local variable to the current procedure.
Remove/Add Realisation	Removes/Adds realisation of the current activity. Note that you can only add realisation to some certain activities (EmptyBranch, EmptyParallel, EmptyHandler, Group, EmptyGroup, EmptyMutexGroup).
Toogle Breakpoint	Adds a break point to the current activity (see Debugging section for more information).

Above are only the common and important menu entries. There are also some other menu entries in the context menu when you right-click on some compound nodes, or some sub-branch of a compound nodes that can not be mentioned here.

Handling activities

Adding activities

To add an activity to the sequence, please follow the instructions as described below:

1. Find the corresponding activity from the Toolbox.
2. Drag the activity from the Toolbox into the sequence, note that there will be green plus signs displayed at the valid locations for this activity.
3. Drop activity on one of the plus sign sothat the plus sign is replaced by the icon of the activity.
4. If the insertion is not in the visible range of the sequence, drag the activity on one of the blue arrows at the edges of the Workflow Designer.
5. The drawing page will be scrolled toward the appropriate direction to to show the unseen range, move the mouse out of the blue arrow to stop scrolling.
6. Drop the activity at the valid location sothat the activity is generated in the appropriate place.
7. If you want to configure the activity, please use the Properties window or the Properties dialog box.

Adding further realisation for activities

An activity may have more than one realisation, see OTX basic concepts, below is an example of adding further realisation for an activity:

1. Drag an activity from the Toolbox into the sequence and drop it on a green plus sign (see example above).
2. Drag another activity from the Toolbox into the sequence and drop it on the existing activity to add further realisation, a context menu will be displayed.
3. Select the entry "Integrate" in the context menu to integrate the second activity with the first activity as the further realisation.
4. To add another realisation to the activity with many realisations, drag a new activity onto the display area of the realisations in the middle of the activity???.
5. There will be no context menu, the new activity will automtically become a realisation in the activity.
6. If you want to configure the realisation, click on the realisation icon in the activity with many realisation and use the Properties window or the Properties dialog box.

Besides using a new activity to add further realisation, you can also use an existing activity to add further realisation by drag-and-drop.

Replacing activities

You can replace an existing activity with another activity. If the existing activity has a specification, the new activity will inherit the same specification. To replace an activity, please proceed as follows:

1. Drag an activity from the Toolbox into the sequence and drop it on an existing activity in the workflow.
2. When the context menu appears, select the entry "Replace" and the existing activity will be replaced with the new activity.

Besides using a new activity to replace an existing activity, you can also use an existing activity to replace another activity by drag-and-drop.

Editing a sequence

In the Workflow Designer, one or more activities (nodes) can be copied, cut, pasted , or deleted, please proceed as follows:

1. Select an activity in the sequence, or select many activities by holding the CTRL key down and clicking on the all activities you want to select. You can also hold the SHIFT key and use mouse to drag a retangle to select all the covered activities.
2. To deselect some of the selected activities, hold down CTRL key and click on each activity you want to deselect
3. There are many ways to copy, cut, delete or paste the selected activities:

2.1		Use the keyboard shortcuts (CTRL+C: Copy, CTRL+X: Cut, DEL: Delete, CTRL+V: Paste) with the selected activities, note that you can paste on an activity or on an empty flow.
2.2		Use the context menu by right-clicking on one of the selected activities (or on an empty flow to paste) and selecting the corresponding entry
2.3		Use the corresponding command buttons in the tab "Start" of the Ribbon menu bar.
2.4		To copy and paste the selected activities by drag-and-drop: click and hold the mouse on one of the selected activities and drag them to the position you want to copy and paste (do not release the mouse), then hold down the CTRL key and release the mouse at the position (i.e. drop the activities at the position while holding the CTRL key)

1. To move the selected activities, click and hold the mouse on one of the selected activities and drag them to the new position (it must be a valid location i.e. where the green pluses appear) and release the mouse