About Workflow Designer

Use Workflow Designer to create or edit workflow definitions.

Workflow Designer is a graphical user interface that models Oracle APEX workflows. From Workflow Designer, you can:

• create a new workflow

• edit an existing workflow

• view all workflows for your application in tree form

• expand existing workflows to show additional information, including the workflow parameters, activities, transitions, variables, and participants

• expand or collapse parallel flow branches to view the activities inside the branch

• use the Workflow Diagram Builder to model workflows

• switch from one workflow definition to another

• view an invoked workflow from the Invoke Workflow activity of the parent workflow

Tip: For information on navigating Workflow Designer with a keyboard, see About Workflow Keyboard Shortcuts.

The Workflow Designer Tree

The Workflow Designer Tree shows all workflow definitions for your application in tree form.

The Workflow Designer Tree is the left pane in the Workflow Designer. When you expand a workflow definition, APEX shows the parameters for that workflow definition, and each version of the workflow. Expanding a workflow shows the following:

• workflow activities, including activity variables

• outgoing and incoming connections for each activity

• branches for parallel flow activities

• workflow participants

• workflow variables

Description of the illustration workflow_workflow_tree.png

Note:

For Parallel Flow activities, the branches show up in the next level of the activity. The activities in each branch are under the individual branch nodes in the tree. !{: .infoboxnote}

The Rendering Menu in the designer tree provides context-sensitive menu options. For example, if you right-click on a specific activity, the rendering menu may display:

• Create Activity Below

• Create Activity After

• Create Activity Variable

• Create Branch (Parallel Flow activity only)

• Create Connection

• Duplicate

• Expand All Below

• Collapse All Below

• Delete If you select a workflow version, the rendering menu may display:

• Activate/Deactivate

• Create Activity

• Create Variable

• Create Participant

• Expand All Below

• Collapse All Below

• Delete

Caution: The workflow designer tree displays all items according to the sequence value specified in the properties. This is not the same as the workflow execution order, which is determined by the workflow connections.

The Workflow Diagram Toolbar

The diagram toolbar contains tools for interacting with the Diagram Builder.

The diagram toolbar at the top of the Diagram Builder contains context-sensitive tools for changing how the workflow displays on the Drawing Area in the center of the page.

Description of the illustration workflow_diagram_toolbar.png

Use Bring to Front and Bring to Back to move activities on the drawing area forward or backward. This can help in places where activities on the drawing area overlap.

Use Direct Connection and Orthogonal Connection to change the appearance of specific connections. Direct connections are straight lines between two activities. Orthogonal connection use a combination of vertical lines, horizontal lines, and ninety-degree angles to connect two activities.

Tip: You can use the Default Router Setting option on the Layout Menu to set the default connection style for the workflow. Changing the default router setting does not update any connectors you have already individually configured.

Description of the illustration workflow_direct_orthogonal.png

Use Diagram Zoom In and Diagram Zoom Out to zoom the drawing area in and out.

Use Show Navigator View to toggle Navigator View , which is an overview that reflects the current state of the drawing area. To pan the drawing area in navigator view, click and drag the visible view rectangle.

Description of the illustration workflow_navigator_view.png

Use the Layout Menu to access Export Diagram, which exports the diagram as a PNG or SVG file. You can choose between exporting the whole diagram or only the visible viewport in Standard, High, or Very High resolution.

If you view a workflow invoked from another workflow, a Back option appears in the toolbar to easily navigate from the invoked workflow back to the parent workflow.

Description of the illustration workflow_diagram_back.png

The Activities Palette

The Activities Palette is a panel that displays all available activity types, including any custom process plugins you have configured.

The Activities Palette is located at the bottom of the drawing area, with one tab for Activities, and one for Draft Activities. Draft Activities are placeholders that do not have an implementation, but can be used in a workflow to model a particular step. You can add activities or draft activities to your workflow by dragging them from the activity palette onto the drawing area. Once a draft activity is ready to be implemented, you can change it to the actual activity type it is intended to represent.

Once you drag an activity onto the drawing area, a context-sensitive icon appears in the top right corner. The icon is red when there is an error or missing information in the activity. Selecting the activity brings up the activity properties with the error location(s) marked.

Description of the illustration workflow_activity_property_error.png

The Show Messages icon displays the number of errors in the workflow. You can select the icon to display a list of the error messages. You can select a specific error message to bring up the activity properties.

Description of the illustration workflow_activity_error.png

The Workflow Diagram Builder

The Workflow Diagram Builder is the central pane of the Workflow Designer.

The Diagram Builder models the information in the workflow tree in graphical form, with a visual representation of all activities and connections in a particular version of a workflow. In the Diagram Builder, you can create activities, move activities around, delete activities, and connect activities with transitions.

Tip: The Diagram Builder does not show workflow variables, parameters, activity variables, or participants. You can view those in the workflow tree.

Description of the illustration workflow_diagram_builder.png

The Drawing Area has a 10 pixel grid in the background. You can use the drawing area to reposition and move activities and connections around. When you reposition activities and links, they move in 10 pixel steps, staying aligned with the grid. If you reposition an activity, the connectors attached to the activity move with it. As you drag an activity, a dotted line appears when the activity aligns horizontally or vertically with other activities on the drawing area.

Description of the illustration workflow_dotted_alignment.png

The drawing area resizes automatically. If you move an activity outside of the drawing area, the drawing area automatically expands to accommodate the activity. If you delete activities, the drawing area shrinks to contain the remaining activities.

You can scroll the drawing area with the vertical and horizontal scrollbars, and zoom in and out with the buttons in the toolbar.

Activity Tools

Activities show two kinds of tools: the Connect tool and the Menu tool. These tools are context-sensitive, and are not visible if they are not available. For example, an end activity does not show the Connect tool, because end activities cannot have outbound connections.

Use the Connect tool when connecting two activities. The connect tool is available on multiple sides (top, right, bottom, or left) of each activity. Clicking the tool opens a menu where you can select the type of activity. APEX creates the new activity on the same side you clicked the connect tool on.

Description of the illustration workflow_activity_connect_menu.png

You can also use the Connect tool to create a new connection. Drag the end of the connection over an existing activity to connect it, or drag out from the connection tool on the existing activity to draw a new connection.

Description of the illustration workflow_new_connection_no_end.png

Use the Menu button to open a menu with the available actions for the activity.

Description of the illustration workflow_activity_menu_open.png

Tip: For Invoke Workflow activities, use the Open option on the menu to open the invoked workflow in the Workflow Diagram Builder. To return to the original workflow, select the Back link on the toolbar.

Tip:

For Parallel Flow activities, use the arrow on the icon to expand the branches.

Description of the illustration workflow_parallel_collapsed.png

While the branches are expanded, the rest of the workflow is greyed out.

Description of the illustration workflow_parallel_expanded.png

When you are finished modifying the branches in the parallel flow activity, click the arrow again. The parallel flow activity collapses, and the rest of the workflow is available to edit again.

Connection Tools

Connections may show different types of tools depending on which conditions they meet and whether they use normal or orthogonal routers:

• Arrowhead - Appears at the end of the visible connection at the connection point with the activity. At the source activity, it is a rounded rectangle. At the target, it is a triangle. Use arrowheads to reposition the ends of the connection. If you drag and release the arrowhead over an activity, the point where you release it is the anchor. You can drag an arrowhead to a new activity.

• Menu - Opens a menu with available actions for the connection.

• Add Element - Appears near the center of the connection or at the end of a connection not attached to an activity. Clicking the tool opens a menu with activities to place at the mid-point of the connection, effectively splitting it in two, or at the end of the connection.

• Vertex - Appears as point(s) on a connection. Connections always route through their vertices. Drag the center of a link to create a new vertex. Double-click an existing vertex to remove it. Drag an existing vertex to reposition it.

• Anchor - Appears over the source or target activity when a link is connected to it. Reposition anchors by dragging the circle or releasing the arrowhead over an activity. Double-clicking the anchor sets the anchor position to the center of the activity.

• Segment - Appears between two horizontally- or vertically-aligned connection points. Drag a segment to move that segment horizontally or vertically. This may create new vertices.

Description of the illustration workflow_labelled_connection.png

Positioning

If the diagram or the activity is read-only, you cannot change the position of the cells.

Otherwise, you can reposition elements on the drawing area by dragging them, or by using the keyboard shortcuts. For the keyboard shortcuts to work, you must place focus in the diagram.

For more on keyboard shortcuts, see About Workflow Keyboard Shortcuts.

Connecting Activities in the Workflow Diagram Builder

You can connect (link) activities by:

• clicking the Connect tool and selecting a menu entry

• dragging a link from the Connect tool and connecting it to an existing element

• dragging an activity from the palette and dropping it over an element when the element is highlighted

• dragging an activity from the palette and dropping it over a transition or link when the transition or link is highlighted

• dragging an activity from the palette or drag-repositioning an existing one, and dropping it over a placeholder at the end of the link