About the DPC Process Designer

The DPC Process Designer is a tool to be used at buildtime. It allows the Expert user to create an entire Design Process with pre-defined steps that help end users supervise building processes.

This page discusses:

See Also
Using the Know-how Apps ComponentsProcess Designer
Using the Supervision Window

Accessing the DPC Process Designer

Before starting working with the DPC Process Designer, the expert user must have opened the Know-how Apps Components app and created at least one Technological Type and a User Operation.

Once the steps above are complete, the expert user can click Generate Process in the Types and Processes section.

Note: Clicking this icon opens automatically a new tab called DPC Process Designer. It also generates a node called List of Processes in the tree. A process is created in this node and it has the same name as the previously created technological type (e.g. Skate here).



Notes:
  • In case the DPC Process Designer has been closed and you want to reopen it, a dialog box called Existing process appears when clicking . The expert user is asked if he wants to reset the already existing process or if he wants to cancel the command. Resetting means getting back to the initial status of the process.
  • A process is located in the List of Processes node, in the tree. To edit a process, the Expert User can double-click it in the tree: the Process Designer appears. He can delete a process selecting it, right-clicking it and selecting the Delete command in the context menu.
  • The process can be automatically applied to the UI active Object. To do so, select the process, select Edit > Properties and check Apply on UI Active object.

User Interface

Once a process has been generated, the DPC Process Designer can be used to create the necessary user operations.

First of all, you can see that the DPC Process Designer opens in an independent tab. The Know-how Apps Components app view remains inactive while the DPC Process Designer is opened. This particular tab is divided into three parts. The first one is the Designer and represents the whole process and its various steps. The second section on the up right is the Toolbox that contains elements that can be added to the process. Finally, the section on the lower right contains the Property Grid that allows the expert user to define several aspects of a step or transitions between steps.

The Designer reproduces all the steps that have been defined in the Know-how Apps Components app. These steps appear in a chronological order and you can modify the order in which the steps appear by simply dragging and dropping the ones you want to move.

The Toolbox comprises four commands:

  • The User Operation command allows adding new steps in the Design Process. Note that you can drag and drop a step as much as you want.
  • The command called If Else allows the expert user to split the process at a given moment, adding branches to the process. You can add a branch by right-clicking the branch and then clicking Add branch in the context menu.
  • The While command helps the end user to repeat the same operation until the condition is not valid anymore.
  • Sequence allows adding an entire new sequence within the Design Process.
    Note: Each function can be added to the Design Process performing a simple drag-and-drop operation.

    Note: One User Operation with a same name can be used only one time.

The Property Grid gives information on each activity. There are different Property Grids that are available and each one depends on the activity that has been chosen:
  • The Property Grid corresponding to the User Operation function contains several properties: Name, Description, ContinuationLevel, OperationMode and OperationName.

    - The ContinuationLevel property allows specifying that even if an operation fails at runtime, the next step is still processed.

    - The OperationMode property can be either set to Manual or Auto. For the Manual mode, when the execution process is in the As Defined position, the activity has to be executed in Manual mode by the User. The Auto mode allows having the process executed automatically.

    This table shows which operation can be used at runtime and more precisely if it can be used in automatic or manual mode or if it is unavailable:



  • The Property Grid corresponding to both the If Else and the While function contains several properties: Name, Description and Declarative Rule Condition.

    - Concerning the Declarative Rule Condition and the building of condition expressions, it is necessary to use the attribute of each type to build conditions. The attributes belonging to a type have a "DPC_" prefix (e.g DPC_Usage or DPC_RealLength). Once a condition is defined, you can type the right expression by clicking the ... button located in the Expression field (this button can be opened upon inserting the If Else function for example, and by clicking the Declarative Rule Condition field, then by clicking the ... button. After it, just expand Declarative Rule Condition, select a condition and fill the expression field). When clicking the ... button, the Select Condition dialog box opens and allows choosing the appropriate expression).

    Note: The While function can only contain one activity and it is necessary to insert a Sequence function if several activities have to be included.
  • The Property Grid corresponding to the Sequence function contains two properties: Name and Description.
    Note: Conditions must be set once either if the While or the If Else command have been added to the Design Process. A condition can be edited upon typing it in the Expression field (under Declarative Rule Conditions).

    When the expert user has finished setting-up his whole Design Process, he can click OK to validate it or click Apply to test if the whole Design Process has been done properly. Clicking Cancel allows erasing the modifications performed within the framework of the Design Process.

    Note: A condition can be used several times within the same DPC process.

Using a Loop Within the Context of DPC Process Designer

The While loop is stopped when a condition that has been previously set is not valid anymore. This condition has not been made to give a precise number of iterations. A bypass exists and allows continuing the process.

For this purpose, it is necessary to create 2 distinct attributes. The type of these attributes has to be Integer and their quality has to be Internal.

  • The first attribute (its name is Iteration for example) contains the current iteration and has to be initialized to 1.
  • The second attribute (its name is Max for example) contains the total number of iterations.

Then you have to create one sequence:

  • For example, the sequence can be called Sequence to repeat. It has to comprise a EKL Action Operation which content is iteration=iteration+1. In this particular sequence, the expert includes any and all operations he wants to be looped.

After this, you have to create a DPC Process. Then insert a While type loop in which you have to include the sequence to repeat. The condition to include in the While activity has to be the following: this.DPC_Iteration<=this.DPC_Max.

DPC_Iteration and DPC_Max both correspond to the two attributes created at the very beginning. If you want to reexecute the process, re-set the attribute iteration to 1.