Open architecture for extensions

Together XPDL Workflow Editor can be freely configured and extended or  restricted to your needs. Every part of the editor can be configured by itself, disabled, extended or replaced by configuration files or custom plugins.

A special configuration is already available in the product to support Together XPDL and BPMN Workflow Server / Enhydra Shark specifics.

Additionally custom activity types using individual graphical symbols in the graph, hiding unnecessary XPDL attributes, adding specific entry fields for special extended attributes, editor dialog customizations, extended validation rules and many other possibilities are offered to tailor Together XPDL Workflow Editor to your project needs.

Please contact us for Custom Development if you have special requirements.

Customization example - "Loop Activity"

The editor includes a small example of possible TWE customizations by introducing a special activity type "Loop activity". A "Loop activity" is a specific type of BlockActivity. It is specific because it always must have four special extended attributes set: 
  • BackToPool
  • SetTemporary
  • LoopType
  • LoopCondition
and because it allows only one incoming and only one outgoing transition to respectively from the activity.
 
Sources for this customization example are of course available.
 
Enable the customization example
 
  1. You must have Together XPDL and BPMN Workflow Editor installed on your machine
  2. Start the Together XPDL and BPMN Workflow Editor normally
  3. Select "Settings"-"Configuration"-"Loop Activity sample" from the main menu
How to test the "Loop activity" customization

You'll notice that the Graph component has an additional activity type in the toolbox.
 
  1. Create a new Package
  2. Create a new Process
  3. Insert a new Participant into the process graph
  4. Select "loop activity" from the toolbox, and insert the new activity into the graph
You now will see that the inserted activity has a special icon and the property panel differs from a normal BlockActivity (or any other activity).
 
The differences are:
  • The 'General' tab displays only a few activity properties plus two special extended attributes, presented as check-boxes
  • There are no 'Simulation information' and 'Extended attributes' tabs
  • There is an additional tab called 'Loop characteristic' which contains two other special extended attributes presented as a combo-box and a text-area
 
Select the XPDL View component while having opened the dialog for editing the properties of the inserted loop activity
 
Click the check-boxes 'Back to pool' and 'Set temporary' information on the general tab, and press the apply button and you will see how the change reflects in the XPDL document - the two corresponding extended attributes are changing their values
 
Change the values in the 'Loop characteristic' tab and after press the "apply" button, you'll see the other two corresponding extended attributes changing their values
 
Now insert some other activities into the process graph and try to connect them to our 'Loop activity'. You will not be able to have more than one input and more than one output connection.
 
This small example shows a part of the the power and flexibility of Together XPDL Workflow Editor.
 
Many other scenarios for your special needs could be supported