Open architecture for extensibility

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

Two special configurations in addition to standard XPDL (saving graphical positions in extended attributes)) or pure XPDL are already available in the product to support Together Workflow Server / Enhydra Shark and WfMOpen specifics !

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

Have a look at our Success Stories to learn how other companies are using highly customized versions of Together Workflow Editor in their products / projects.

Feel free to contact us for Custom Development if you have special requirements !

Customization example - "Loop Activity"

The product and demo versions include 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 called:

- BackToPool
- SetTemporary
- LoopType
- LoopCondition

and because it allows only one incoming and only one outgoing transition to/from the activity.

Sources for this customization example are available for customers and partners in the Customer & Partner Area / Together Product Updates section.

How to enable the customization example

1. You must have Together Workflow Editor 2.3-1 or higher (demo or professional) installed on your machine.

2. Start the Together Workflow Editor normally.

3. Select "Settings"-"Configuration"-"Loop Activity sample" from the 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 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

5. Select the XPDL View component while having opened the dialog for editing properties of inserted loop activity

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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 Workflow Editor Professional Edition.

Many other scenarios for your special needs could be supported !