Overview.. 3

Introduction. 3

Getting Started. 3

Main Screen. 4

Menus. 4

Generate Vertical Activity Code. 5

Select Process Definition and Destination. 5

Select Automated Activities. 6

Select Manual Activities. 8

Summary. 9

Structure of the output generated. 11

Automated Activity Code. 11

Manual Activities with Swing Option. 12

Manual Activities with Web Option. 13

 

Overview

          This document explains in detail the functionalities of the GSi Vertical Generator. This document will help the intended users to understand and use the GSi Vertical Generator.

 

Introduction

 

GSi Vertical Generator is a rapid application development (RAD) tool which will help in reducing the time required to develop a vertical.

          This tool will help in reducing the time required to develop User Interfaces and Automated activities. The tool generates user interfaces for manual activities and provides templates for generation of automated activity code.

 

Features:

·         Stand-alone (Swing) based tool

·         Given the information of the inputs and outputs of a automated activity, automated activity implementation skeleton code will be generated.

·         Given the information of the inputs and outputs of a manual activity, screens (Swing / HTML) will be generated and also the code to send information about the completion of a manual activity will be generated

·         Allow User selection of activities for generation

Getting Started

To install GSi Vertical Generator, you need to have the JRE 1.4.2 or above to be installed on the machine. Once the JRE is installed, run the GSi Vertical Generator installer and step thru to screens to complete the installation.

 

To run GSi Vertical Generator,

• Select on Windows Start Menu > Programs > Comat Technologies > GSi Vertical Generator > GSi Vertical Generator
• Or if the desktop short-cut creation is selected during installation double-click on the GSi Vertical Generator short-cut.

This will launch the GSi Vertical Generator.

Main Screen

                      Main Screen (Figure 1) appears once the Vertical Generator is started.

Figure 1:Vertical Generator Main Screen

          Menus

                        Main Screen has two menus

1.      Tools Menu (Figure 2)

    

                                                Figure 2:Vertical Generator Tools Menu

                                    Tools Menu has two Menu Items

·         Generate       - (Tools -> Generate Ctrl-G) to Open                 Generator Dialog (Figure 4)

·         Exit              - (Tools -> Exit Ctrl-X) to Exit from          the GSi Vertical Generator Tool.

2.      Help Menu

    

                                                Figure 3:Vertical Generator Help Menu

                                  Help Menu has two Menu Items

·         Help              -

·         About           -(Tools -> About) to know details of                    GSi Vertical Generator

Generate Vertical Activity Code

The template based skeleton for manual and automated activities in a process can be generated using the Vertical Generator tool. To generate activity code, use the menu and select (Tools -> Generate Ctrl-G)

          This launches the generation wizard which has four steps to generate the Activity Code and User Interface for the selected Process (Process Definition File (.xml))

 

Select Process Definition and Destination

            First Step     - In this step, specify the process definition and destination directory where the generated output code needs to be placed.

 

Select the Process Definition File and Output Destination Directory. (Figure 4)

Figure 4:First Step Generate Vertical

• As Shown in (Figure 4) Enter the following details.

Process Definition (Figure 5)

                Figure 5:Process Definition Name

            Click on the Ellipse button to get File Chooser and then select the Process definition (.xml) file.

          Selected file name will be displayed in the Process Definition field.

• Destination Directory (Figure 6)

    

                Figure 6:Destination Directory

          Click on the Ellipse button to get File Chooser and then select the out put destination directory (where the generated code will be stored)

          Selected destination directory name will be displayed in the Destination directory field.

• Overwrite (Figure 7)

    

                Figure 7:Overwrite

            Select if the existing code can be over written.

• Click on Next button to select the Activity list.

     For Invalid file (process definition) format the following Error message is          shown.

    

 

Select Automated Activities

            Second Step - In this step the automated activities list will be displayed for the Process Definition chosen in First Step. (Figure 8) This list will be used to select the automated activities which require code generation.

 

Figure 8:Second Step Automated Activities selection

• Right Side of the Panel show the Process Name (Top) and List Of Automated Activity (Below)
• Automated Activity List Shows the Name, Selection, Compensation, Type and Package Name.
• Selection Field          -Click on the Selection checkbox to select the activities for which automated activity code needs to be generated.

Figure 9:Select Automated Activity

• As Shown in (Figure 9) Once the Activity get Selected (Click on Selection Field to Select / Deselect).
• User will Get the Option to select the Type of Code to Generate (Java Class / EJB – Not supported) as Shown in Type Field (Figure 9)
• Figure 8 contains two buttons which can be used as shown below
1. Select All       - Click on this to select all the activity.
2. Clear All         - Click on to clear the selection of the activity.

Select Manual Activities

            Third Step     - In this step the manual activities list will be displayed for the Process Definition chosen in First Step. (Figure 10) This list will be used to select the manual activities which require UI generation. Along with the manual activity UI’s, the default task list and processing code will be generated.

 

Figure 10:Third Step Manual Activity

• Right Side of the Panel show the Process Name (Top) and List Of Manual Activity (Below)
• Manual Activity List Shows the Name, Selection, Compensation, Type and Package Name.
• Selection Field          - Click on the Selection checkbox to select the activities for which manual activity UI needs to be generated

 

Figure 11:Selected Manual Activity

• As Shown in (Figure 11) Once the Activity get Selected (Click on Selection Field to Select / Deselect).
• Generation Type       - Figure 12 Shows the drop down with Swing and Web

    

                Figure 12:Manual Activity Generation Type

• Depends on the selection Code is Generated. (Swing –Swing Code for User Interface, Web – Web Code for User Interface)
• Package Name          - Figure 11 Top Right Shows package name field. Enter package name to generate the User Interface code in that package structure. Package name is only for Swing
• Figure 11       Shows two button
1. Select All       - Click on this to select all the activity.
2. Clear All         - Click on to clear the selection of the activity.

·         Important              - At least one Activity (Automated / Manual) should be selected to generate (go to next step).

Summary

            Fourth Step  - This is final step which shows all the selections made in terms of process definition selected, automated and manual activities selected for code generation. This essentially shows the summary of the first three steps. (Figure 13)

 

Figure 13:Fourth Step Summary

Shows the following

·         Process Definition Name

·         Destination Directory

·         Overwrite status

·         List of selected Automated  Activities (Figure 13 Left List)

·         List of selected Manual Activities (Figure 13 Right List)

·         Click Cancel button to Exit the Generator

·         Click Finish button to Generate Code and User Interface for selected Activities

·         On Success Full Generation of Code and User Interface Figure 14 is shown as user confirmation message. The output generated can be seen by looking into the destination folder.    

·         Else the appropriate Error message is show.

Figure 14:Generate Message

Structure of the output generated

            This section explained the structure and contents of the output generated by using the Generate option.

 

The Figure 15 shows the screenshot of the output generated folder.

 

Figure 15:Generated Output

• Figure 15 shows code and user interface in the Output Directory (Selected in Step 1 Process Definition)
• _aa (under Output directory) has the code(file) generated for the Automated Activity selected in Step 2
• _swing (under Output directory) has the code(file) generated for the Manual Activity selected in Step 3 with Swing as code generation type.
• _web (under Output directory) has the code(file) generated for the Manual Activity selected in Step 3 with Web as code generation type.

Automated Activity Code

In case of any automated activities selected for generation, the output is created in the “_aa” folder. This folder will in turn have folder as per the package structure specified in the automated activity definitions.

 

Figure 16:Automated Activity Code Structure

• Figure 16 shows the Automated Activity directory structure.
• AddToPayroll.java               - File generated for Automated Activity which selected in Second Step. (Figure 8)

 

Manual Activities with Swing Option

This section describes the structure and contents of the code generated for manual activities with Swing as the UI generation option.

Figure 17:Swing Code Generated

Figure 17 shows the Swing code generated for Manual Activities.

• lib                – directory contains library (.jar) files needed.
• src                   - directory contains src (.java) files.
• build.xml          - build script to compile and build the source files.
• run.bat            - once build is done to run the application it can be used.

 

Figure 18:Swing Code Package Structure

• Package Structure entered in the Third Step (Manual Activity) is shown here. That is under src directory com\comat\test
• Then under the package Structure (Figure 18) controller, gui and model directory are generated by the tool.
• User can modify the src files in these folders and execute build.xml to compile and generate the interface. And user run file run the application.

 

Manual Activities with Web Option

This section describes the structure and contents of the code generated for manual activities with Web as the UI generation option.

          In case of web generation, the manual tasks related user interfaces and task list code are auto-generated and is available in the destination folder specified.

          The Figure 19 shows the directory structure. The structure is the normal Java based Web Application Archive WAR file based.

Figure 19:Web Application Package Structure

The directory structure is as shown in (Figure 19)

• config – Consists of the task-to-user interface mapping file. This file can be configured to provide the task to UI mapping
• ui – Consists of the JSP (Java Server Page) files generated for selected manual activities. This also contains the default UI for login, task list and task completion form
• WEB-INF – Consists of the regular contents in terms of classes & lib folder and web.xml. The classes folder consists of the i18n related properties file which can be used for customization for other languages also.