The Workflow Editor (hereafter 'WFE') is a frontend application for the development of script-based workflows designed to enable users without specific technical background to create Workflows for Laboperator. To create a new workflow with the WFE, you are currently forwarded to a new creation process upon log-in.

Information

When creating a new workflow, the user will be prompted to enter a Title and optional Description meant to help find the workflow once it is part of a Collection. The field "Author" will be filled the the user name of the active user. Version and UUID, however, are something more technical, as it is important for the management of workflows.

Note: The automatically generated UUID in combination with the semantic versioning number allows unique access to each Workflow created with the WFE, while preserving different versions of the same workflow (e.g. corresponding to different versions of Laboperator or different versions of the connected devices).

Configuration

In this part of the creation, you can define a navigation delay, which will determine how quickly one step of the workflow will transition to the next. The signature is important for the verification process, with the free text defining the purpose of the signature or what is to be confirmed hereby. After entering all this information, a click on Flow in the left navigation bar opens the actual design phase of the workflow.

Tip: Since a specific sequence of creation is technically not required, the actual Workflow creation described below (being the Flow part) may just as well be done first and everything described up to this point (being the General part) may be done afterwards.

Flow

The flow view is split into two sections, the flowchart area (the space where the new flowchart will take shape), and the side bar which contains the elements to create a workflow (provide the Steps and Conditions building and structuring them respectively).

The workflow is assembled by repeatedly choosing the point of entry in the flowchart area and adding an element: a Step or a Condition from the sidebar. Some of these elements need configuration, i.e. choices need to be made and values entered. After each element is configured, clicking Add will add the element to the flowchart. Once several (+) symbols are visible, the pulsing one will be the active edge where the next element will be inserted. In order to change it, simply click on another (+) symbol.

There are currently three different Conditions to choose from for creating. Please, follow the respective link for a detailed description of the respective creation process:

• If-Then — E.g.: Temperature is checked once and if bad triggers the alert.
• Loop While — E.g.: Temperature check loop: Continue while good; then trigger alert.
• Loop Until — E.g.: Temperature check loop: Continue until bad; then trigger alert.

Publish

Clicking on Publish opens a pop-up allowing the creator to upload the Workflow into a Collection in Laboperator, showing title and description as entered in the Information section.

Note: As long as a workflow has not been published to the Laboperator Collection, every part of it can still be revised with the WFE. Saving Workflows inside the WFE, however, is currently not supported. After each publication, the version number must be incremented for the next revision and publication (according to the principles of semantic versioning).

After a successful upload the confirmatory message will look like this.

The Workflow is available from within Laboperator now. Click "Open in Laboperator" for direct access.