Designer Overview
This section covers the appRules Designer environment. It covers the main components including the toolbox, the designer, the property grid associated with the active activity, the Main Menu and Ribbon bar.
Configuration Menu
The main top configuration menu gives access to the general features like datasource definitions, datasource Browser...
Designer
The Designer is the work surface for composing appRules projects. It is the drag/drop environment on which activities are defined and connected to form the flow of the process. To add a workflow activity to any part of the designer, drag it from the toolbox and drop it on the designer.
ToolBox
The Toolbox shows the available workflow activities including the Generic activities and appConnector activities. The activities in the toolbox are grouped into sections.
Project Ribbon
This Ribbon gives access to the project management tools and the properties of the current opened Project
Menu | Option | Description |
File | Log Into Project Database | To Open a different project Database |
| User Settings | To Edit the current user settings |
| Configure Toolbox | To Add or Remove activity modules from the current Toolbox |
| Master Admin Options | This submenu gives access to the Admin features (Create project Database, License Manager...). It will require to login as a Master Admin |
| Developer Options | This submenu gives a quick access to the project management options (like Edit or Schedule a specific project) |
| Log Out | Log Off from the current database and close the application |
Settings | RunTime Settings | Define the runtime settings for the different environment (test, Production, Development…) |
| Users | (Admin Only) Define the users and passwords, and their types (Admin, Dev…) |
| DataSources | Manage the DataSources used in the current project database (Datasource Connections, Metadata, File Definitions…) |
| Projects | Access the Project management window (to copy, delete a project, manage arguments and variables, custom functions and script definitions, project notes…) |
Run | Validate a Project | Allows to Validate the projects one by one without opening them in the Designer (for details about the Validate option see the Ribbon Bar related button in the following pages) |
| Run a Project | Select a Project and Run it from the application |
Logs/Statistics | Project Run Details | Display the complete Logs/Stats of a selected project ordered by Run Instances |
| Project Run Instances | Display the Run Instances of a selected Project |
| Database Log Entries | Display the content of the logs for a selected Project (less or more detailed depending on the project settings) Selection can be done in a date range |
| Project Activity Statistics | Display the statistics related to project activities (number of times that an activity is executed and counters by Status Valid or Invalid) |
| Project Datasource Statistics | Display the statistics about the project datasources (number of read, update, insert, delete) |
| System Log Files | Access the Log Files generated by debugging |
CheckIn/CheckOut | CheckIn Project Database | To Copy a database to another database (the source database elements are not locked for editing) |
| CheckOut Project Database | To Copy a database to another database (the source database elements are locked for editing) |
DataSource Browser | | Allows to read/write DataSources using SQL. DataSources can be accessed using the project database DataSources or dynamically setting up the connection in the browser |
Monitor | Display the list of current running or completed projects, memory usage etc | Allows to filter running processes and kill a selected process. |
Options | Description |
New | To create a new project |
Open | Open an existing project |
Save | Save the current project |
Details | Set the current project properties, rename or validate the project, revert activities to a specific version, define/declare the customfunctions and scripts used, set scheduling etc |
Notes | Displays the Notes associated to the current Project |
Validate | Displays a summary window of the validation errors for the activities used in the current project |
Run | Run the current project |
Logs/Stats | Displays summary information and statistics about the project including activity, data source and other counts. |
Version Control | Allows revert the current project displaying the list of the saved versions. |
Schedule | Schedule the project to run at a specific date/time (using the scheduling service) |
Zoom in | Increase the size of the designer view |
Zoom out | Decrease the size of the designer view |
Undo | Undo the last designer action |
Redo | Redo the last designer action |
Delete | Delete the selected activity from the designer view |
To include activity modules in the appRules toolbox, click the gear icon located at the top right of the toolbox:
or select “Configure Toolbox” from the File Menu
Check the selected modules to be included into the Designer and Click ”Reset Toolbox” when done
This section explains what is required in Visual Studio to design custom functions that will be called in the appRules Projects.
The appRules Portal installation contains a sample Visual Studio Project that you can duplicate to make your own library (located in the CustomFunctions folder of your appRules Portal installation.
Once defined, compile your library and copy it into the C:\ProgramData\appStrategy\PortalData\Default\CustomFunctions folder (NB: if your custom function uses external dlls, put them in the appRulesPortal\bin folder)