Creating GP Development Objects

The major components of the Guided Procedures (GP) framework are the GP development objects ( IGPDevelopmentObject ). Development objects are all activities ( IGPActivity ) and callable objects ( IGPCallableObject ).

Activities are the basic elements of a process:

• Simple activities are called actions.

  Being the simplest type of activity, an action describes a one-step operation. The operation execution is delegated to an external component, represented by the callable object.

• Composite activities that consist of other activities are called blocks. The process itself is a top-level block.

In GP design time, you use the modifiable versions of these objects.

IGPModifiableDevelopmentObject Hierarchy

Using the GP design time API, you can create:

• Callable Objects

  To create a callable object, you have to specify basic data for it. Additionally, you may populate its input and output structures with substructures and attributes, and include configuration parameters, exceptions and result states in the implementation.

• Actions

  You create an action by specifying its basic data and input and output structure parameters. You can then assign to it callable objects for execution and display.

• Blocks

  To create a block, you need to specify basic data for it. Further, you have to handle block structure manipulation.

  At block level you can also:

  • Set targets for the existing result states.

    See Defining Transitions .

  • Create exception handlers for actions.

    See Implementing Exception Handling .

  • Implement parameter mapping within the block.

    See Implementing Parameter Mapping .

• Processes

  You create a process by specifying its basic data, as well as the order in which blocks are related to each other.

  You also need to implement role consolidation at process level. For more information, see Implementing Role Consolidation .