Editing Flow Files in the Flow Chart View (Biblioteca SAP

Editing Flow Files in the Flow Chart View

Use

You use this procedure to edit flow files in the Flow Chart view of the HTMLBusiness editor.

Prerequisites

You have created the flow file.

Procedure

Start the HTML^Business editor for the HTML template you want to edit.

Switch to Flow Chart view

If this button is not active, make sure you have created the flow file.

Edit the flow file as required using the functions described below.

When editing flow files in the Flow Chart view, you can:

Add elements
Select and deselect elements
Toggle element selection
Change elements
Activate and deactivate elements
Move elements
Tear off elements
Drag and drop elements
Connect edges
Delete elements
Navigate to elements in the Flow Source view
Zoom the display
Hide / display the grid and enable / disable snapping

Adding Elements

Function	Procedure
Add a state or a connector to the page	Right-click anywhere on the page. Choose Add connector or Add state.
Add an event or a module to a state	Right-click on the state. Choose Add event or Add module.
Add an event to a connector	Right-click on the connector. Choose Add event.
Add a default edge, exception edge or result edge to a module	Right-click on the module. Choose Add default edge, Add exception edge or Add result edge.

Since modules are executed sequentially from top to bottom, their location within a state is important. If you add a module to a state by right-clicking, the position of the new module in the sequence depends on where you right-click.

If you right-click above the first module, the new module becomes the first module to be executed
If you right-click below the last module, the new module becomes the last module to be executed

If you right-click between two existing modules, you insert the new module between them

Selecting and Deselecting Elements

Function	Procedure
Select a single element	Click on the element.
Select multiple elements	Click anywhere on the page. Drag the mouse to enclose the elements you want to select.
Deselect elements	Click anywhere on the page.

Nota

You cannot select any combination of elements. For example, if a state is already selected, you cannot add an event to the selection. If you try to do this, the state triggered by the event is selected.

A selection can consist of any of the following combinations:

Connectors and states
Modules
Events
Default, exception and result edges

If you SHFT and click on an element that is incompatible with the current selection, the element’s owner is selected instead. If there is no compatible owner, an error occurs.

Toggling Element Selection

Function	Procedure
Toggle the selection state of an element between selected and not selected	SHFT and click on the element. If you press SHFT at the same time, you can also use the rubberband to toggle the selection of multiple elements.

Changing Elements

To change elements, edit the properties in the Properties window.

If the Properties window is not displayed, make it visible by choosing View ® Properties.

Edit the properties of an element by double-clicking on the name of the property you want to change in the Properties window and entering or selecting the new value.

Nota

You cannot change some properties in the Properties window.

Activating / Deactivating Elements

To activate an inactive element (or deactivate an active element), do either of the following:

Select the element, right-click and choose Active

Select the element, go to the Properties window and set the active property to 0 or 1

Deactivating an element comments it out in the flow logic, so that it has no effect when the flow file is executed.

The Flow Chart view displays inactive states and modules in gray, inactive edges and events with dashed lines. You cannot deactivate connectors, because there is no corresponding element in the flow logic.

Moving Elements

To move single or multiple elements, select and drag to the desired location.

Tearing Off Elements

You can tear some elements off their parent elements. You can:

Tear events off their owning state or connector
Tear modules off their owning state
Tear edges off their source and target

When you tear an element off its parent element, the element becomes inactive.

Dragging and Dropping Elements

You can drag and drop elements anywhere on the page, but if you drop an element that requires an owner on to an element that cannot own the element you are dropping, the element you are dropping becomes inactive. For example, if you drop a module on the page, not on a state, the module and all its edges become inactive.

To link an element to a new owner, drag it there. As soon as the mouse pointer enters a possible owner for the element you are dragging, the new owner is highlighted and becomes the new owner of the dragged element.

As soon as you drop a previously inactive element on a new owner, it becomes active.

Connecting Edges

Since an edge has a source and a target, its dragging behavior is more complex.

You can drop an edge either on a module or on a connector or state:

If you drop an edge on a module, the module becomes the new source of the edge
If you drop an edge on a connector or state, the connector or state becomes the new target

You can also reconnect an edge to its source or target. If you do this, a circle known as a handle appears at the start and end of an edge as soon as you select it.

To reconnect an edge, drag either of its handles to their new owners. For example, to reconnect the target of an edge from a state to a connector, tear the end handle off the state and link it to the connector by dragging it from the state to the connector.

Deleting Elements

To delete an element, select the element(s), right-click and choose Delete.

Navigating to Elements in the Flow Source View

To navigate to an element in the HTML^Business editor’s Flow Source view, double click on the element.

Nota

You cannot navigate to connectors, because they have equivalent in the flow logic.

When you switch from the Flow Source view to the Flow Chart view, the HTMLBusiness editor parses the flow logic in the Flow Source view to generate the graphical representation in the Flow Chart view. If there are errors in the flow logic, the Flow Chart view displays incorrect elements in a red frame instead of a gray frame and these errors are also listed in the message area window. To navigate to the element that caused an error, double click on the error message.

Zooming the Display

To zoom the display in the Flow Chart view, you can choose any predefined zoom factor or enter any zoom factor between 1% and 1000% in the Zoom Factor combo box.

A zoom factor of 100% displays the flow elements in their standard size. This is the default.

If you choose a zoom factor larger than 100%, the size of the flow elements increases

As the size of the elements increase, the texts become easier to read, but less of the flow is visible.

If you choose a zoom factor smaller than 100%, the size of the flow elements decreases

As the size of the elements decreases, the texts become more difficult to read, but more of the flow is visible.

Hiding / Displaying the Grid and Enabling / Disabling Snapping

To support the alignment of elements in the Flow Chart view, you can set the density of the grid dots by choosing a grid size from the Grid Size combo box. This allows you to drag elements from one grid position to another by snapping rather than moving them smoothly.

If you choose a large grid size, the grid dots become less dense
If you choose a small grid size, the grid dots become denser

You can enable / disable snapping with the two button to the right of the Grid Size combo box

To hide the grid and disable snapping, choose the left button
To display the grid and enable snapping (default), choose the right button