Customized Frameworks

Description

Frameworks are bundled groups of logicnets, data tables, and resources that LogicNets creates and packages to perform use-specific functions. In addition to the frameworks LogicNets offers, you can create a custom framework -- a framework with additional form-parts and nodes for your Designer users working with that framework.

A practical use case for this would be when the users of the framework need to use a particular node or form part in their modeled content regularly, with the same specific settings each time. In that case, it would be useful to turn those settings into a reusable node and form-part and make it available in the Nodes Toolbox menu, instead of having each user recreate the settings every time.

To create a custom framework, in your project settings under the General section, select framework from the Type dropdown menu. The system will display additional options in the Framework section at the bottom of the project settings.

Adding Form Parts and Nodes

You can add additional form parts and/or nodes in the project settings area of the framework. When you do this, these nodes and form parts appear in the toolbar of the Designer and the context menu.

• In the Nodes Toolbox, all items are organized under the different toolbar menus.
• In the context menu the nodes are added to the top-level menu and the form-parts will be added to the ‘form-parts’ menu.

When opening the project settings, navigate to: 'Additional node-types' or ‘Additional form-part types’ to respectively add additional node or form-parts.

You must specify node types and form-part types as a ‘named LUA collection’ with the following syntax (see screenshot for example):

• All node-types and form-part types need to be held in an overall container {}
• Each node-type or form-part type is a separate ‘named’ item in the container:

                 {my_text_input = {}}

The name should be unique, because the name is the unique key the system uses to identify the node or form part. When the name is the same as one that already exists in the system, the customized settings override the system default settings of the corresponding node.

 

Node Type and Form-Part Fields

Each node type or form-part type has the following fields:

• caption : This is the name of the node or form part as presented in the designer toolbar or context menu
• value: This data structure should contain the template definition of the node or form part. (* See below.)
• permissions: This data structure controls the visibility of the node or form part. When it is not specified, the node or form part is visible to anyone. Set permissions to admin, for example, to make the node or form part only visible to a Designer user with the admin role.
• category: This data structure determines where the node or form part displays in the Designer toolbar.
  • name: This is the category name.
  • menu_position: This is the menu position on the toolbar (see below).
  • node_position: This is the item's position in the menu.
  • icon: This is the icon that should be used for the node or form-part (.svg) format. When this is omitted the system displays a default icon.     

Menu Position

The platform has the following pre-defined menus and positions:

1. form-parts
2. reporting-parts
3. process
4. routing
5. call-parts
6. form
7. special

When the menu_position is set to any of the above, the node/form part will be merged within that menu. If you create your own position the system adds it to the end of the toolbar.

Customizing Existing Nodes and Form Parts

In a framework it is also possible to customize the standard platform nodes and form parts. You can customize the settings for node and form parts by redefining them in the Additional node-types or Additional form-part-types fields. If you customize the settings of existing nodes, the name of the item must match the name of the pre-defined node or form part.

Hiding Nodes and Form Parts

You can hide nodes and form parts from users if they are not applicable. To hide nodes, navigate to the Hide node-types or Hide form-part-types fields and click the checkbox next to the the items that should be hidden.
 

Note: Permissions settings in nodes and form-part definitions have precedence over these checkboxes.  

Tips and Tricks

*Advanced Tip for Generating the 'value' for Template Definition

To more easily create the value for a form-part template, first add and configure the node or form part you want to use as a template. Then go to the Code tab and copy the whole definition and strip out all the unnecessary settings from the definition and use the core settings for the template.

Format of Additional Parts input

Note that there is no validation or syntax check on the inputs for Additional Node type or Additional Form Part types.

The custom framework will not display your custom menu unless the syntax is correct. It is similar to JSON, and must have matching open/close parentheses ie. {....}

Suggestions to insure changes can be implemented smoothly include:

• use Notepad ++ to copy the original and paste a new LUA collection (this program keeps an audit trail, so it is easy to Undo changes multiple times
• (potentially) you can use a JSON interpreter online to insure that the format is exactly right