library/sequencer/doc/details.html
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<title>Wizard sequencer -- Details</title>
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<!-- Author: Michal Svec <msvec@suse.cz> -->
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<h1>Wizard sequencer -- Details</h1>
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<p><a name="details"><u><h2>Details</h2></u>
As there were many problems with interface and workflow design,
we would like to outline a possibility of siplifying this task.
<h3>Popups</h3>
Thirst thought is to include all dialogs into the Sequence. For
example the Popups. With the current design it is quite easy and
it would unify the overall workflow design.
<h3>Buttons</h3>
Because one of the often changes to the already done workflows
was some rearragement of dialogs in different order, we want to
simplify this task a most. Ideally, if one wants to exchange two
dialogs, he only have to exchange to rows in a map.
But, this demand force us to somehow handle some parts of interface,
I mean the bottom buttons. Usually, there will be [Back] and [Next].
But, for example the last dialog can have [Finish]. And if we
want to transparently exchange two dialogs, we must handle also
these situations.
<h3>Wizard library</h3>
The Wizard Sequencer is planned to use the Wizard Library a lot.
As it will setup and drive some parts of interface, the unified
approach is needed.
The idea is that the Wizard Sequencer will setup some parts of the
interface and the module the rest (disjunctive) at the best (and
the most usual) case.
<h3>Processing</h3>
The process will be simple, the developer has to define the dialogs,
which use the global variable as medium for information exchange and
which return some symbol. And at last, just call the WS.
The Wizard Sequencer just calls the dialogs depending on the previous
return state. The [Back] way is handled automaticaly, there is no need
to define it in the workflow.
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<h3>Return value</h3>
The return value of Wizard Sequencer is the returned value of the last
dialog.
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<h3>Limits</h3>
To satisfy all these requirements, we must accept some (in our eyes
wise and useful) limits.
First limit or feature is that the workflow will be driven be the
return values. It is straightforward as this is almost same, how
some wizards are done now. This imply another (implementation)
feature -- the data during the sequence will be held in the global
variable. This is also a common implementation of the current
wizards.
Another limit is the flow control. We assume that as the user goes
forward through the flow, the same way he goes backward. This is
also an evident presumption, the other case would anyway confuse
the user a lot. See this <a href="examples.html#branch">example</a>
for details.
And the last limit is are cycles. If the user goes through
the cycle...
<p><b>FIXME:</b> finish this section
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