Designing processes - EMC Community Network

Creating the User Interface
mind that the size and complexity of the prototype is not necessarily indicative of the development
effort. The development time will be greater due to coding complexity and customization. You also
cannot necessarily predict performance issues from the prototype.
• Consider how many task templates you need. You may want to make one template for each step or
activity in the process, and they should all have a common look. This also improves performance.
• When initially designing templates, keep in mind that it can sometimes be easier and quicker to
delete a template and start over again.
• Sometimes what the client wants is not a good design. For example, even though you can search on
20 attributes does not mean that you should.
• Try to design forms so there is no scrolling for the end user. This may mean using more tabs in
TaskSpace.
• After creating a template with the template wizard, if you start changing and adding controls and
moving items around on the canvas, especially if you use drag and drop, frequently verify how things
look on the Preview pane. When using drag and drop, items can appear to line up using the vertical
bar, but the spacing and padding appear differently on the Design pane than on the Preview pane or
at runtime. To ensure correct alignment, especially for labels, use the settings on the Style tab.
Multiple ways to start a process
This section describes the different ways in which you can start a process. You can:
• Use the processes tab, page 64
• Use a search template, page 64
• Use a configurable action, page 65
• Use a configurable action with an attachment, page 66
When a process starts, there are three possible options: an initiate process form appears, a package
form appears, or a standard WDK component appears (which does not use a form). Options for what
appears when a process starts are described in Options for when a process starts, page 69.
Use the processes tab
The most straightforward way to start a process is to go to the Processes tab. You can select one of the
processes that are listed there and click Start Process.
Use a search template
You can use a search template that is configured to search on processes in a specific folder. This is
useful if you want to filter the list of processes that a user sees.
On a search tab in TaskSpace, you select a process from the search results set and then select Start
from the context menu.
64 EMC Documentum xCelerated Composition Platform Version 1.6 Best Practices Guide