To develop an application with Deyel, a set of concepts is used to allow easy and intuitive modeling of each of its objects.
A Deyel application is a set of processes, business entities based on forms, value lists, advanced rules, adapters, roles, permissions, dashboards, widgets and reports, related to each other with the objective of solving a specific request. These objects can be defined within the same application or shared from other applications.
From an application, platform entities such as users, the organizational structure, cases and processes, among others, may also be used.
Solutions developed with Deyel are applications that require use licenses issued by the solution manufacturer.
An entity is an object composed of attributes that represent business and environment data. Entities can be related to other entities, processes, rules, widgets, reports and applications.
Scope
Entities can be used in the application in which they were defined or in other applications as well.
Types
•Platform Entity
Composed of attributes where environment and execution information persists. They are predefined in Deyel and some can be extended by the modeler user.
Examples: User, Organizational Unit, Case.
•Parameterization Entity
Composed of attributes with persistence of values that after being loaded may be selected through drop-down lists. They are implemented through the value list object.
Examples: City, Gender, Type of Client.
•Business Entity
Composed of attributes where business information persists. They are graphically modeled using the form modeler.
Examples: Employee, Contract, Invoice.
An attribute is the information unit within an entity.
A process is a sequence of human or automatic tasks (services), the performance of which allows meeting a business objective. The sequence has a start, an end, and may contain connectors. It is represented as a process diagram based on the BPMN 2.0 standard (Business Process Model and Notation).
Scope
Processes can be used in the application in which they were defined or in other applications as well.
A form is the user interface of business entities. It can be used in user activities of processes or in the data administration of the entity itself.
Business entities of applications can be modeled graphically by citizen developers without the need for technical knowledge. Through the form modeler, business entities of applications can be modeled as they are perceived in the real world, by dragging and dropping controls that define their appearance. Controls have properties set to default values so that citizen developers do not need to set technical properties but allows IT developers to adjust their behavior in detail. Relations among different entities can be established, whether they are business entities of the application, parameterization entities such as value lists or with other objects through integration rules.
Both the forms modeler and the engine of Deyel are in charge of resolving the data model persistence generated by applications business entities.
Scope
Forms can be used in the application in which they were defined or in other applications as well.
Examples
●The "Vacation Request" form is used in the "Vacation" process.
●The "Employee" form is used to update data stored in its fields during its life cycle. In addition, such form fields can be used from different processes related to it that contain user activities.
A control allows to define the appearance of a form field in the user interface. In addition, the control may add default behavior and persistence characteristics to the form field, which can be modeled later.
Through a set of controls, a pattern-based interface design guide can be defined in order to solve common situations and achieve a homogeneous interface.
Forms are created from a gallery of controls, each of them allows defining:
●The appearance of a form field in the user interface.
●The layout of fields and graphic elements within the form.
●Actions to do from the user interface.
Examples
●Text Box
●Number
●Container
Business rules allow to define the behavior of application objects. Rules can be used in validations, specific business logic, process flow control, integration with other applications, field display control in forms, scheduled tasks, calendars, widgets and agents, among other functionalities.
There are rules that can be modeled without programming and others are based on Java code.
Types
•Embedded Rules
Embedded rules are used to define the behavior, validations, and calculations of form fields, as well as form validations. Embedded rules allow to define logical conditions and arithmetic expressions, which are evaluated using forms and their related processes. A wizard integrated in the corresponding modelers is used for definition. This wizard can be found in the property definition panels of fields and containers of forms and flows of processes.
Scope
Embedded rules belong only to the object that contains them.
Examples
- Define conditions in flows within a process.
- Execute automatic actions in activities of a process.
- Define requirement, visibility, edition, calculations and validations in form fields.
•Advanced Rules
Advanced rules are based on Java and are used to include complex logic or integrations with other applications. They are developed using the Deyel SDK for Java, either from the advanced rules modeler included in Deyel or in any Java IDE of your choice.
Scope
Advanced rules are global for all applications.
Examples
- Execute automatic actions in activities of a process.
- Execute scheduled tasks.
- Execute business logic within the source of a widget.
Software unit that performs a specific task that is executed when invoked from a programming code or from the modeling wizards. It can receive input parameters and return a result.
Value List
A value list is a set of predetermined data used to report and unify criteria when using a field. There are options that the user can drop down and select when completing the form.
Scope
Value lists can be used by the application forms in which they were defined or in other forms as well.
Examples
●Customer Type
●Industry
●State
Widget
Widgets allow to know the business evolution through the use of a graphic representation, based on the analysis of applications execution. The information represented in the form of charts is obtained from application forms or by using advanced rules.
Widgets can be represented, for example, as metrics, as pie charts, column charts, horizontal bar charts, area charts or line charts, among others.
Scope
Widgets can be used in the application in which they were defined or in other applications as well.
Dashboard
A dashboard is a collection of widgets that present relevant information for the business user, with high visual impact.
Scope
Dashboards can be used in the application in which they were defined or in other applications as well.
Types
•Application Dashboard
They are modeled through the dashboard modeler by IT modeler users and are defined in the applications.
•User Dashboard
They are modeled by business users and can only be used by those who defined them since they are not part of the applications.
Adapter
An adapter allows integration with different applications and platforms by using advanced business rules. Its purpose is to exchange data and share behaviors.
An adapter encapsulates the complexity of communicating with an external component. It allows different advanced rules to use it to invoke the operations that such component exposes.
Scope
Adapters are global for all applications.
Types
•Default
They are adapters defined in Deyel, available in all environments from the modeler's grid. There can only be one of each type in each environment.
Examples
- Mercado Libre
- Deyel SDK
- Docusign
- GoogleDrive
•Standard
These adapters allow access to web services from external providers, in their different communication architectures, such as Rest API and SOAP.
•Database
Adapters that allow to define access to relational databases through the Java JDBC protocol. Deyel provides custom adapters for the most popular database engines on the market, facilitating configuration and optimizing interaction with such engines.
Report
A report contains entity information that is presented with a certain layout. The report can be modeled in very simple way by selecting its information and quickly designing its presentation. When modeling it, choose the fields of the entities that are part of the report and of those related entities. The order of these fields can be modeled and by using filters, the information contained in the report can be selected.
Scope
Reports can be used in the application in which they were defined or in other applications as well.
Types
•Application Report
They are modeled through the report modeler by IT modeler users and are defined in the applications.
•User Report
They are modeled by business users and can only be used by those who defined them since they are not part of the applications.
Some considerations regarding the use of concepts described in this topic are described below.
Property
They describe in general terms applications, entities, processes, forms, attributes, rules, and functions, among other objects.
Control
The term control is used only in the modeling of the graphic interface of forms.
Field
Forms store their data in a set of fields. In the form modeler, a form field can be defined from an attribute of another entity, in this case it is called a related attribute and it can have persistence.
Attribute
It is the smallest unit of information of an entity, it corresponds to the data model.
Variable
A variable corresponds to the attribute of a platform or business entity and is used by business processes to define its state and behavior. It can contain data of the temporary conditions of the instances of the processes (cases), of the business objects or references to the latter.
Scope
•Local: It can only be accessed and modified during the execution of the process case that uses it. Variables of completed cases can be accessed but not modified.
•Global: It can be accessed and modified by the operations of the corresponding form, by the processes that use it or by business rules.
