Version: 2.7

Workflows

The HumanOS® comes with a built-in workflow engine. It allows to design and run complex workflows along different actors such as humans or computer agents.

Workflows are defined as schema or as classes. Due to rules, a workflow class is dynamically instantiated and started. And of course, also removed dynamically once removal rules are triggered.

In this document, the UML is used to express workflows. There are some extensions to UML necessary to express the full power of HumanOS® Workflows. Following terminology is used:

Name	Short.	Description
SceneActivity	Sc	A scene activity contains the whole workflow including exception handling.
Activity	A	An activity is a set of instructions that can be processed by agents, humans etc. They are embedded in a workflow.
Actor	Actor	An instance that is able to process an activity
Control Flow	`F~C~`	Flow to the next activity
Object Flow	`F~O~`	Flow of objects, messages etc. (communication between activities).

The workflow is defined by following attributes:

Attribute	Description	Data Type
Id	Id of the workflow. Empty if the schema can be instantiated multiple times.	System.Guid
Name	Name of the workflow	System.String
Nodes	Array of activity coordination nodes
ControlFlows	Control flow between the activity coordination nodes
ObjectFlows	Communication links between ports of an activity and object nodes (space)
Arguments	Array of arguments to be passed when starting the workflow.

Example:

{
  "Name": "WorkflowSchema1",
  "Id": "8E5BEB09-8BA9-456A-957C-10444A26096D",
  "Workflows": [
    {
      "Name": "Collaboration Workflow",
      "Id": "2D962A90-8BD5-44DE-A478-208DE2D49B67",
      "Nodes": [],
      "ControlFlows": [],
      "ObjectFlows": []
    }
  ]
}

Passing Arguments

Arguments can be passed to a workflow. All arguments are stored to the activity context at the start.

See Commands for notation on arguments.

Example with arguments:

{
  "Name": "WorkflowSchema1",
  "Id": "8E5BEB09-8BA9-456A-957C-10444A26096D",
  "Workflows": [
    {
      "Name": "Collaboration Workflow",
      "Id": "2D962A90-8BD5-44DE-A478-208DE2D49B67",
      "Arguments": [
        {
          "Name": "Value",
          "DataType": "System.String",
          "Type": "Input"
        }
      ],
      "Nodes": [],
      "ControlFlows": [],
      "ObjectFlows": []
    }
  ]
}

The arguments can then be used inside the workflow, either for guard expressions (see [Guards]) or in C# scripts (see [Scripted Operation]).

Activity Coordination Node

There exist different node types to coordinate the workflow:

Type	Description
InitialNode	Used to start a workflow (entry point).
DesicionNode	Node to branch the control flow according to some conditions.
MergeNode	Node to combine two control flows to one.
ForkNode	Node to fork the control flow into two concurrently running flows (multithreading)
JoinNode	Node to join concurrently running control flows back to one. The flow will continue after all incoming flows are triggered.
GenericActivity	An activity node.
ActivityFinalNode	Node to terminate the workflow.
FlowFinalNode	Node to stop a control flow. This will not terminate the workflow, just consume a control flow.
ExceptionHandler	Special node to catch exception within a workflow and to continue an alternative control flow.
ObjectNode	Object space to exchange information between activities.

Each node is declared as a "MemberInfo".

Attribute	Description	Data Type
Name	Name of the node	System.String
Type	Type of node, e. g. InitialNode	System.String

Example:

{
  "Name": "Start",
  "Type": "InitialNode"
}

Control Flows

The control flow is a relational link between nodes.

Attribute	Description	Data Type
Name	Name of the flow.	System.String
Node1RefName	Reference name of the source node	System.String
Node2RefName	Reference name of the target node	System.String
GuardCondition	Guard used from outgoing control flows from DecisionNodes	System.String

Guards

After decision nodes, the guards of a control flow are checked to decide which flow to take. For all other coordination nodes, guards are ignored:

Example:

{
  "Name": "Collaboration Workflow",
  "Id": "2D962A90-8BD5-44DE-A478-208DE2D49B67",
  "Nodes": [
    {
      "Name": "Start",
      "Type": "InitialNode"
    },
    {
      "Name": "Activity1",
      "Type": "GenericActivity"
    },
    {
      "Name": "End",
      "Type": "ActivityFinalNode"
    }
  ],
  "ControlFlows": [
    {
      "Node1RefName": "Start",
      "Node2RefName": "Activity1"
    },
    {
      "Node1RefName": "Activity1",
      "Node2RefName": "End"
    }
  ]
}

Activity Nodes

An activity node describes a set of operations, a work or procedure to be performed by an agent (see Agents and Skills).

Other than UML, there exists no such construct like "swimming-planes". HumanOS™ selects agents according to their skills and the skills needed to perform an activity.

An activity is described by following attributes:

Attribute	Description	Data Type
Id	Id of the activity. Empty if the schema can be instantiated multiple times.	System.Guid
Name	Name of the activity	System.String
Type	Type of activity, = GenericActivity	System.Type
ActorSkill	Skills needed to perform the activity (see [Agents and Skills])	System.Guid
AutoReset	Flag, to reset the activity after its completion. This is needed, if the activity can be executed multiple times.	System.Boolean
Description	Some description	System.String
Operations	Array of operations to be executed

Example:

{
  "Id": "6FA7E8CB-D2D1-4C22-9122-A7DAFFD2B5C7",
  "Name": "Activity_ManageDeviceReferences",
  "Type": "GenericActivity",
  "AutoReset": true,
  "ActorSkill": "54C4FA92-F385-4644-B929-5650310B4930",
  "Operations": []
}

Operations

Each activity can have a list of operations.

Attribute	Description	Data Type
Name	Name of the operation.	System.String
Type	Type of operation HumanOperation: Operation is only descriptive (for humans) CSharpScriptOperation: Executes a C# script. CommandedOperation: Executes a command node	System.Type
Instruction	Instruction to be executed (only for Human- and CSharpScriptOperation)	System.String
CommandInstruction	Instruction for CommandedOperation
Condition	[OPT] Condition expression. Default is true.	System.String

Scripted Operation

The workflow script class must be derived from the TAbstractOperationScriptObject. The method run() implements the operation to be performed.

Following objects are passed to the script as arguments:

IKernelAccess Kernel: access interface to the kernel
IActivity Activity: access to the activity object and the calling context

The script files are located in $(ConfigPath)\Scripts\Workflows.

Example:

public class TWorkflow_MyOperation : TAbstractOperationScriptObject
{
  ///<see cref="TAbstractOperationScriptObject"/>
  public override void run(IKernelAccess Kernel, IActivity Activity)
  {
    string strHostName = Activity.Context.getValue<string>("HostName");
    TLogger.writeInfo(strHostName + ": BasicConfiguration started...");

    IGroupRelation Device = Activity.Context.getValue<IGroupRelation>("Device");

    Dictionary<string, object> dicInput = new Dictionary<string, object>();
    dicInput["ObjectId"] = Activity.Context.getValue<string>("ObjectId");
    dicInput["Action"] = "A0"; //no action
    dicInput["Status"] = "S3"; //next step is user configuration
    Dictionary<string, object> dicOutput = new Dictionary<string, object>();
    TCommandResult Result = TCommandHelper.call(Kernel,  
       Guid.Parse(GUID_iDoit_LogicSetDeviceStatusAndAction), dicInput, dicOutput);
    if (Result.State != EProcessingState.Good)
    {
      throw new ArgumentException(strHostName + 
                                  ": Could not set the device status and action.", Result.ErrorInfo);
    }
    TLogger.writeInfo(strHostName + ": BasicConfiguration finished. Reboot required.");
  }
}

More information about operation scripting, see "HumanOS® Kernel SDK Manual".

Exception Handling in Workflows

If an exception is thrown during processing, the complete workflow stops with error. There is an extension allowing to handle the exceptions explicitly in a separate control flow of the workflow.

A Workflow can also contain several exception handlers. Make sure, each handler declares another exception class type.
To handle all exceptions with one exception handler, declare ExceptionTypeName as System.Exception.

Example:

{
  "Id": "B65C2AD1-78E8-479A-80D2-84FC86D32AA9",
  "Name": "MyWorkflow",
  "Nodes": [
    {
      "Id": "7E4BD883-92AE-4DBF-AC32-0D380BB9F216",
      "Name": "Start",
      "Type": "InitialNode"
    },
    {
      "Id": "6FA7E8CB-D2D1-4C22-9122-A7DAFFD2B5C7",
      "Name": "Activity1 ",
      "Type": "GenericActivity",
      "AutoReset": true,
      "ActorSkill": "54C4FA92-F385-4644-B929-5650310B4930",
      "Operations": [
        {
          "Name": "Operation1",
          "Type": "CSharpScriptOperation",
          "Instruction": "MyScript.cs"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "Id": "ADD55B7C-59F1-4CF7-9257-509B19E70C6F",
      "Name": "ExceptionHandler",
      "Type": "ExceptionHandler",
      "Properties": [
        {
          "Name": "ExceptionTypeName",
          "Value": "System.Exception"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "Id": "6B43DBD5-92FA-4304-8BDA-A2AB5793644A",
      "Name": "TerminateActivity",
      "Type": "GenericActivity",
      "AutoReset": true,
      "ActorSkill": "54C4FA92-F385-4644-B929-5650310B4930",
      "Operations": [
        {
          "Name": "Operation1",
          "Type": "CSharpScriptOperation",
          "Instruction": "TTerminateHumanOS.cs"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "Id": "111C3571-62A1-4BC5-84FE-1D872953C1BE",
      "Name": "End",
      "Type": "ActivityFinalNode"
    }
  ],
  "ControlFlows": [
    {
      "Name": "Flow_Start_Activity1",
      "Node1RefName": "Start",
      "Node2RefName": " Activity1"
    },
    {
      "Name": "Flow_Activity1_End",
      "Node1RefName": "Activity1",
      "Node2RefName": "End"
    },
    {
      "Name": "Flow_ExceptionHandler_TerminateActivity",
      "Node1RefName": "ExceptionHandler",
      "Node2RefName": "TerminateActivity"
    },
    {
      "Name": "Flow_TerminateActivity_End",
      "Node1RefName": "TerminateActivity",
      "Node2RefName": "End"
    }
  ]
}

Critical Workflow Termination

To implement system relevant or critical workflows, the script of the error-handler-activity should pass the exception to the kernel object. This will immediately terminate the HumanOS process with that error.

using HumanOS.Kernel.DataModel;
using HumanOS.Kernel.Workflow.Activity;
using HumanOS.Kernel.Workflow.Instruction;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace HumanOS.Kernel.Test.TestFiles.Scripts.Workflows
{
  /// <summary>
  /// Handles the critical exceptions
  /// </summary>
  public class THandleExceptions : TAbstractOperationScriptObject
  {
    ///<see cref="TAbstractOperationScriptObject"/>
    public override void run(IKernelAccess Kernel, IActivity Activity)
    {
      Kernel.postFatalError(Activity.Context.ErrorInfo);
    }
  }
} 

Passing Arguments​

Activity Coordination Node​

Control Flows​

Guards​

Activity Nodes​

Operations​

Scripted Operation​

Exception Handling in Workflows​

Critical Workflow Termination​

Passing Arguments

Activity Coordination Node

Control Flows

Guards

Activity Nodes

Operations

Scripted Operation

Exception Handling in Workflows

Critical Workflow Termination