Can the state-transition workflow designer control be extended (using code) to support "swim lanes"?

http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/hfws.aspx AssetID=HP815503021033 is an example of an UML 2.0 Activity diagram ...but don't get caught up in all the details you see in the diagram.

However, do note that the activities are aligned into 2 role-based groups (vertical columns): Program Administration and Test Administration.  These vertical columns are often referred to as "swim lanes".

Is it possible, in a custom WinForms designer host application, to extend the state -transition workflow designer control to create and display swim lanes




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Can the state-transition workflow designer control be extended (using code) to support "swim lanes"?

  • James Perry

    In this case,  it would be a new Root Activity derived from StateTransitionWorkflow.

    Is any more details/documentation/samples available for developing/deriving new root activities   More speficially, the same based on the state transition workflow root activity

    Why there are some sample in the orange book and in the SDK for hosting the Sequential Workflow root activity, there are no similar examples for the State Transition Workflow root activity   ...especially the additional features like absolute positioning. For example, some of the questions I have are:

    1. What are the positioning properties on an instance of a state activity that need to be changed if I want users to be able to adjust the location of a state activity within the state transtion root activity using the cursor keys

    2. If I want to constrain the new types of state activities we need to create to certain regions on the root activity, how do we similarly set the location of a state activity

    3. If I want to draw a specialized grid on the surface on the state transition root activity, what is the coordinate system I should use ...how do I determine the boundaries of the current rendering of the state transition root activity

  • Steve Hathaway

    Where would we start in terms of implementing this ourselves

    Is there something equivalent to "owner draw" supported for the state transition root activitiy designer   Is it a simple matter of creating a new subclass derived from StateTransitionWorkflow



  • Sydney Maxwell

    In general you can extend any activitydesigner by overriding the protected OnPaint() method. you will also need to extend and create your own Activity class so that you can annotate it with a DesignerAttribute corresponding to the custom drawn ActivityDesigner that you developed.

     

     



  • laweber3

    Hi,
       It is certainly possible for you to host the designer and create the swimlane concept. Out of the box we do not have any support for it.

    Thanks
    Pravin Indurkar

  • Can the state-transition workflow designer control be extended (using code) to support "swim lanes"?