Layout Preferences

ActiveVOS Designer User’s Guide

Layout Preferences

Select Window>Preferences>ActiveVOS>Layout to view these preferences.

The Layout preferences page allows you to do the following:

Select a template defining default visual process properties such as activity font size and color
Define defaults for Auto Layout mode
Define defaults for Expand/Collapse Containers layout

The Style Sheet panel of the Layout Preferences page specifies a file that contains the default visual properties for new and existing BPEL processes. The default stylesheet is Classic, which is the set of styles used in all product versions of ActiveVOS. If desired, you can select Bordered, which contains general styles used in Business Process Modeling Notation diagrams, such as activity borders. Select BPMN for modeling BPEL processes in Business Process Modeling Notation and want BPEL processes to visually resemble BPMN diagrams.

You can edit the stylesheet file in a text editor to change a default value. The change applies to all processes. For example, you can set a border for the receive activity icon. In a given BPEL process, you can remove the border for an individual receive activity, if desired. Note that the stylesheet contains some properties that apply to only one version of BPEL, either WS-BPEL 2.0 or BPEL4WS 1.1.

For a description of visual properties, see Setting Visual Properties and Using Your Own Library of Images.

The main ActiveVOS toolbar contains an Auto Layout button that organizes graphical elements on the process canvas into a grid that best fits the display area.

In the Auto Layout panel of Layout Preferences, set the default values for laying out the graphical elements (e.g., activities and containers).

Select a Layout Method as follows:

Grid (default)	Objects can branch both to the right/left (or top/bottom) but the layout does not optimize for available slack space. A row or column is the maximum width of any object in that row or column.
Tree	Objects can branch both to the right/left (or top/bottom) and the layout tries to use available slack space.
Hierarchy	Objects align in an outline with one main trunk and branches extend to the right

Note: A simple process may not show any difference among the layout methods.

Make additional Auto Layout preferences as follows:

Orientation: Horizontal or vertical	Select the primary axis for your process diagrams
Size of margins for containers	Set the size, in pixels, for interior margins for scopes, sequences, and other containers
Spacing between levels and nodes	Set the size, in pixels, for vertical (level) and horizontal (node) spacing between activities

In the Expand/Collapse Containers panel, set the default values for object movement and link style of the container activities: Sequence, If, While, Pick, Flow, Scope, For Each and Repeat Until. For details, see Showing and Hiding Activities.

Auto Move	When a container is collapsed, objects fill in the empty space. When a container is expanded, objects move out of the way.
Auto Move Expand	When a container is expanded, objects move out of the way
Auto Layout	After a container is collapsed or expanded, objects are laid out along an invisible grid
No Move	No objects move when a container is collapsed or expanded
Collapsed Link Style	Sets the solid, dashed or dotted style for links to and from activities within a collapsed container. A style that differs from other link styles provides a visual cue for a hidden activity or container.