User Interface Components

Every screen flow needs a starting point from which it can be triggered. The portlets that can start screen flows are referred to as Dialog Instantiation and Initialization portlets (DIIPs).

We usually distinguish between two kinds of DIIPs:

• One type of DIIP triggers a new dialog instance by sending a well-defined start-event.

• The other type of DIIP triggers a new dialog based on the fact that a specific portlet emits a specific custom event.

In either case, the event emission causes a new screen flow to be started and initialized with some initial data the event payload transmits.

The parallel processing capabilities of the UX Screen Flow Manager are limited. For more information about this read Parallel Processing, Suspending and Resuming Dialog Instances. To alleviate this situation, it provides a mechanism for suspending and resuming a running screen flow. We can access all suspended screen flows using the so called dialog stack. Use the dialog stack also to resume a previously suspended screen flow. Starting a new screen flow while another one is still running implicitly suspends the running screen flow.

When users process a screen flow that is complex and consists of multiple steps, the users often want to know their current position within the flow. In other words, they want to know about the steps they already processed and the possible next steps. The next steps cannot always be deterministically predicted. In addition, the users often want to be able to move backward and forward between steps by a single click. Users might also want to suspend the screen flow on which they are working, or cancel it altogether. The dialog state display (DSD) provides all these options:

• It represents the structure of the screen flow using a graph.

• It shows the steps that are already processed and possible subsequent steps.

• It highlights the current step.

Users can use the dialog stack to move backward or forward.
User can suspend or cancel a running screen flow.

Parent Terminology and main and user interface components

Related concepts:

Parallel processing, suspending and resuming of dialog instances