Before start > read the basic post about Novulo processes
Introduction
Processes can be added to pages (like when a page gets loaded or the add button gets pressed), to grids (like when an execute button is pressed for a custom process), or to user interface elements in forms.
As explained earlier, a process needs a trigger. There are plenty of possible triggers, depending on the where the process has to be applied.
Possible triggers for pages
All triggers already have a default process. So for example the OK (Add) process stores the values on the page into the database. Or the Change (View) button reloads the same page but in edit pagemode. You can override the default processes if necessary by tweaking it.
Processes for grids
Likewise, grids have a set of default processes as well that works the same way as already explained above:
However, you can also add extra buttons to a grid (by dragging Execute or Generate from the Palette panel) and you can assign a process to these buttons. Such a button can be useful for making a selection of records in a grid and by automation change values.
Processes for user interface elements
Probably the most direct way to let a user start a process is by the click of a button. A button in itself obviously does not do anything, so, it can only trigger a process. That process will then perform a sequence of actions, usually of some automation of data manipulation or loading a different page to streamline the page flow for the user.
For example, we could make a “copy existing order as new order”-button when a customer wants to repeat the same order as last week, the user can look this order up, press that button, it would open the order page, dates are automatically updated to today’s date, the user can change some minor things perhaps and then add the new order. Read the post about process component to check how it could be implemented.
A user can also start processes indirectly when changing values on a page. For example, OnChange processes can be used to update grids or linked forms based on the values inputted by the user. A common scenerio is when you use a search link to filter a grid underneath. The grid does not update automatically with that filter because there is no process connection between the two, so a OnChange process has to be made where we reload the page, while remembering the pagestate, so the grid this time gets a value into its filter with the value previously set in the search link.
Tip: To do the above, toggle OnChange process in the searchlink properties. In the LoadPage in the process we need to add “trigger.pagestate” in the pagestate to make sure the current values are passed on with the “refresh”, also, to avoid cluttering the navigation bar, it is best to set navigation to “replace”.