Tutorial: Portable Workflows – Console Applications
This tutorial is the first in a series of tutorials on portable workflows; executing workflows outside of PowerWF Studio.
Regardless of the complexity of the workflow that is created, the workflow needs to be portable so it can be used outside PowerWF. PowerWF Studio allows workflows to be deployed a number of different ways. This tutorial will take the HelloWorld workflow and show how it can be deployed and run from as a console application.
Topics Discussed
- Deploying a workflow to run from a console
- Setting Help Text for input parameters
Procedure
- Open the HelloWorld workflow from the previous tutorial.
- When the HelloWorld workflow was created, Help Text was not added. Help Text instructs a user of the purpose of an input parameter. Click on the Parameters button and enter the Help Text, “Enter the text to be displayed in the message box.” Click OK.
- On the “Deploy” tab, click the “Console” button on the ribbon bar.
- PowerWF Studio will show the currently selected Workflow, as well as prompt for an executable name and output directory. Note the output directory, and then click OK to accept the defaults.
Note: The workflow can be executed immediately, but in this case that is not necessary. - The workflow can now be launched as a command line application by opening a command prompt and navigating to the output directory. The workflow application will be in a subdirectory named “HelloWorld”. Enter “HelloWorld -?” to see how to use the application.
- To launch the application, type: HelloWorld –outputText=“a man a plan a canal panama”
Summary
This tutorial showed how to create a console application from an existing workflow. Help Text for Input Parameters was also briefly discussed. Subsequent tutorials will discuss other forms of portable workflows.
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