Do You Know What We Did Last Summer?

The summer has already past several weeks ago and now that we have started our Oryx news feed, I want to review the last months and tell you what we have done.

Undo/Redo And Save As

The most missed basic editor feature had been undo/redo and save as. We have finally achieved to support it. We have heard stories that users restarted modeling from scratch, because they mistakenly changed a part of a model and were not able to manually undo the change. These times are over now! Additionally, via "save as" you can easily create a copy of a process model, for example if you are are a viewer of another one's model and you want to create your own version of that model.

Import/Export Formats

We have improved existing export formats and added new import and export formats to Oryx. For each notation type it is now possible to export and import it in eRDF format (Oryx' internal format). This makes it possible to share models between different Oryx Servers and you can save your model locally in case you lose your internet connection while modeling. Additionally, you can import and export EPC models in EPML format.

Automatic Word Wrapping

An exclusive feature for all Firefox 3+ users is automatic word wrapping. Labels are now automatically wrapped to a shape's left and right border.

Direct Label Editing

By double-clicking a shape you can now directly edit the shape's labels. If a shape has more than one label, then you edit the label that is closer to the mouse position.

Edge Labels

You are now able to add text to an edge, if it is allowed by the notation's specification. Just double-click on an edge to edit the label.

Adjustable Canvas Size

Some users experienced that the canvas has just been too small for their process models. This is not a problem anymore. You can now expand the canvas to all four directions by clicking on the arrowhead that is shown when you move the mouse to one of the canvas' borders.

Syntax Check, Validation and Step Through

For BPMN and EPC process models we offer advanced features that help you create correct processes. First, a syntax checker for both BPMN and EPC is available. If there are syntactic errors in your model, it will be visualized. For BPMN models we additionally support validation to check the model for deadlocks and livelocks and a step through mechanism that lets you simulate your process model step-by-step.

XForms Editor

Jan-Felix Schwarz has implemented an XForms editor with Oryx. XForms is the upcoming standard for web forms and will be part of the HTML5 specification. You can check it out on http://xforms-editor.org/ . The XForms stencil set will also soon be available in the process repository.

Internationalization

Although not yet published, we have added support for multiple languages and translated the application to German. With the next release you will be able to select your language.

Besides, we have fixed a lot of bugs and worked on some not yet published features. So, stay tuned!