Design Guide

This document aims to provide clear guidelines and structural definitions for users developing and using workflow systems. By detailing connection rules, node construction, and user input form configurations, we ensure consistency and maintainability in the design and implementation of the system.

These guidelines and structural definitions will help developers understand how to create and manage nodes, establish connections between nodes, and handle node execution logic. The ultimate goal is to build a flexible, scalable, and user-friendly workflow system.

Interface and Concept

A workflow page consists of three parts: Canvas, Console, and MiniMap.

Right-click on the canvas to create a new node. Nodes are connected by Edges, with edges starting from a Source Handle and connecting to a Target Handle, forming a complete workflow.

Principles to Follow

• A node's Source Handle can have multiple connections, while the Target Handle is allowed only one connection.
• All Target Handles of a node must be connected for the node to be allowed to run (TODO: Remove this restriction).
• All Compiles of a node need to be executed (TODO: Allow customization of Compile execution in the future).
• Nodes without any connected handles will be marked as "skipped" rather than executed.

Understanding Nodes

A Node is organized by a JSON structure. Let's take an ABACUS Node as an example:

{
    "type": "Solver",
    "data": {
        "header": "ABACUS SIAB",
        "handles": [
        { "key": "abacus/input", "type": "target", "rope": "ABACUS_INPUT" },
        { "key": "siab/system", "type": "target", "rope": "SIAB_SYSTEM" },
        { "key": "siab/orbitals", "type": "target", "rope": "SIAB_ORBITALS" },
        { "key": "siab/outputs", "type": "source", "rope": "ABACUS_SIAB_OUTPUTS" }
        ],
        "body": [
        {
            "id": "",
            "source": {},
            "type": "object",
            "title": "SIAB Config",
            "key": "abacus_siab",
            "compile": []
        },
        {
            "id": "",
            "source": {},
            "type": "object",
            "title": "Bohrium Job Config",
            "key": "bohrium_job_config",
            "compile": []
        }
        ],
        "compile": [
        {
            "id": "",
            "source": "",
            "type": "task",
            "script": "abacus_siab",
            "title": "ABACUS_SIAB",
            "key": "abacus_siab",
            "bodies": []
        }
        ],
        "footer": "Version 0.1.0"
    }
}

Here, we have briefly understood the components of a Node. For more details on constructing a Node, please refer to the Node Structure section.

What's Next?