What's new in SWITCH 07 - User Experience

A major effort during SWITCH 07 development was to make sure that SWITCH 07 was easily usable for existing customers but at the same time had a clearly upgraded user experience. Those upgrades become obvious while editing and managing flows, but just as much while testing or monitoring active flows. The major user interface and user experience changes have been described in this section.

Configuration flexibility

SWITCH 07 extends the number of views users can configure: each default view has been fine-tuned for a specific purpose (such as testing new flows or monitoring running flows) but views are completely user configurable. All configuration changes users make are persistent.

The flow editing and flow monitoring panes (such as message and statistics panes) can now be combined in one view which is extremely helpful when testing or monitoring flows.

The file explorer pane in SWITCH 06 has been split in two independent panes showing a folder tree and the files in a selected flow element. The information shown in the files pane can be customized by the user, even using the new variables.

To get a quick overview of flows it is possible to select multiple flows in the flow list – the designer then shows smaller tiles (or thumbnails) for each of the flows.

Dashboard

A new pane, the dashboard, shows a condensed overview of the activity in SWITCH 07: running processes, problem jobs & problem processes… As any pane the dashboard can be added to any view, meaning you could for example even keep track of problems in running flows as you are designing a new flow.

Flow list

Groups allow structuring flows hierarchically in the flow list. Not only can flows that belong together be grouped visually, but all flows in a group can also be activated, exported, etc at the same time. For easy management, flows can be re-ordered or added to a group using drag-and-drop.

The flow list can also show visual markers behind the flow name to further identify flows.

Locking flows

Flows in SWITCH 07 can be locked. A locked flow can be activated, exported and imported, but cannot be edited in any way. Locking securely protects flows from unauthorized or unwanted modifications.

Customizing the background of a flow

In the properties for a flow, a background and/or header image can be specified. The background image is drawn behind all flow elements, centered in the flow editing pane. The header image is drawn in the top left corner of the flow editing pane.

These images add no functional advantage, but allow easy identification and branding of flows.

Added possibilities for connections between flow elements

By default, connections between flow elements in SWITCH 07 are drawn as “straight” connections. The way each connection is drawn can be changed using a shortcut menu, using its properties or using a simple drag of the connection handle with the mouse. Connections can be configured to run first horizontally and then vertically or the opposite.

These possibilities make the design of especially complex flows easier; together with the rounded corners drawn for connections SWITCH 07 delivers clearer and more elegant flows.

Productivity changes to the flow designer

Throughout the flow designer extra shortcut menus have been added to avoid the number of clicks necessary to perform frequent tasks.

Read more: Tools & Technologies in SWITCH 07