The base toolkit provides a navigation controller, which maps data
across the process and controls navigation from panel to panel. The toolkit
also provides a set of visual beans, which can generate events the navigation
controller or the panels handle. You can use the toolkit Automaton to separate
pure view navigation (which the navigation controller can handle) from data
and operations management. To do this, each state's definition has defined
actions for specific events fired by the visual components. Usually these
components are panels that fire the events on behalf of the components they
contain such as buttons and entry fields. The actions of the state execute
operations, start other processors as subflows, open views, or perform other
actions. As a result, the views do not have specific actions hard coded. Instead,
the actions for the views are in an external definition file.
To illustrate
the Automaton and flow processor in this environment, this example includes
an entire use case for a mortgage application, the statechart diagram for
the business process obtained from the use case, extensions to the Automaton,
and the external definitions of the flow processor and its parts.