What is an action diagram?
The Action Diagram tool lets you build the process action diagram, procedure action diagram, and the associated action blocks.
These specify the detailed logic of elementary processes, procedure steps, business algorithms, and derivation algorithms.
Parts of action diagram
The first part of an action diagram details the views that the process imports and exports. For more information on views,
The remaining pseudocode consists of action statements such as CREATE, READ, UPDATE, DELETE, and so forth, with levels of nesting enclosed in brackets.
Types of Action Blocks (AB)
Common Action Block
Foreign Action Block
External Action Block
Procedure Step Action Block
Building the Action Diagram
Building an action diagram requires three main activities:
Creating views
Defining logic for elementary processes and procedures
Defining action blocks
Creating Views
A view is a collection of associated attributes input to or output from a business activity
Types of views
Import views show information about an entity that a process receives (or imports)
Export views show information about the entity that a process produces (or exports)
Entity action views show stored information about an entity that a process manipulates during execution Local views are used for local operations
Assigning View Characteristics
Depending on the view you create, the following characteristics can be assigned: Supports entity actions
Lock required on entry
Used as both input and output
Supports Entity Actions
When an entity view is defined in the Import or Export view subset, the Supports Entity Action option specifies whether the view is transient or persistent.
Transient and Persistent
A transient entity view does not support the entity actions CREATE, READ, DELETE, or UPDATE. Transient views can be modified by MOVE and SET actions. Transient is the default for entity views in the import, export, or local view subset. A persistent entity view allows entity actions to be performed on the designated view.. Persistent views can be thought of as database buffers.
Lock Required on Entry
This Lock Required on Entry option allows locking of an occurrence in an import view at entry to the action block. Locking an occurrence prevents other transactions from changing the view
Used as Both Input and Output
The Used as Both Input and Output option allows import entity views to be exported and export entity views to be imported
Maximum Size of Views
The following restrictions apply to the maximum size of views:
For terminal-based applications, 32K for import and 32K for export.
For a single server load module, 32K for export.
For GUI applications developed under Windows NT, Win32, or UNIX, unlimited for import and export.
Group views
A group view is a collection of one or more associated entity views. Group views have cardinality, that is, each of their component views may occur more than once.
Detail Import Group Views
Detailing group views consists of the following activities: Describe group views
Specify cardinality
Specify optionality
Specify Import Group View Cardinality
Expected numbers of occurrences for the group view. You set the group view’s minimum cardinality by the value you enter for at least. You set the group view’s maximum cardinality by the value you enter for at most. Finally, you set the group view’s average cardinality by the value you enter for on average
Explicitly or implicitly indexed
Explicitly indexed repeating group views have user-accessible indexes to refer to specific entries in the repeating group
Implicitly indexed repeating group views cause the software to go to the next occurrence in a repeating group view
Specify Import Group View Optionality The optionality of an import group view refers to whether the view is mandatory (always used as input) or optional (sometimes used as input).
Building an action diagram
Add entity actions
Add relationship actions
Add assignment actions
Add conditional actions
Add repeating actions
Add control actions
Add miscellaneous actions
Conditional statements
An IF action statement for a simple condition: IF condition 1 action_statement_list_1
CASE
CASE OF (expression)
CASE value
CASE value
OTHERWISE
Loops
The FOR EACH condition is used to iterate through implicitly indexed repeating group views. Since the view is implicitly indexed, there is no need to specify subscript controls. This will automatically be generated by COOL:Gen software.
For Each
The TARGETING clause allows you to identify the repeating export or local group view to be populated. The following example shows usage of the TARGETING clause: FOR EACH product details TARGETING group export FROM THE BEGINNING UNTIL FULL ASSOCIATE processing warehouse WITH received product WHICH is_held_in IT
WHILE Condition
The WHILE repeat condition repeats the action group as long as a condition is true. When you add the WHILE condition, set up the condition and then state the action(s) to be taken. The test for the condition takes place first. If the condition is not met, there are no iterations.
REPEAT UNTIL Condition
The combination of the REPEAT and UNTIL statements repeats an action or group of actions until a specific condition is satisfied. The test for the condition takes place after the iteration. Therefore, REPEAT–UNTIL always has at least one iteration.
FOR Condition
The FOR condition is used to control iterating through an explicitly indexed repeating group view. The syntax allows you to pick a subscript or other numeric attribute, a starting index, an ending index, and increment value for each iteration.
