Web enactment: Running a Process-Description in a Web Browser
Running a process-description in a web browser
Process-descriptions can be enacted by the Tallis Engine in a web browser. The engine keeps track of which tasks need to be performed to advance the process, and provides information to external agents regarding the current state of the process. The engine can also receive messages from agents indicating that they have completed certain tasks or provided data relevant to the running of the process.
The Tallis Engine can enact PROforma applications either locally or over the web, by submitting the process-description to an enactment server. The enactment interface consists of dynamically generated web pages that take the end-user through the application's component tasks. The standard web pages can be replaced, if required, by web pages customised for an individual application.
If you have one or more enactment servers set up, you can run the current process-description on the default enactment server by selecting Run > Run in Web Browser (Default Enactment Servers) (or by clicking the Run in Web Browser button on the toolbar 
).
To select between multiple enactment servers, select Run > Run In Web Browser…. The Enactment Servers dialog appears. From the drop-down list box, select the server configuration with which you want to run the process-description, and click Enact.
Note: A process-description executed in the Tallis Web Enactment completes by default when there are no more tasks active other than plans.
The Standard Web Enactment Interface
As each task becomes active during enactment, the interface dynamically generates web content, depending on task type and properties:
- Actions: Procedure information is rendered as HTML.
- Enquiries: Source information is rendered as an HTML form.
- Decisions: Candidates are rendered as a group of checkboxes or radio-buttons, depending on whether the decision supports multiple candidates or not. Candidates can be expanded to display the relevant arguments for each candidate.
The left and top panels of the web enactment interface contain several functions:
| Active tasks | A list of all tasks that are in progress. |
| Triggerable tasks | A list of the tasks that have event triggers and that can be triggered at that point in the process. Click on a task in the list to activate it. |
| View data summary | A list of completed tasks and values submitted for data items. |
| Refresh engine | Refreshes the engine time (the engine does not continually monitor the time, and so refreshing it may cause tasks with time constraints and/or cycling tasks to become active). |
| View PROforma plan | A graphical representation of the plan’s tasks, similar to the network view used to author the process-description within the Tallis Composer. |
| View PROforma tree | A graphical representation of the plan’s tasks, similar to the tree view used to author the process-description within the Tallis Composer. |
| Quit | Aborts the web enactment. |
| Restart | Restarts the enactment of the current process-description. |
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