EGOVT DESIGNER
eGovt Designer is the most comprehensive and dynamic business-rule driven workflow creation tool on the market. It enables non-technical users to easily create and update workflows to reflect the most recent policy changes. This rules-based, metadata driven GUI design facility offers users a simple drag-and-drop functionality to create custom workflows. All committed changes for a new version of a form cascade throughout the entire system with minimal effort, eliminating the need for any coding.
The ‘self-service’ feature of the eGovt Designer not only demystifies the creation of workflows, but also puts workflow design back into the hands of the government entity, at the individual user level - by simplifying and streamlining the data collection design process and allowing government entities to quickly react to changing legislation, standards and policies without IT or third-party intervention.
Detailed Functionality
- Java web start application launched from Web Portal
- Security and updates handled through Web Portal Integration
- Metadata-driven data online form design solution
- Metadata management
- Create metadata items such as data elements, groupings, dimensions, etc.
- Stored and fully versioned in a database
- Formula / rule management
- Design calculations and formulas for the population of a data element
- Create rules for fatal errors and warnings using simple or complex formulas to improve data quality
- Online form design and management
- Design schedules and their form layouts for information returns with an easy drag and drop interface from the defined metadata
- Generates eGovt Forms configuration file and workflow
Metadata Management
eGovt Designer has an extensive and easy-to-use metadata management facility, providing the following high-level features:
- Intuitive, easy to use, graphic user interface that allows for rapid browsing and searching of the metadata objects (including the use of wildcards) and the identifying of relationships between objects
- Creating, editing, and expiring metadata objects via easy-to-use drag & drop graphic user interface
- Core metadata objects include concepts, groupings, dimensions, calculations, formulas, workflows, online forms, and schedules
- Core metadata objects are fully extensible using label and reference metadata objects, making the scope
- Metadata objects are validated against the processing engine to ensure they are valid objects
- Users can add an unlimited number of comments about metadata objects
- Metadata objects are defined based on key attributes to eliminate the possibility of duplicate objects being created
- All metadata objects are stored in a database repository, providing a single version of the truth
- All metadata objects have their own lifecycle with full retention of historical user changes and comments
- Existing workflows can be imported into the metadata repository
- Reporting on metadata objects is available from eGovt Analytics
Formula Management
eGovt Designer offers a formula management facility, providing the following high-level features:
- Calculations (summations) and formulas (complex equations) are created through an intuitive drag and drop graphical user interface
- The user selects objects from the metadata repository and the operators and functions necessary to construct calculations and formulas
- Formulas are validated against the processing engine to ensure they are valid objects
- Users can add an unlimited number of comments about calculation and formula metadata objects
- Calculations and formulas are metadata objects stored in the metadata repository with their own lifecycle (with full retention of historical user changes and comments
- Formulas can be bound to a dimension through a filter identifying which dimension members apply to the formula
- Existing calculations and formulas can be opened and used as a template for new calculations and formulas
- Formulas can be imported and exported into the metadata repository
- Reporting on calculation and formula metadata objects is available from eGovt Analytics
Online Form Management
eGovt Designer offers a Forms Designer to manage online forms definition, providing the following high-level features:
- Online forms are created through an intuitive drag and drop graphical user interface where the user selects objects (such as data elements, dimensions, documentation, calculations and formulas) from the metadata repository
- Data elements can be grouped together creating their own grouping object for reuse
- Browsing and searching functions allow the user to rapidly find the desired metadata objects
- Calculations and formulas can be defined as a rule or as an outcome that feeds into a data element
- An unlimited number of schedules can be added to an online form
- Schedules are organized into a hierarchy
- Users can add an unlimited number of comments about online forms and schedule metadata objects
- Online forms and schedules are metadata objects stored in the metadata repository with their own lifecycle (with full retention of historical user changes and comments)
- Objects on the schedules can be formatted and renamed as desired by the user
- Existing online forms can be opened and used as a template for new online forms
- Existing schedules can be copied as a starting point for new schedules
- online form definitions and workflows are exported for use by eGovt Forms, eGovt Analytics or any other workflow-consuming application
- Reporting on online forms and schedule metadata objects is available from eGovt Analytics
Creating Metadata Management Components and Rules
Power Designer: concept editor view
eGovt Designer allows non-technical users to create concepts, calculations, dimensions and formulas and to add them to the metadata dictionary and/or workflow - allowing them to easily evolve the required data collection data elements and associated validation rules without needing to learn any coding.
The following figure shows the eGovt Designer concept editor. Here a user can create and assign attributes to the various data collection elements (concepts). These concepts can then be used for end-user data entry or as part of a calculation or formula.
All created objects can be stored in the metadata dictionary or written directly to the workflow.
eGovt Designer: Formulas, Assertions & Calculations
The following figure shows the eGovt Designer assertion editor
A user can create formulas, assertions and calculations by simply inserting concepts and operations, and assigning the result to a derived data element/concept.
Creating the Online Forms Layout
eGovt Designer: form design view
eGovt Designer also allows non-technical users to access pre-defined workflow components (such as concepts, calculations and dimensions) from the metadata dictionary or an existing workflow and drag-and-drop them into the Forms layout playpen. Each page in the Forms layout playpen represents a schedule and the collection of all schedules form an online form.