FlowchartPlugin

This plugin allows you to create a flowchart from topic text.

Example

Stop the mouse above each item and see the tag with the name in a bigger size.
Each item is a link for the text block what was created it and where can exist more information about this step.
The Based SVG The example above was generated by the content of the topic FlowchartPluginExample

The items of the flowchart are defined in the following way:

---++ Item of the Flowchart
   * Id: unique_name
   * Type: Question
   * Yes: item_A
   * No: item_B

A more complete example is available at FlowchartPlugin Example, once the plugin is installed.

Syntax Rules

To create and display the flowchart, use the macro %FLOWCHART% or %FLOWCHART{...}%.

This plugin uses the content of the topic and considers that each level two heading (---++) indicate the beginning of the definition of a new item of the flowchart.

To specify the item and the derived action is expected a list of the type * Attribute: Value

Attribute	Description
Type	Type of the flowchart's item. Default: Action. See the valid types in the table below
Id	Identification for the Goto. It needs to validate with /[_a-zA-Z0-9]*/
Color	Color differentiated for the item
Goto	Indicates so that item it must follow. Default: Next
Yes	The same as Goto, but is required for Type: Question
No	The same as Goto, but is required for Type: Question

The valid types are:

Type	Description
Start	Indicates the beginning of a flowchart. This must be the first item
Action	The standard type. It indicates an action
Question	Opens a fork in the flow. It requires the definition of attributes Yes and No
End	Indicates the end of the flowchart (or part of it)
End-Error	End for the error case

To control the beginning and end of of valid headings for the construction of the Flowchart use %FLOWCHART_START% and %FLOWCHART_STOP%.

If a name is excessively big for the space of the item a line break can be made with %FLOWCHART_BR%. This will not intervene with the text of the page, only in the flowchart.

You can changes the appearance of the flowchart by adding the following parameters to the macro:

Parameter	Description
item-w	Width for the flowchart's itens area
item-h	Height for the flowchart's itens
area-w	Width of the area of the flowchart's itens
area-h	Height of the area of the flowchart's itens
percent	Percentage of the PNG size presented in relation to the standard of the generated SVG
text-size	Size in pixels of the font text
tag-style	Style for the img tag

Tips

Web bowsers normally make a cache of the web page and images. It is possible that after a change to the flowchart you do not see the image update. If this happens click "Reload" in your web browser to clear the cache.

Some flowcharts can become so complex and will be difficult to follow its lines. In this case, increase the area of items, giving a bigger space between them. eg: %FLOWCHART{ area-w="220" area-h="100" }%

Construction of the Flowchart and Plugin's Working Way

1. The blocks initialized by a heading level two ---++ are read as definition of item of the Flowchart (in the same way as the Foswiki:Extensions.SlideShowPlugin).
2. An SVG is created with this information and is attached to the topic. This SVG file can be accessed by %ATTACHURL%/flowchart_%TOPIC%.svg.
3. A PNG is generated by ImageMagick and reduced, so that the image has a good anti-aliasing, that it is not obtained in the direct conversion. The PNG is attached to the topic and can be accessed by %ATTACHURL%/flowchart_%TOPIC%.png (use this to separate the flowchart's image of the definition topic when it is rendered).
4. A map for the image is created linking the items of the flowchart with the origin of its information, which can contain more information for the implementation. %ATTACHURL%/flowchartMapImg_%TOPIC%.txt (use to map the image out of the topic where the flowchart was generated)
   %INCLUDE{"%PUBURL%/Web/FlowchartTopic/flowchartMapImg_FlowchartTopic.txt"}%
<img src="%PUBURL%/Web/FlowchartTopic/flowchart_FlowchartTopic.png" usemap="flowchart_FlowchartTopic" alt="Flowchart" border="0" />
5. The content of the map file and one image tag presenting the PNG are placed in the place of macro %FLOWCHART%.

The files (SVG, PNG and Map) are generated when the topic contend %FLOWCHART% is saved.

Plugin Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences variables. To reference a plugin setting write %<plugin>_<setting>%, i.e. %FLOWCHARTPLUGIN_ITEM_WIDTH%

To override the default settings, add them to Main.SitePreferences.

• Default width for the flowchart's itens
  • Set ITEM_WIDTH = 140
• Default height for the flowchart's itens
  • Set ITEM_HEIGHT = 40
• Default width for the area of the flowchart's itens
  • Set ITEM_AREA_W = 180
• Default height of the area of the flowchart's itens
  • Set ITEM_AREA_H = 70
• Default size in pixels of the font text
  • Set TEXT_SIZE = 17
• Default percentage of the PNG size presented in relation to the standard of the generated SVG
  • Set PERCENT_IMG = 70
• Default style for the img tag
  • Set TAG_STYLE = border:1px dotted #505050;

---

• One line description, is shown in the TextFormattingRules topic:
  • Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Create a flowchart from topic text

Plugin Installation Instructions

You do not need to install anything in the browser to use this extension. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the extension on the server.

Open configure, and open the "Extensions" section. Use "Find More Extensions" to get a list of available extensions. Select "Install".

If you have any problems, or if the extension isn't available in configure, then you can still install manually from the command-line. See http://foswiki.org/Support/ManuallyInstallingExtensions for more help.

Plugin Info

Plugin Author:	Foswiki:Main.AurelioAHeckert (Foswiki port - Foswiki:Main.KennethLavrsen.)
Plugin Release:	16 Jul 2010
Plugin Version:	8203 (2010-07-16)
Change History:
16 Jul 2010	Foswikitask:Item9339: Replace call to system() with Foswiki::Sandbox→sysCommand(); Set the path to ImageMagick in configure (Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones)
05 Jan 2010	Foswikitask:Item2586: Invalid META header in VarFLOWCHART gives wrong revision and can make the core code crash if a search finds this topic Foswikitask:Item2588: Plugin lacks its attachments for the example topic
09 Sep 2009	Foswikitask:Item4189 - Improve docs; Foswikitask:Item8267 - do not read preferences from the plugin topic (Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones)
05 May 2009	Foswikitask:Item1570 - Removed what seems to be forgotten debug code that floods the tmp dir with files named web_topic.txt with the content ini (Foswiki:Main.KennethLavrsen)
30 Mar 2009	Foswikitask:Item1253 - Ported to Foswiki (Foswiki:Main.KennethLavrsen)
13786	TWikibug:Item4090 - Failed if topics attachment directory did not exist (Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones).
13779	TWikibug:Item4085 - Fixed problem with subwebs. Patch by TWiki:Main.JohnWorsley.
27 Jun 2005:	Initial public version 0.8
Dependencies:	Name Version Description ImageMagick >0 The ImageMagick library. Can be downloaded from http://www.imagemagick.org/.
License:	GPL (GNU General Public License)
Plugin Home:	http://foswiki.org/Extensions/FlowchartPlugin
Support:	http://foswiki.org/Support/FlowchartPlugin

Related Topics: DefaultPreferences, SitePreferences, Plugins