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camunda / camunda-modeler

An integrated modeling solution for BPMN, DMN and Forms based on bpmn.io.
https://camunda.com/products/modeler
MIT License
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Highlighting Variable sources and/or actions where it is used when hovering over or clicking it with a mouse #4520

Open vheinila opened 2 months ago

vheinila commented 2 months ago

Problem you would like to solve

In complex processes it is sometimes very difficult to determine where a variable originates from. I've noticed this since I started as a Eng Ops manager here at Camunda and started to familiarize myself with the release train process. When you have a long process, which has a lot of sub-processes, it is often very difficult to trace where a variable was first defined.

Proposed solution

One idea I had was to have a functionality where when you hover your mouse over any variable (or click it), the modeler would highlight the actions where it is used. Additionally, it could show a list of sub-processes where it is used. The action / process where the variable was defined could be highlighter with a different color (e.g. red in my example picture) and the ones where it is simply used, could be highlighted with another (e.g. Green in my example).

Sorry, the quality of the example picture is not the best, but I hope it gets the idea across. :)

Variable Highlight improvement idea

Alternatives considered

In the latest release there was a feature released where you can see the list of all variables used, so it partly addresses this issue. However, I still think this would be a great quality of life / usability improvement for learning the process and problem tracing.

Additional context

Operating on Camunda 8

nikku commented 2 months ago

Thanks @vheinila!

What you see today is only the first iteration of variable insights. I agree that explicit, visual hinting (in different places) can be very powerful, and we'll consider it in a future iteration.