Workflow Panel

The 'main' panel for an Experiment is the Workflow panel. This is where the process workflow is displayed:

This section covers some general notes on what is meant by 'workflow' and how it might be used, and detail of the controls to set up and manipulate the workflow.

The other panels of the Experiments Page, are covered in another section.

There are two views of the Workflow panel, the first, shown above is a graph view. The graph view shows the processes in the workflow as they relate by the samples which they process. The other view is the outline view (shown immediately below, in the section of Setting up a Workflow).

Setting up a Workflow

First you will see a brief tutorial on how to set up a workflow. This is followed by notes on editing and augmenting a workflow with files. Finally, we will discuss publication of a workflow and its artifacts.

What is a Workflow in Materials Commons?

In the Materials Commons project site, the 'process' parts of an Experiment is represented as a workflow diagram and outline. A description for each Process is created (using a Template) and the process will embody some aspect of the experiment: a 'thins do to, or with, a sample'. In laboratory experiments, the Sample is a manufactured or created material artifact originating in a 'Create Sample' process which then undergoes an series of measurements (e.g. Scanning Electronic Microscope) and/or transformations (e.g. Low Cycle Fatigue) which are recorded as process steps. During these processes various descriptive data (settings, parameters and results) are collected and recorded. In computational simulations the 'samples' are material models and they also undergo computational steps that correspond (at least metaphorically) to transformations and measurements. The workflow can be represented in a graph or outline as a series of process steps linked by the sample(s) that those processes interact with over time. Here is the outline form:

How Do I Set Up a Workflow?

When you set up a new Experiment, the workflow is (initially) empty. You initialize a workflow by selecting one of the Create Samples processes. In this example, we choose the simplest such, the process called 'Create Samples'.

Set up one or more Samples

For a material sample, you select the Create Sample process, which represents the manufacture, acquisition, and allocation of a particular sample to the experimental process. To illustrate this process we will start with a new experiment that has no workflow processes. Click on '+ ADD' in the Workflow Control Bar (upper left of workflow panel):

Then search for and find the "CREATE SAMPLES" template in the resulting Process Selection popup; search by starting to type title, type, or part of description of any process template; e.g. Create (1). Locate the template (2) and click on it:

With the selection of the CREATE SAMPLES template, you will get an Add Process panel, positioned on the SET UP part:

Fill in any relevant details for the Create Samples Process; for example you can change the name from the default setting; as shown above. Optionally, you can set the properties of the samples as obtained: Manufacture name, Production Method, Manufacture Date, and Supplier name. Then switch to the Samples option to add and label one or more samples:

As shown, type the name(s) of the sample(s) that you which to create, hitting Return between names to expose a new slot. Note that the names will automatically reorder in alpha-numeric ordering. Then switch to Composition and select the base composition, Al, in this case:

Add additional elements, first Zn shown here, proportions by weight:

Click +ADD to add each element, scrolling down as needed:

And, finally, click the ADD COMPOSITION button to add the composition to the process (which sets the composition for all the samples 'produced' by this Create Samples process). Once you have finished with setup, samples, and composition, click DONE, lower right of the dialog, which will return you to the workflow panel. In the panel you will see the single "Create Sample" process, displaying the name that you gave it:

In a similar way, we can create additional nodes. That is click +ADD in the upper left of the workflow panel, select a template, use the template to create a process description, and add that process. Shown here are three additional process steps, each showing their default names, the name of the template used to create the process: Heat Treatment, As Measured, Hardness. In addition the process node have been rearranged to help with the next step, connecting the processes by the relevant sample:

Now, if you click on the Create Sample process (shown selected already, above), a red dot appears at the top of the diagram of the process. Drag from that dot to another process (As measured, in this case), and a connection will be made from source to target using one or more of the samples output by the source. If multiple sample are available you will be asked to select the one(s) you intended to use:

Click DONE in the dialog, and the processes will be show as connected by the sample. If only one sample is available for output, there is no choice, and the Sample selection dialog will not appear. Thus, using this method: selection of processes and dragging connections, it is easy to connect all the processes into a network of samples that are processes by those workflow steps:

While this click as drag method of creating a process workflow is ok for small workflows or sketches of parts of a workflow, but it can quickly become tedious if your network includes hundreds (or even tens) of nodes. For larger networks we suggest using ETL from an Excel Spreadsheet to build the workflow.

How Do I Augment or Modify a Workflow?

Once you have created any process, you can edit it's settings by right-clicking on the Process node. Pick "Show Details" in the popup menu and you will be presented with a dialog very similar to the one you saw when creating

The process setup, samples, and measurements, can easily be changed from this dialog. Click Done (with or without changes) and the Process names, setup information and properties are set to the new values where you made changes (and the old values otherwise).

You can also create an connect additional nodes, and delete nodes. Create new nodes using the +ADD button (with templates as described above). To add any new nodes to the graph, then, drag from a node with output samples and connect to the new node. To delete a node, right click on the node and select "DELETE". Current only "leaf" nodes can be deleted; that is nodes with no "outgoing" arrows. To delete a node that is not a leaf node, you will need to delete the all the outermost leaf nodes that it ultimately connects to and then "chain" back deleting (the new) leaf nodes as you go, until the node you desired to delete is a leaf node, then you can delete it. Obviously, this implies that deleting an "interior" node (a node that is not a leaf node) implies deleting the "tree" to which it is connected.