Capability comparison

The following table lists the capabilities in 

Developer Studio

 along with the corresponding capability in 

BMC Helix Innovation Studio

:

Capabilities of Record definitions

The following capabilities are provided by Record definitions in BMC Helix Innovation Studio:

• Provides a cleaner implementation of records.
  The fields defined as part of the Record definition are defined by the business process and not used to store workflow variables or other information.
• Provides an easy-to-use interface.
• Recommends using GUID for Record ID.
• Inherits or extends a Record definition with and without shared data.
• Supports overlays.
• Supports export of record data. You can export all or no data to the application bundle.

For information about creating Record definitions, see Creating-or-modifying-regular-record-definitions. 

Inheriting Record definitions

BMC Helix Innovation Studio enables you to inherit or extend a Record definition, and provides the following capabilities:

• Inherit record fields, rules, permissions, and associations with or without the shared data.
• Share a single database T table with the shared data.
• Structure the Record definitions as a class model.

For information about inheriting existing Record definitions, see Inheriting-an-existing-record-definition-to-a-new-record-definition.

The following image provides an example of the fields available in a base Record definition, and the fields available in an inherited or extended Record definition. Consider the following items:

• The 'Vehicle' Record definition is the base Record definition, and 'Transport' and 'Automobile' Record definitions are the inherited or extended Record definitions.
• For shared data, you must always use your own specified field IDs so that they do not conflict with the base T table. In the example, the Vehicle T table. 
• Although Automobile and Transport are inherited Record definitions, the inherited Record definitions can have their own set of unique fields.
  You can create Views, Rules, Processes, and Association definitions that reference these Record definitions. 

Packaging data of Record definitions

BMC Helix Innovation Studio enables you to package data of Record definitions by providing the following capabilities:

• Package data with an application bundle automatically.
  The supporting Record definitions, such as the Record definitions used in Named lists, can automatically have all their data included with the Application bundle deployment process.
• Export all or no data to the application bundle.

For information about exporting Record data, see Creating or modifying regular record definitions.

The following image shows how you can export data of a Record definition:

Applying security labels to Record definitions

With BMC Helix Innovation Studio, you can apply security labels to Record definitions. The security labels make permissions much easier for all users to understand. Groups are automatically created and assigned to Field ID 1 for row-level security. This dynamic permission can then be applied to other objects. For more information , see Enabling-row-level-security-by-defining-security-labels.

The following image shows how you can apply a security label to a Record definition:

Capabilities of View definitions

Components in View definitions

Use the following View components for to build Digital Service application UIs: 

For complete list of View components, see View-definition-components. 

Extending View components

The application developer can create new or extend existing View components for any advanced UI requirements for your business process. The view component palette in View designer is designed to be extensible for this purpose. For more information, see 

Capabilities of Rule definitions

The following capabilities are provided by Rule definitions:

• Executes the rules by using a variety of triggers that run actions similar to the workflow in AR System. 
  For example, you can execute the rules after Create, Update, Delete, Merge, and Timer Event.
• Creates the rules for validating and for calling Process definitions.
• Extends the custom rule actions by creating your own pallet actions.

For example, you want to use all the custom data functions available with Oracle database. In Developer Studio, a developer needs to create a Select * from Dual type of SQL filter. This is complicated operation for an application business analyst. In BMC Helix Innovation Studio, the application developer can create a custom action allowing this function to be provided to a business user.

For more information about creating business rules, see Adding-rules-to-validate-data-or-trigger-events-in-a-process. 

Capabilities of Process definitions

The following capabilities are provided by Process definitions:

• Provide graphical implementation, which makes it easy to build and maintain workflows.
• Define process models by using Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) 2.0 standards.
• Provide clean delineation of business process workflow versus other workflows.
  In contrast, the AR System filter workflow performs process workflow and implement other non process rules such as validations.
• Define and use process variables within a process flow.
  You do not need to create display only fields on Record definitions.
• Monitor the processes to track the system health.
• Extend process actions by providing simple drag-and-drop interface for creating easy-to-follow business logic. You can also create extensible custom process actions for additional features to suit your business requirements.
• Insert process variables for inputs and outputs of process actions that can be used by subsequent actions. This removes the clutter from the data model and results in a data model with display-only fields.

For information about creating business processes, see Defining-the-application-business-logic-through-processes.

Capabilities of Associations

The following capabilities are provided by Associations:

• Provide direct and indirect linking of Record definitions.
• Associate records easily by using process actions.
• Create associations with descriptors, such as parent of, child of, consists of, part of, and so on.
• Automatically create a foreign key on secondary Record definition for direct associations.
• Automatically capture indirect association data in system Record definition.
• Automatically deletes the child records if the parent record with the Cascade Delete flag set to True is deleted.
• Automatically set the foreign key in the child records to NULL without deleting them if a parent record with the Cascade Delete flag set to False is deleted.
• Use associations for archival purposes.

For more information about relating two records, see Creating-record-associations.

Capabilities of Named lists

The following capabilities are provided by Named lists:

• Easily design and extend the list.
• Provide modern user interface for items such as a multiselect menu.

For information about creating lists, see Facilitating data entry through named lists.

Capabilities of configurations

The following capabilities are provided by configurations in BMC Helix Innovation Studio:

• Define a common registry of settings for an application that will be stored in a central key or value repository with a common user interface. 
  This common registry makes sure that all settings look and function the same way. This definition of the settings metadata is bundled and deployed with the application.
• Enables the application developer to obtain the settings metadata from AppLocalStorage for consuming the settings.
  The metadata can be used as a setting to drive Process workflow and custom client workflow as desired.

For information about creating configurations for your application, see Creating-configurations-for-your-Digital-Service-application.