Putting the example application to work
After the planning and design process, the park develops an application that covers its diverse requirements. When staff members begin using the application, they note which features work well and which ones need adjustment. Developers make changes to the application based on that feedback.
Example application—A tiger is acquired
In this example, the hypothetical wild animal park acquires a tiger. This example illustrates a complete process, but not every component of the process is discussed in detail.
As shown in the following figure, when a Sumatran tiger named Karuna is obtained, a staffer fills in the Animal form, and clicks a List Enclosures button. An active link opens a dialog box displaying the Enclosure form with a table field that lists enclosure information, including availability and habitat. The staffer can double-click any enclosure in the list to get more information.
Next, the staffer selects an appropriate choice—in this case, enclosure 16) and submits the request. A filter notifies the Animal Handlers group and sends a message to inform the staffer that the appropriate persons have been notified. In addition, the Status field changes from New to Move Pending.
During trial runs of the system, the application developer realizes that the animal handlers are frequently away from their computers and rarely check email. The developer integrates the application with a paging program and has the filter notify the handlers about new animals with a page. Handlers can then use their cell phones to get information about their assigned tasks.
Gary from Animal Handlers receives a page that says a new tiger must be moved from the temporary cages to enclosure 16.
After he transfers the tiger, Gary changes the Status field from Move Pending to Permanent. When he saves his changes, workflow components create new requests in related forms and notify the Veterinarian group and the Animal Handlers group to begin the care and feeding of the new animal. These requests and notifications illustrate one way of handling work orders in AR System.
Active link and filter in the animal tracking application
Example application—The tiger is injured
In this example, the tiger is injured. This example illustrates a complete process, but not every component of the process is discussed in detail.
One morning when the keepers are making their daily rounds, they notice that the tiger, Karuna, has been injured, so they notify the veterinarians. A veterinarian looks at the Animal form and checks a table field that contains data from the Medical History form, as illustrated in the following figure. She discovers that Karuna has no history of serious injury or illness.
To be treated, Karuna must be tranquilized and moved to the veterinary hospital for surgery. He has been tranquilized before without incident as indicated by the Tranquilizer Notes field on the Animal form, so the veterinarian computes the dosage and sets out with several animal handlers to bring in the tiger.
Table field in the animal tracking application
During the prototyping phase, staffers had to open the Medical History form separately to learn about Karuna's record with tranquilizers. The veterinary staff pointed out that they wanted that important information readily available during an emergency. So the Tranquilizer Notes field was added to the Animal form, and a filter that executes on Submit was added to post a message to the veterinarians, reminding them to update the Tranquilizer Notes if necessary.
Example application—The tiger is traded to another zoo
In this example, the tiger, Karuna, is transferred to a different zoo. This example illustrates a complete process, but not every component of the process is discussed in detail.
After several years, the animal park determines that it should have a different male tiger to maintain genetic diversity in its tiger population. By examining a database maintained by zoos worldwide, the staff discovers a tiger that is available and has no common ancestors with Karuna or with the park's female tigers. They decide to trade Karuna, and a staffer changes Karuna's status from Permanent to Trade Pending, thereby triggering the same notification filter that was used when Karuna arrived. This time, it notifies the animal handlers to move Karuna to a temporary cage, as shown in the following figure.
Notifications in the animal tracking application
After Karuna leaves the park, his status is changed to Traded. When the changed request is submitted, a filter uses a Push Fields action to move all of Karuna's data from the Animal form to the Former Resident form, as shown in the following figure.
Push Fields action used in the animal tracking application
The Medical History form is not archived or changed because the staff might, at any point, want information from the medical records. For example, they might want information about all tiger surgeries performed at the park.