Oracle Designer Tutorial


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Lesson 3
Refine default functions

Functions are arranged in a hierarchy. A function hierarchy shows the information used by functions, in terms of entities and attributes. Each function in the hierarchy is decomposed until the lowest level functions (called elementary business functions) that comprise it have been identified. It is the elementary functions that become the forms, reports and utilities in the finished system.

You use the Function Hierarchy Diagrammer to decompose functions, define elementary functions and show how functions use data.

Identify functions to automate

The process model showed the process steps for the business carried out by Speedy Pizza. All of the process steps were recorded in the repository as functions, but only some of these functions are suitable for automation (e.g. "Record customer order"). The remaining functions (e.g. "Assemble products in a box") will be implemented as manual processes.

Objective

To identify which of the existing functions are to be automated.

Instructions

  1. Click on the Function Hierarchy Diagrammer button on the Oracle Designer Window to start the Function Hierarchy Diagrammer.

    Function Hierarchy button

  2. Select Filearrow.gif (182 bytes)New to create a new diagram based on existing function definitions.

    If you are prompted to select a default container for the diagram, select TUTORIAL.

    The New Diagram dialog box appears.

    new diagram dialog box

  3. Highlight "DELI 1" (Satisfy Customer Order) in the list and click OK.

    The DELI 1 SATISFY CUSTOMER ORDER function and its child functions appear.

    DELI 1 FHD

    Hint: You might have to resize the window or use zoom to view the entire function hierarchy.

  4. Click the (create) Function button in the toolbar.

    Function toolbar button

  5. Click in an empty part of the diagram. This opens the Create Function dialog box.

    Create Function dialog box

  6. In the Label box, type AUTO 1 and in the Short Definition box type in Handle automated functions. Click the OK button. The AUTO 1 function appears on the diagram as a root function.

    This new root function can now be used as the parent of functions that already exist on the diagram. To do this, you drag the child functions and drop them onto the root function. It is important when doing this that you position the mouse pointer precisely in the centre of the root function before releasing the mouse button. Otherwise, the moved function will become another root function. The mouse pointer changes shape to help with this.

  7. Drag the Record Customer Order function (i.e., DELI 1.1 (AUTO))to the centre of the AUTO 1 function until the mouse pointer shape changes to that shown below.

    mouse pointer shape change

    Releasing the mouse button reparents DELI 1.1 (AUTO) Record Customer Order under the AUTO 1 root function.

  8. Using the technique described in step 7, above, reparent the following additional functions under AUTO 1:

    DELI 1.3 (AUTO) Print customer's order
    DELI 10.3 (AUTO) Record time to transport and payment
    DELI 10.4 (AUTO) Add new product to the menu
    DELI 10.5 (AUTO) Publish menu on the Web

    The new function hierarchy for the AUTO 1 module is as follows:

Add entity usages to a function

To create working applications, the information used by a function must be identified. This typically involves specifying whether a function can create, retrieve, update or delete an instance of an entity.

Objective

To specify how the PRODUCT entity is used by the "Add new product to the menu" and "Publish menu on the Web" functions.

Instructions

  1. Double click the function DELI 10.4 (AUTO) Add new product to the menu. This opens the Edit Function dialog box.

     Edit Function dialog box

  2. On the Entity Usages tab, add the PRODUCT and PRICED_PRODUCT entities to the Entity column (by selecting them from the drop down list in each cell of the Entity column) and set their usages as set out in the following table.

    Entity

    Create

    Retrieve

    Update

    Delete

    Archive

    Other

    PRODUCT

    þ

    þ

    þ

    þ

     

     

    PRICED PRODUCT

    þ

    þ

    þ

    þ

     

     

    The usage flags indicate how the function uses the information represented by the entities.

    Hint: Use the horizontal scrollbar to see the Delete, Archive and Other usage flags.

  3. Click on OK to close the Edit Function dialog box.

  4. Set up entity usages for DELI 10.5 (AUTO) as below.

    Entity

    Create

    Retrieve

    Update

    Delete

    Archive

    Other

    PRODUCT

     

    þ

     

     

     

     

    PRICED PRODUCT

     

    þ

     

     

     

     

  5. If you wish, save the diagram with a name of your choice. Note that you do not have to save the diagram in order to save the data that you have input in this lesson.

Create attribute usages using the function/attribute matrix utility

Having specified the entities used by a business function, and how those entities are used, you specify how the function uses the attibutes of those entities, including whether a function can:

You can use the Function/Attribute Matrix utility to create usages for all attributes of the entities used by a function.

Objective

To create attribute usages for the "Add new product to the menu" and "Publish menu on the Web" functions.

Instructions

  1. In the Function Hierarchy Diagrammer, select Utilitiesarrow.gif (182 bytes)Function/Attribute Matrix.

    This displays the Create Function/Attribute Matrix dialog box.

    Create Function/Attribute Matrix dialog box

  2. Highlight the following functions in the list:

    DELI 10.4 (AUTO) Add new product to the menu

    DELI 10.5 (AUTO) Publish menu on the Web

  3. Click the OK button.

    The Create Function/Attribute dialog box closes and the attribute usages are created.

    To confirm that the attribute usages have been created, open the Edit Function dialog box for the functions (see previous section) and view the Attribute Usages tab. For each entity used by the function, the attributes will be listed and the usages shown by completed check boxes. If you scroll across to the Comments column, you will see "Created by system on <date>".

  4. Close the Function Hierarchy Diagrammer.


Lesson summary

In this lesson you identified which functions should be automated and created entity and attribute usages.



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