Updated: January 11, 2010
These release notes document known issues related to the prerelease version of WorkflowLab.
The currently available version of WorkflowLab is 0.9.
Overview
WorkflowLab is a utility developed on Adobe® AIR® to help designers and developers understand best practices around project and tool workflows using Adobe software and technologies. Using WorkflowLab, you can start your development from workflow starting points and modify for your own projects or activities. Workflows can then be saved as distributable files that can be distributed to others, teams, or the community.
Download the WorkflowLab beta (AIR, 1.9 MB)
System Requirements
The minimum system requirements for the WorkflowLab beta are as follows:
Windows
- Intel® Pentium® III 1GHz or faster processor, 512MB of RAM
- Recommended: Pentium 4 2GHZ or faster, 1GB RAM
- Windows 7, Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise including 64 bit editions, Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP2 and SP3, Windows XP SP2 and SP3, Windows 2000 SP4, Windows 2003 Server
- 1,280x800 display with 16-bit or greater video card
Mac OS X
- Intel Core™ Duo 1.83GHz or faster processor; PowerPC® G4 1GHz or faster processor
- Mac OS X 10.4.11 or Mac OS X 10.5.4 and 10.5.5
- 512MB of RAM
- 1,280x800 display with 16-bit or greater video card
Linux
- Intel® Pentium® III 1GHz or faster processor, 512MB of RAM
- Recommended: Pentium 4 2GHZ or faster, 1GB RAM
- Fedora 8 and later, Ubuntu 7.10 and later, OpenSuse 10.3 and later
- xterm should be present on the system
- 1,280x800 display with 16-bit or greater video card
Features
New Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Custom Tool Support | Author workflows using customized tools from a selection of types including applications, frameworks, libraries, services, vendors, people or resources |
| Categories | Classify workflow tasks or activities using color coded customizable categories |
| Duration Grid | Overlay tasks on a customizable duration grid to add temporal context to workflows |
| Completion Status | Monitor and track your workflow progress by applying completion statuses to your workflow tasks |
| Rich Text Editing | Enhance your workflow task annotations with rich text editing capabilities and inline web links |
| Command Bar | Improve your efficiency in creating workflows using the new command bar for point and click authoring capabilities |
| Associated Link | Associate web links with workflow tasks for additional task background or to associate with related content on the Internet or internal networks |
| Search for Tool | Search within the Adobe tool list for fast selection of related tools to associate to tasks |
| Updated Workflow Starting Points | Revised workflow starting points that take advantage of new Beta features |
| Status Bar | Get additional feedback within the application through the new status bar |
| Collapsible Details Panel | Maximize your workflow authoring workspace by hiding the detail panel. |
| Duplicate Task | Quickly take an existing task and duplicate its associated tools, categories and annotation to speed up task authoring |
Existing Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Starting Points | A set of workflows to get you stared with WorkflowLab |
| Open workflows | Open a workflow file (.wfx) locally or from a URL |
| Create workflows | Create workflows to document for yourself or to share with others |
| Task management | Add, Delete and Edit tasks by directly manipulating task boxes |
| Check for updates | Check if a newer version of WorkflowLab is available. |
| Annotations | Add comments and instructions for workflows and tasks. |
| Applications and Technologies | Specify multiple applications and technologies for each task by selecting from a list. Icons appear in each task to visually communicate selections. |
| Visual workflow | Displays the workflow graphically so that you get an immediate view into the complete workflow. All of the tasks are displayed with their sequence in the workflow and the applications and technologies used. |
| XML file format | An open file format that stores all of the information for each workflow. This makes is very easy to share workflows with people and other applications. |
| Download links | Provides a link to download free or trial versions of each Adobe application |
| Undo | Undo any action such as deleting tasks |
Installation
Important: WorkflowLab cannot be installed when the AIR 2 beta is installed on your system. To install WorkflowLab, please uninstall AIR 2 beta prior to installing WorkflowLab. Once WorkflowLab is installed, you can then reinstall the AIR 2 beta.
From the WorkflowLab Badge Installer:
- Click the "Install Now" icon on the WorkflowLab technology page. Adobe AIR will automatically be installed if not present on the system.
From a standalone AIR file:
- Install Adobe AIR 1.5.
- Download the AIR file from Adobe Labs.
- Double-click the downloaded AIR file to install with the Adobe AIR Application Installer.
Known Issues
Linux Support
Support on Linux is not extensively tested. System requirements are based on AIR 1.5 Runtime system requirements and minimum application resolution requirements.
Rich Text Editor
To use the rich text editing feature, you need to highlight and then apply bold, italic, underlining, and font sizes. You cannot adjust this while typing due to a known issue.
Inline Links with Annotations
Inline links may not show the correct styling due to a known issue. Inline link style may be lost when applying other styling to the text.
Application Drop Shadows
Application drop shadows currently display as solid black when testing on Linux platforms due to a known issue.
Removing Links
If you select any characters to the left of the link, it won’t remove the link.