Group flow elements into a logical collection so they can be collapsed
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Working on complicated flows it struck me that it would be good if I could select a set of actions and mark these as an atomic group, title group and collapse it into a suitable icon that helps tidy the diagram keeping logic clean.  Opening the collapsed item shows the actions in a labelled box.

This is for use where you don't want to create actions to encapsulate logic as it is only called once, but you want to simplify a complex flow to help make the logic clearer.

This is a great idea. It can ease other developer to view and find the code.

It will really ease us in recap and speed up in pick up the understanding again especially when we have project that normally update twice a year, once a year or even longer.

Merged this idea with 'Provide Group flow element (visual hint)' (created on 19 Dec 2019 15:45:44 by Nuno Cavalheiro)

When creating actions we should have a flow element that provides a visual hint of other flow elements that are directly related to the same logic, in order to allow easier code understanding by visually breaking it into concepts in scenarios where breaking the code into several actions isn't desired. 

A named box around the elements would would do nicely.

Support of folders within folders and an optional set of action meta data properties that generated variations of the default icon representation would also be possible ways to implement this as well.

Changed the category to
Service Studio
Merged this idea with 'Adding regions/areas in order to group "statements" on the actions editor' (created on 26 Sep 2022 15:14:43 by Robert Bergeron)

Best practice commands not using the "Z" type of coding but some of my colleagues do it anyway "to group common statements" to highlight a specific branch of actions. 

In other software in the past (mostly MySQL DB designers and Talend Open Studio), there was a functionality to enclose these elements in individual groups by drawing a rectangle area (region) on the canvas around those statements/elements, thus clearly highlighting different branches or actions...

Much like C# has the #region marker, I thought it could be added as a component.

There is this widespread idea that flows should not be large, and if they get too large, part should be split off into a separate action.  In that spirit, there is less need for defining sections in an action flow.  I suspect there is also the fear that introducing sections will remove the trigger for splitting your code up in smaller parts.

I myself sometimes am reluctant to split off stuff that clearly belongs together.  One of the things I have used is to put a Comment behind it, and making it large enough with spaces en newlines.  But that is really a hobbyish makeshift workaround, since the comment has no relation to the widgets it represents, so you can't for example move the section and drag all that is in it, with it, you are forever adding or removing spaces and newlines while your logic develops, because you can't just resize it, etc...

If we had a section widget, we could also collapse/expand sections.

Changed the category to
Service Studio

Thank you for your reply Dorine! I understand the fear of having people making huge action flows and I agree with you, it should not happen or at least should be avoided as much as possible. But it is also a personal choice on how each develop their apps or certain parts of it, according to what they think is their need. I see you sometime relied on the comment box hack (which is not a pretty one) so it seems there is a need for this grouping, on occasion.

Also, it would be more convenient if, by splitting the code to the smallest possible actions as possible, they could be grouped in folders and subfolders to keep things tidy. It quickly becomes overcrowded depending on the complexity of the application being built, which can lead to the impression that one has a certain "need" to jam everything related together in one big method/action flow.


I believe the collapse / expand feature of code could be cool but the need is more to visually group things together rather than hidding bits of code.

Merged this idea with 'Group Nodes in action flows' (created on 17 Nov 2022 09:33:01 by Randall Jodache Chetty )

It will be nice if you could group more than one node in your action flow. In doing so you can group them and give it a name , for example List Appends, and having the option to collapse or expand them to view, edit or delete them 

Merged this idea with 'In Service Studio, allow to visualy group nodes that belongs to same logic branch of that action' (created on 30 Apr 2024 08:41:17 by Pedro Oliveira)

It could be helpfull if we could visualy indicate that a set of nodes belongs to the same branch of logic.

If we have a large action with lots of nodes, and if we have a cicle with some nodes inside, it would be cool to "visualy group" them to indicate that they belong to the same logic branch.

Like adding a dashed box around those nodes.

I know that we can segregate those nodes in an action but anyway it could be helpfull.