About the Steps Pane

The Task Builder's Steps pane displays the actions selected from the Available Actions pane that will be carried out when the task executes. During task construction, actions are dragged from the Available Actions pane onto the Steps pane. During this process, a dialog box displaying the properties of the selected action opens and specific parameters and requirements can be viewed or modified. Once the parameters are set, the action and its properties are then displayed in the Steps pane (as shown below) and the action becomes a task "step." These steps run automatically in a sequential order when the task is triggered by some event or condition or when started manually by the user.

When creating/debugging tasks, a single instance of the Task Builder can open multiple tasks, each separated by tabs located at the bottom of the Steps pane. Each tab is labeled with the name of the corresponding task. The steps of the desired task can be viewed by simply selecting the proper tab. When a task is selected, the Steps pane becomes populated with steps of that task and the Status Bar and Debug Pane show data for that task.

By default, a task step is comprised of the step number, the unique icon associated with the action used to create the step and detailed information about the step and its properties (as shown above). Alternatively, step (or line) numbers can be omitted, icon sizes can be modified or step descriptions can be fully customized.

Task Functions and Variables Table

In order to make the creation and maintainability of tasks easier and safer, AWE now supports variable scoping, variable accessibility, as well as external tasks and function declarations and execution. The top portion of the Steps pane contains the Task Functions and Task Variables pane. This drop-down pane is used to create Task Functions and Variables and display their properties in a clear and concise manner so the user understands the steps being displayed at any given time are associated with the function/variable being modified.

Other Steps Pane Operations

Many more operations can be performed from the Steps pane. Right-clicking one or more lines of code on the Steps pane opens a submenu that displays a list of available options you can perform for those steps (as shown below). Other operations include editing steps, adding comments, copying, importing and reusing task steps.

Steps Pane Right-Click Menu