Generators and Actions

flowchart LR
    subgraph Generator
      trigger_1(trigger)
    end
    subgraph Action
      trigger_2(trigger)
    end
    trigger_1--->trigger_2

What is a generator?

A generator produces boolean trues and sends them via the output property trigger.

There are many types of generators:

• A periodic timer
• A scheduler
• A changed file on the filesystem (fs_notify)
• A random bool generator
• An user which has pressed a button on the user interface
• A physical event from an input device like a keystroke

What is a action?

A action is something which should be executed or processed only and only if the input property trigger receives a boolean true.

Combine triggers and actions within a single entity using components

An entity instance can have multiple components.

For example, you can combine file with fs_notify and load_binary.

By doing so, the trigger property is both:

• A generator: The component fs_notify fires trigger when the file has been modified on the filesystem
• A action: The component load_binary gets triggered immediately and loads the content of the file into a property

This example shows the great possibilities of the component system and how to use the generator-action-system. By combining components into one single entity instance, the behaviour of the entity instance can get more complex. At the same time a flow is more compact.

Another example is to combine a user-interface-button as generator with an update-the-asset-repository as an action.

flowchart LR
    subgraph entity[Entity]
        direction LR
        subgraph action
          trigger
        end
        subgraph fs_notify
          file[(File)]
        end
        subgraph load_binary
          binary_data
        end
    end
    file -->|behaviour: fs_notify| trigger
    trigger -->|behaviour: load_binary_data| binary_data