Developing Step Processors

The development of a custom Step Processor can range from the relatively simple to the complex. An example of a relatively simple change is customizing the user interface to modify the look and feel of a supplied sample Step Processor. A more complex change is modifying the Step Processor's layout and controls for specific business logic requirements. Other extensive changes include content integration, accessing different data sources, and modifying access and authentication. You can also build your own Step Processor.

For complete information, see Developing a Java™ Step Processor.

The following table provides a description of the fundamental approaches to Step Processor development:

Customize	Changes	Description
User Interface	Modify the look and feel of the user interface.	HTML Step Processors Modify or customize the View UI JavaServer Pages (JSP), UI Module (JavaBeans), XSL stylesheet, and CSS (Cascading Style Sheet). Remember to verify that the Event JSP redirects control to the appropriate corresponding UI JSP page. You can copy and modify the sample HTML Step Processor provided in Content Cortex Web Application Toolkit Basic Step Processor Sample Code. You can download this sample code from the Developer samples section of the IBM® Content Cortex publication library . Java Step Processors Copy and modify the sample Java Step Processor provided with the Process development environment, or develop your own Java Step Processor user interface. See Building a Step Processor with the Java Step Processor UI Toolkit.
	Modify the page layout or structure of the Step Processor.	HTML Step Processors Create or use an object (in the HTML header section) for the HTML page. In the layout section, the WcmUI.render method is called for each UI module that generates HTML output from XML. The WcmUI.render method in turn calls the individual render methods of the UI modules. Override the base UI module methods to customize the presentation. In addition, you can create UI elements and place them into a containment module by using the appropriate UI module's methods. Some examples of UI elements are custom tab bars and toolbars. Java Step Processors Copy and modify the sample Java Step Processor provided with the Process development environment, or develop your own Java Step Processor user interface. For information, see Building a Step Processor with the Java Step Processor UI Toolkit.
	Add new user controls, and modify or hide existing controls.	HTML Step Processors Modify or customize the Event JSP page to call the controller methods to handle user actions that are invoked from an HTML page. Redirect the control to the corresponding UI JSP page. You can copy and modify the sample HTML Step Processor provided in Content Cortex Web Application Toolkit Basic Step Processor Sample Code. You can download this sample code from the Developer samples section of the IBM Content Cortex publication library . See also Fundamental Launch Step Processor Operations. Java Step Processors Copy and modify the sample Java Step Processor provided with the Process development environment, or develop your own Java Step Processor user interface. See Building a Step Processor with the Java Step Processor UI Toolkit. You can use Java AWT/Swing controls, or the sample controls provided with the Java Step Processor UI Toolkit. See also Building a Java Step Processor with the Java Step Processor UI Toolkit).
Content Integration	Modify integration with the Content Platform Engine to access Content Engine objects.	HTML Step Processors The Web Application Toolkit data providers are JavaBeans that pass data between UI modules and the Process and Content Engine Java APIs. Each data provider caches its data to the data store bean, providing a common connection point for one or more UI modules. In addition, you can create new data providers to retrieve data from other backend sources, such as from a database server, mainframe, or other legacy system. Java Step Processors Use the Process Java APIs to integrate with the workflow system. For information about configuration-related API calling sequences, see Administration and Configuration API Calling Sequences. For information about API calling sequences that are used for operations such as querying a queue and retrieving Step elements, see Runtime API Calling Sequences.
Build Your Own	Create your own Step Processors by using a framework that incorporates a custom user interface and integrates Content data and process services.	HTML Step Processors and Java Step Processors All Step Processors must, at a minimum, perform certain basic operations. For information about these operations, see Fundamental Step Processor Operations and Fundamental Launch Step Processor Operations. Java Step Processors Either develop your own Java Step Processor application or applet, or copy and modify the sample that is provided with the Process development environment. For the latter possibility, see Building a Java Step Processor with the Java Step Processor UI Toolkit). If you are developing your own, the Step Processor Development Procedure provides an overall step-by-step approach of the entire custom Step Processor development procedure. You might want to create Work Performers for specific operations on a workflow step. For information on creating Work Performers for Step Processor operations, see Developing Work Performers. When you develop a Java Step Processor, you need to consider whether to deploy it as an application or an applet. See Developing Custom Java Step Processors - Applications vs. Applets.