Visual-Only Flowcharter

[Brendan]

We're all well-aware of the remarkable educational and productivity benefits of Flowcode visual development UI.

However, for more complex projects, and particularly for discussion and high-level review with fellow students, engineers and stakeholders, I believe a simple 'visual-only' flowcharting feature, that can be directly embedded into source projects, would be a fabulous addition. For example, such chart(s) could exist inside pseudo-macros (colour-identified accordingly).

Such feature would merely need to leverage the icon graphics already available to source projects, labelled and linked in similar fashion, but without the functionality otherwise presented for software development.

Although it is possible to create a dummy macro for such purposes, using active icons often requires variables to be created and input conditions (etc) to be satisfied in order to include them, though I'm suggesting something for purely visual/descriptive purposes only - either to update as 'notes' during project development, or to discuss/plan/print process flows ahead of project development, potentially with non-Flowcode users.

[medelec35]

Hello.
There is an online parser here that Ben developed.
That will allow you to browse your PC for the fcfx project files to look at in visual form

[Brendan]

Thanks Martin,

I'll definitely take a look at that, and thank you for the link.

Best regards,
Brendan

[Brendan]

Hi Martin.

I tried Ben's parser, which looks very good for visual-only representation of project source. Unfortunately, I'm unable to use Ben's tool due to company prohibitions uploading what would be regarded as company-confidential information to an unapproved location, as might apply to other professional users.

My thoughts however were along the lines of a simple embedded flowcharting tool for inclusion within the Flowcode project source, enabling simple high-level charts to be created/presented/discussed potentially in advance of code development, particularly for collaborative discussions with non-FC users, and which wouldn't have any necessary relationship to project source.

Always possible to use third-party apps of-course (e.g. Visio, etc), though wouldn't be embedded and saved with the project, and not as familiar or slick as Flowcode charting IMHO, which had me wondering if there were an opportunity to leverage existing FC symbols and link functionality for basic/descriptive flowcharting purposes to efficiently map out thoughts/ideas/notes.

Perhaps I'm asking too much if not of justifiable benefit to other users, but just a thought

Thanks and best regards,
Brendan

[Steve-Matrix]

My thoughts however were along the lines of a simple embedded flowcharting tool for inclusion within the Flowcode project source, enabling simple high-level charts to be created/presented/discussed potentially in advance of code development, particularly for collaborative discussions with non-FC users, and which wouldn't have any necessary relationship to project source.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will put it on our development list for future consideration.

[BenR]

Hello,

If uploading is a problem and you have access to your own PHP enabled web server either online or locally then I can let you have the source code for the viewer, it's fairly self contained. I use EasyPHP on my office PC and at home I have a RPI and a Linux box both with LAMP servers running. Any of the above would work.

Please note this is my own personal work that I cobbled together in an evening or two over a beer (or several) so if you look at the code then don't be too judgey

FlowchartView.zip

(1.1 MiB) Downloaded 12 times

[viktor_au]

Hi.
I am curious about the Flowcode Project File Parser.
Tried it on my PC xampp:
http://127.0.0.1/FlowchartView/index.php
However I have got some errors:
Warning: Undefined array key "file" in F:\xampp\htdocs\FlowchartView\index.php on line 46
Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type null in F:\xampp\htdocs\FlowchartView\index.php on line 46
Warning: simplexml_load_file(): I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" in F:\xampp\htdocs\FlowchartView\index.php on line 46
Failed to load
One question.
What file should I upload to FlowcartView?
A little bit more information please…
Thanks

[chipfryer27]

Hi

Use the Browse button to navigate /select your usual flowcode file (.fcfx) and Upload button to view it.

It's a tool Ben kindly created and shared independent to Flowcode / Matrix TSL that displays your Flowcharts / variables etc.

Below is an extract from the viewer and the target file used.

View.JPG (37.07 KiB) Viewed 318 times

Flash_25K50.fcfx

(10.23 KiB) Downloaded 8 times

Regards

[viktor_au]

All understood.
The errors on my localhost do disappear after I load the file.
I have never used this tool before.
Handy.
Thanks.

[chipfryer27]

Hi

I've used it a few times when presenting to those unfamiliar with technicalities as it's easier to "explain" without the rest of the Flowcode icons present.

Regards