The whatif-templates based setup introduced in release 2020.02 is designed with the following wishes in mind:
- WhatIf's should be intuitive to work with
- WhatIf should be easy to create, manipulate and manage
- Whatif results should be easy accessible
- WhatIf's should be comparable, both on the input side as on the output side
To meet those wishes, whatif's are made explicitly visible and accessible via the IFD Forecast tree, while whatIf management is entirely controlled via the WhatIf Editor.
In the IFD-configuration (topology.xml) it is specified whether an IFD-segment node is associated with a whatif-template.
WhatIf Editor: only activated at specific IFD segment nodes If the segment node does not allow a whatif to be created, all options in the whatif-editor are disabled. If the segment node allows the creation of a whatif-instance, the Create button is enabled. |
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WhatIf Editor: Create button After pressing the Create button, a whatif-instance can be populated via the controls in the whatif-editor table. Integer, double and string properties can be entered in the text field. Min/max ranges may apply to the numeric values. Booleans properties can be manipulated via a checkbox. Properties with enumerated values or properties referencing config files can be selected via a dropdown box. A whatif-template can also reference modifierTypes. For each configured modifierType, a dropdown will be shown listing the names of the modifiers available for selection. |
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WhatIf Editor: Apply button After pressing the Apply button, the new whatif-instance is created and added with a specific WhatIf-icon (hammer and wrench) under the segment node. As you can see, when this whatif-node is selected in the tree, the Create button has changed in a Copy button. The Apply button is available to apply any adjustments made to the whatif-instance. Adjustments can be done as long as the whatif-instance has not been saved persistently to the database by execution at the server or (after a local run) pressing the Save button to promote the run to the database. Once specified, a Delete button is activated to allow deletion of the whatif. Note that non-persistent whatifs remain in the database, also after the application is exited. |
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WhatIf Editor: Copy button When a whatif-node has been selected in the IFD-tree, the Create button has changed into a Copy button. When pressing the Copy button, the settings of the selected whatif-instance are copied to a new instance. Both the old and new instance appear next to each other, where the new instance can be adjusted. After pressing Apply a child node is added to the whatif-node you copied from. Note: the parent-child organization is only visual and decided at creation time. Only at creation time, once can assume that the whatif-settings are the same. No facilities exist for moving child nodes from one parent to another parent or any other way of reorganizng the whatif-nodes in the tree |  |
Running (IFD) Running a whatif is conducted via the normal run facilities in the IFD-tree. By pressing the Run button in the IFD-task tree, the workflow associated with the (parent) segment node is executed using the whatif-settings. The icon status of the segment node will reflect the status of the last run. The icon status of the whatif-node will reflect the status of the whatif-run. Whatif icons can have various backgrounds/foregrounds (hammer & wrench):
Note: a when the T0 of the run has changed compared to previous runs, segment nodes will chnage accoring to their normal status update. A segment node with a black icon background indicates that the last run executed at another T0 has failed. A segment node with a grey background indicates that the last run executed at another T0 was succesful. The color of the check indicates whether this run was local (blue), persistent (green) or the settings have changed (yellow). |
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WhatIf Editor: Delete button WhatIf-instances can be deleted using the Delete button in the WhatIf Editor. When deleting a whatif a popup appears with three choices:
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