Functions

Application

Creating an application is the first step for developing a project in Huawei Cloud Astro Zero and is also the entry for building end-to-end software applications. The platform provides a graphical user interface (GUI), logic, and objects to help you build applications by dragging and dropping. In Huawei Cloud Astro Zero, you can create the following types of applications:

• Standard applications: These are standalone management applications designed for service management. Huawei Cloud Astro Zero provides a range of templates to simplify the development process, cut costs, and boost efficiency. When your service requirements match the scenarios in these templates, you can use them to quickly generate services and customize applications.
• Add-on applications: If you need to customize an existing application or solution—which includes multiple applications—you can create add-on applications. These applications let you reuse existing assets, as they can be built like modular building blocks that require only minimal customization to meet your service needs.
• BOs: A business object (BO) is a software unit that encapsulates complete data models, service logic, and page display. It provides complete services for a scenario and specific services for upper-layer applications. Different users can customize BOs with specific functions. They can package these BOs and share them with others. Once a BO package is installed, it can be integrated into an application, providing access to its specialized services.
• Native services: If you have developed services outside the platform that run in Docker containers and want to integrate them into the platform for internal or third-party use, create native services.

For details, see Creating Applications.

Standard Page

Standard pages enable rapid frontend development with minimal coding. By dragging widgets onto a canvas, you can create functional pages for applications such as performance management, leave requests, travel expenses, and voting. These pages support basic data operations such as adding, deleting, modifying, and querying data. Standard pages come with a variety of widgets that include embedded event code and default styles. This eliminates the need for repetitive coding and allows you to focus on enhancing core services.

For details, see Standard Page Overview.

Advanced Page

Advanced pages are complex frontend pages that contain images, charts, videos, and maps. They support a range of frameworks and coding options, making them perfect for complex page design needs.

An advanced page is assembled from one or more widgets. If an advanced page is considered as a complete pattern of a puzzle game, a widget is equivalent to each small piece of the puzzle. The following figure shows the relationship between advanced pages and widgets.

Figure 1 Advanced pages and widgets

For details, see Advanced Page Overview.

Object

An object is similar to a table in a database of a traditional service system. Each object corresponds to a database table for storing the configuration data and service data required by a service system.

Objects can store data specific to organizations or services. You can define related fields, field verification rules, GUI styles, and events triggered by field changes. If the service system to be developed is considered as a movie, objects are roles in it. You need to outline their appearances, personalities, relationships, and stories in the movie.

Objects are as follows:

• Standard objects are preset by the platform, with names and fields already defined to satisfy fundamental service needs. On the application designer, choose Console > Object Management to view all objects on the platform. Objects without prefixes and suffixes are standard objects. You can also go the environment configuration page and choose User and Profile > Profiles. On the displayed page, select a profile, for example, Portal User Profile. On the profile details page, click the Standard Object Permissions tab to view the standard objects.
• Custom objects are customized by developers. Objects and fields can be added, deleted, or modified. After you create a custom object, the system creates standard fields for it.
• View objects, similar to the views in a database, perform queries across multiple objects and display the results as a unified set of objects. Data in view objects can only be queried, but cannot be added, deleted, or modified.
• System objects are used by system function modules, such as flows and scripts. Generally, you do not need to pay attention to these objects. You can run SQL statements to query these objects.

For details, see Object Overview.

Flow

You can use flows to develop services through simple drag-and-drop and parameter configuration. It also supports re-encapsulating or re-arranging existing services. In a flow editor, you can quickly develop services and extend more service functions in graphical orchestration mode. In addition, you can bind services to APIs to provide services for external systems. You can use both scripts and flows to develop service APIs and logic. Scripts are written in code and are ideal for complex service logic, while flows offer a graphical interface that is ideal for simpler scenarios, with a recommendation to keep it within 20 diagram elements for clarity.

For details, see Flow Overview.

BPM

The platform has developed its own Business Process Management (BPM) system based on the BPMN 2.0 industry specifications for modeling business processes. The function within this service that drives the execution of processes is known as the BPM engine.

Similar to flows, a BPM is also a visual tool. However, it focuses on the service processes that involve user behaviors, such as approvals and ticket handling. The differences between BPMs and flows are as follows:

• BPMs map user activities to pages, showing how users interact with the system. Flows detail the steps of a single service operation.
• BPMs come with built-in task assignment rules such as sequential approval, disjunctive signing, conjunctive signing, and voting. They can also implement complex task assignment rules based on user activities to manage intricate interaction processes.
• BPMs record a history of each user's actions, which can be reviewed in the process history. This is not necessary for non-interactive processes.

For details, see BPM Overview.

Script

Huawei Cloud Astro Zero allows you to develop TypeScript scripts online to implement flexible and complex service logic. An online development IDE is provided as the script editor. It delivers a development experience similar to an offline development tool. The advantages are as follows:

• Modern editing page with syntax highlighted
• Intelligent completion and user-friendly syntax error prompt
• Accurate definition, code preview, search, and reference
• Fast online compilation
• console.log for analyzing complex issues

For details, see Script Overview.

Event

An event in a BPM marks a significant change. Once an event is defined, you can send it out, receive it, and then analyze and handle the data associated with that event. Events are classified into standard events and custom events.

• Standard events are defined by the system and can be directly subscribed to.
• Custom events are defined by users. For example, a company is holding a job fair. Employee A and recruitment manager B are responsible for interviews. B determines whether a candidate can be hired. After the candidate is hired, C from the personnel department is responsible for handling related procedures for the new employee. We need to design the software. Once a candidate is hired, B does not need to notify the personnel department. Instead, the system creates an event that captures the hiring decision. After this event is subscribed to, the system will automatically send an email to the personnel department based on the hiring result to inform the personnel department whether to handle related procedures.

For details, see Event Overview.

Trigger

A trigger is created based on an object. You can customize the conditions and actions of the trigger. When the record related to the object meets the set conditions, the system executes the configured action. A trigger intuitively displays service processes to users.

For details, see Trigger Overview.

Connector

A connector is an integration tool for calling third-party services. Huawei Cloud Astro Zero encapsulates different types of connectors to connect to third-party services, such as OBS, Redis, Cloud Search Service, and ROMA Connect. With connectors, developers do not need to pay attention to the implementation code. They only need to configure the service address and authentication information to quickly integrate third-party systems in flows or scripts.

For details, see Overview.

Data Access

Data access refers to the access of message data by connecting to multiple input sources. For example, the MQS on ROMA Connect is converted into events in the Kafka message queue for the platform service logic API to use.

For details, see Integrating Message Data into Huawei Cloud Astro Zero Through the Data Access Function.

No-Code Workbench

Huawei Cloud Astro Zero provides the no-code workbench for you to build no-code applications. With this platform, you can quickly build applications by simply dragging without programming. You can quickly create custom applications, turning ideas into applications in seconds.

For details, see Creating No-Code Applications.