Concepts
States and Actions
States and Actions work together to execute your processes
A flow in Stubber is made up of states and actions.
States are the current state of a stub at a certain point in time. Think about a scenario where you were at the shop waiting at the counter to pay for your groceries. In [...]
Actions are options available to the user in whatever state the stub might be. Using the example above the actions you have available to you in this state might be `pay_[...]
Introduction
Templates and Stubs recap
From what we have learnt already, we know that each stub is an instance of a template. Let's think of our example used in the introduction again.
A template might be defined for the process of a shopper purchasing goods from a store. Lets say that the process is roughly something like this:
- Customer enters the store
- Customer chooses an item/s
- Customer pays for their items
- Customer leaves
That process or flow would be what is defined in the template.
Each customer that enters the store would be a unique participant of that process or procedure with their own details of their journey along the process. Each customer in this example would be a s[...]
One template => many stubs
If we look at the example below, we can see that many stubs are created from a single template, all with their own unique information about what has happened in the stub. This represents a parent-[...]
One stub => one state
The stub keeps track of what state it is in. Each stub can only be in one state at any point in time. One way to think of states and actions is as a [finite state machine](https://en.wikip[...]
Each stub => its own state
Each stub can be in its own state independently of one another. Remember that the states are defined in the template, so any stub that is created can be in any one of the states in tha[...]
States
We could visualize states all linking together like this. Every stub has a starting state and can move from one state to another. Think about the example of the customer shopping experience we spo[...]
Stubs follow the links between states and transition between them. See the example below of sales lifecycle. Notice how states flow from one state to another, and how that a state c[...]
If we take this further and name the actions that are taken to move between states then the diagram might look something like this.
Actions
This leads us further into our understanding of the actions that are taken to move between states. Actions are the options that are available to the user in each state. Typically there are different types of actions:
Transitioning actions
These are actions that cause a stub to move from one state to another. This is how stubs move between [states](/docs/templates/s[...]
Non-transitioning actions
These are actions that do not transition a stub from one state to another. Using the example below, the send-quote action doesn't change the fact that the we are still[...]
Shared actions
Actions can belong or be performed from multiple states. For example in the diagram below we have a "flag enquiry" action that can be performe[...]
Summary
When we put all of this together we can see how states and actions work together.
We can chain these 2 concepts together to create any process ( template) that we want. This is done on the Stubber Platform using the [Editor](https://app.stu[...]
Defining States and Actions
States and Actions are defined within the flow of the context.
Each flow must have a busy_start_state defined, which is the state that the (stub) will start in. When adding your first state to a flow, it will automatically be set as the busy_start_state.
The states define the periods of time in the stub.
The actions define options that are available in each state.
Linking States and Actions
There are 2 ways that states and actions can be linked together.
Availability link
If we link an action onto a state then the action is available in that state.
These links are dotted lines in the Stubber Editor.
Transition link
If we link an action to a state that indicates that the action will transition the stub to that state.
These links are solid lines in the Stubber Editor.
Action Categories
To group actions to better understand where they are used we can group actions into categories.