Nodes are the single steps of a protocol flow, sometimes referred to as cards. The primary node is a view node and it's content is visible to all users when navigating that protocol. Blocks are the building blocks of view nodes.
View nodes are the primary nodes and where all the custom blocks live. Link portal nodes are covered separately in a later section. Detection trigger nodes are still in testing, and training material for these will be available later.
Content Blocks vs Protocol Blocks
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Content blocks are those that have no impact on the protocol flow, meaning the flow will continue down the set flow regardless of call taker action.
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Action: - A button (clickable element) allowing the call taker to send a specific type-code, indicating the dispatch of a specific set of resources in accordance with your organization system. Actions are elements that communicate with integrations such as CAD software. By default, the Action will be triggered by the call taker manual click. Alternatively, the Action button can be set to fire automatically, as soon as the node appears. This can be set by ticking the triggerOnMount box, in the block attributes field.
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Paragraph: Informative text block containing read-only text for the call taker. Paragraph blocks can be made collapsible by ticking the appropriate box. In order to be collapsible, the text in the paragraph block needs to be divided into 2 paragraphs, or more.
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Flow Value Collector: Block designed primarily to automatically collect desired values (when and if they are selected by the call taker in Triage) and provide an overview of those values. Secondly, this block can also be edited manually by the call taker if s/he wants to add extra information. You can learn more about flow value collectors and how to use them in the separate flow value collectors section further down this page.
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Protocol blocks are those whose content is used to build the protocol flow. Unlike content blocks, protocol blocks require the call taker to make a choice/provide an input of some sort in order to proceed to the next node. The content of these blocks is coded into variables that can then be used to form the logic expressions.
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Simple Text Input: Input block, for call taker to insert a single line of text.
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Multiline Text Input: Input block, for call taker to insert multiple lines of text.
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Select: Input block, by default, it is a single-select block allowing the call taker to select ONLY ONE option among the several ones provided. The block can be turned into a multi-select (allowing the selection of multiple options) in the Protocol Editor by using the dedicated switch in the sidebar, once the block has been selected.
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Component Blocks and the Component Library
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Component Blocks are custom content blocks that can have multiple instances within the same graph and their data content and style/ format are always updated and synced across all instances according to the latest edits made to any of them.
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Both the content of the node and the data entered by the call taker during a call is synced across all the component blocks. This is highly useful for blocks, such as demographics, that you want to allow the call taker to enter data into in multiple locations.
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If a content block contains variables that are used in logic gates, such references will NOT be affected when the block is turned into a component.
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The context menu when right clicking for a component is nearly the same as that of a normal content block, the only difference is that a component can be exploded.
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Exploding a component means converting it back to a normal content block.
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If a component instance contains variables that are used in logic gates, such references will be affected when the component is exploded. They will become missing references requiring correction.
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Component Library is where component blocks are stored. From the library you can take the following actions:
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Edit the content of any component block. Double clicking on the component will open up the component editor.
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Rename a component. By default the system generates a unique ID for each component, but that can be changed to a more meaningful name using the NAME field. It is highly recommended you update the name as soon as a block is made into a component, to prevent confusion.
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Delete a component from the library. When you delete a component from the library:
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If there are zero instances of that component in the graph, it will simply delete it from the library.
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If there are 1 or more instances in the graph deleting a component from the library will explode all the existing instances of the component. In other words, the existing instances are NOT deleted but turned into normal blocks.
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If any logic gate is referencing variables that were contained in the deleted (exploded) component, such variables will become missing variables in the logic expression causing the logic to fail. The variables will need to be updated before the flow is once again functional.
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Locate all the instances of a component. There is a section called 'Instances' showing/locating all component instances in use. There it is possible to see all the instances of a component, once selected from the library.
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Clicking on one of the instances will locate it and take the user to the view node on the canvas in which the instance is placed.
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Using the dedicated search bar, it is possible to filter instances by typing in the branch name and to see all the relevant instances
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⚠️ To save a graph you must set both a start node for the graph and a start node for the branch. Attempting to save without both will return an error. You can always change these later as needed.
Further Reading:
How To Videos - Protocol Editor: Welcome to the Editor
How To Videos - Protocol Editor: Accessing the New Menus
How To Videos - Protocol Editor: The Main Menu
How To Videos - Protocol Editor: Version History and Releases
How To Videos - Protocol Editor: Branches
How To Videos - Protocol Editor: Introduction to logic and basic call flow
How To Videos - Protocol Editor: Flow Value Collectors