easy_flow 0.4.8 → 0.5.0

checksums.yaml

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
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data/app/controllers/concerns/easy_flow/manage/draws_canvas.rb

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ module EasyFlow
       private
 
       def canvas_payload(flow)
-        Canvas.new(canvas_document(flow)).to_h
+        Canvas.new(canvas_document(flow), host: flow_host).to_h
           .merge("undoable" => flow.edit_history.undoable?, "redoable" => flow.edit_history.redoable?,
                  "changes" => listed_changes(flow), "flow" => flow_details(flow))
       end

data/app/controllers/easy_flow/flows_controller.rb

@@ -105,13 +105,15 @@ module EasyFlow
     end
 
     def submitted_answers
-      answers = params.fetch(:answers, {}).permit(*@guide.steps.map(&:id)).to_h.symbolize_keys
-      asked = @guide.step(params[:asked].to_s)
+      given = params.fetch(:answers, {})
+      answers = given.permit(*given.keys.select { |key| @guide.step(key) }).to_h.symbolize_keys
+      key = params[:asked].to_s.to_sym
+      asked = @guide.step(key)
       return answers unless asked
 
-      answer = answers.fetch(asked.id.to_sym, "")
+      answer = answers.fetch(key, "")
       @refused = answer_problem(asked, answer)
-      @refused ? answers.except(asked.id.to_sym) : answers.merge(asked.id.to_sym => answer)
+      @refused ? answers.except(key) : answers.merge(key => answer)
     end
 
     def record_submitted
@@ -139,7 +141,8 @@ module EasyFlow
     end
 
     def asked
-      runner_for(run.pinned_definition).steps.map(&:id)
+      guide = runner_for(run.pinned_definition)
+      guide.steps.map(&:id) | [ guide.next_step(run.recorded)&.id ].compact
     end
   end
 end

data/app/models/easy_flow/canvas.rb

@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 module EasyFlow
   class Canvas
-    def initialize(document, registry: EasyFlow.registry)
+    def initialize(document, registry: EasyFlow.registry, host: nil)
       @document = document
       @registry = registry
+      @host = host
     end
 
     def to_h
@@ -81,7 +82,7 @@ module EasyFlow
     end
 
     def palette
-      @registry.step_types.reject(&:begins_here?).map do |step_type|
+      @registry.step_types.reject(&:begins_here?).select { |step_type| @host.nil? || step_type.ends_here? || @host.offers?(step_type.id) }.map do |step_type|
         { "type" => step_type.id.to_s, "label" => step_type.step_name,
           "fields" => step_type.settings.fields.transform_keys(&:to_s).transform_values(&:to_s),
           "labels" => step_type.settings.labels.transform_keys(&:to_s),

data/app/models/easy_flow/digest.rb

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ module EasyFlow
     end
 
     def step(id)
-      @document.node(id)
+      @document.node(id.to_s.split("@").first)
     end
 
     def steps
@@ -75,22 +75,37 @@ module EasyFlow
 
     def walk(state)
       recorded = []
-      visited = []
+      latest = {}
+      visits = Hash.new(0)
+      answers_at_visit = {}
+      answered = 0
       cursor = entry
 
-      while cursor && !visited.include?(cursor.id)
-        return [ recorded, cursor ] if pending?(cursor, state)
+      while cursor
+        return [ recorded, nil ] if visits[cursor.id].positive? && answers_at_visit[cursor.id] == answered
 
-        recorded << cursor.id if state.key?(cursor.id)
-        visited << cursor.id
-        cursor = successor(cursor, state)
+        visits[cursor.id] += 1
+        answers_at_visit[cursor.id] = answered
+        key = visit_key(cursor.id, visits[cursor.id])
+        return [ recorded, cursor.with(id: key) ] if pending?(cursor, key, state)
+
+        if state.key?(key)
+          recorded << key
+          latest[cursor.id] = state[key]
+          answered += 1 if step_type(cursor)&.awaits_input?
+        end
+        cursor = successor(cursor, state.merge(latest))
       end
 
       [ recorded, nil ]
     end
 
-    def pending?(node, state)
-      return false if state.key?(node.id)
+    def visit_key(id, visit)
+      visit == 1 ? id : "#{id}@#{visit}"
+    end
+
+    def pending?(node, key, state)
+      return false if state.key?(key)
 
       step_type(node)&.awaits_input? || acts?(node) || step_type(node)&.waits? || false
     end

data/app/models/easy_flow/runner.rb

@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ module EasyFlow
 
     def run(progress)
       while (node = @digest.next_step(named(progress.recorded))) && goes_on?(node, named(progress.recorded))
-        progress.record(node.id, result_of(node, named(progress.recorded)))
+        progress.record(node.id, result_of(@digest.step(node.id), named(progress.recorded)))
       end
     end
 

data/app/models/easy_flow/validator.rb

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ module EasyFlow
     end
 
     def malformations
-      missing_edge_targets + missing_edge_sources + duplicate_ids + no_beginning
+      missing_edge_targets + missing_edge_sources + duplicate_ids + reserved_ids + no_beginning
     end
 
     private
@@ -41,6 +41,11 @@ module EasyFlow
         .map { |id, _count| Violation.new(node: id, problem: :duplicate_id) }
     end
 
+    def reserved_ids
+      @document.nodes.map(&:id).select { |id| id.to_s.include?("@") }
+        .map { |id| Violation.new(node: id, problem: :reserved_id) }
+    end
+
     def no_beginning
       return [] if known?(@document.entry)
 

data/lib/easy_flow/host.rb

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 module EasyFlow
   class Host
     attr_reader :name
-    attr_writer :layout, :admin_layout
+    attr_writer :layout, :admin_layout, :offers
     attr_accessor :admin_authentication_method, :visitor_authorization_method, :refusal_method
 
     def initialize(name)
@@ -23,5 +23,9 @@ module EasyFlow
     def set_up?
       true
     end
+
+    def offers?(step_type)
+      @offers.nil? || @offers.map(&:to_s).include?(step_type.to_s)
+    end
   end
 end

data/lib/easy_flow/version.rb

@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 module EasyFlow
-  VERSION = "0.4.8"
+  VERSION = "0.5.0"
 end

data/the_local/agents/easy_flow-develop.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 name: easy_flow-develop
-description: Use PROACTIVELY for adding a step type to easy_flow flows (a step that asks the visitor something, computes a value from earlier answers, picks the next branch, or holds the visitor until something outside the flow has happened), moving a paused run on once what it waits for has happened, refusing a blank or invalid answer to a step with a message, offering an admin a step setting whose options are read from the app's own records, serving a host's flows from the app's own controller and routes, acting when a visitor finishes a flow, and reading a run's recorded answers and question labels — MUST BE USED instead of hand-rolling questionnaire steps, branching logic, number comparisons, hard-coded setting options, answer validation, polling or "come back later" pages, flow controllers or answer lookups.
+description: Use PROACTIVELY for adding a step type to easy_flow flows (a step that asks the visitor something, computes a value from earlier answers, picks the next branch, or holds the visitor until something outside the flow has happened), moving a paused run on once what it waits for has happened, refusing a blank or invalid answer to a step with a message, offering an admin a step setting whose options are read from the app's own records, serving a host's flows from the app's own controller and routes, acting when a visitor finishes a flow, and reading a run's recorded answers and question labels, including every visit's answer when a flow loops back to a question already asked — MUST BE USED instead of hand-rolling questionnaire steps, branching logic, number comparisons, hard-coded setting options, answer validation, polling or "come back later" pages, flow controllers or answer lookups.
 tools: Read, Write, Edit, Grep
 scope: guided flows — versioned documents of steps and the connections between them, drawn on a canvas by an admin and run by a visitor one step at a time, with step types the host registers
 ---
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ This local follows the steps below exactly and invents none. Where a step names
 
 ## What easy_flow is
 
-A Rails engine for flows an admin draws on a canvas and a visitor runs one step at a time. Each step is an instance of a step type. The engine ships six: start (`:start`), end (`:terminal`), question (`:question`, a question with a list of answers, which the admin can mark required so a blank answer is refused), and three that pick a branch from an earlier answer with no code — condition (`:condition`, is or is not a chosen value), switch (`:switch`, follows the connection labelled with the answer) and compare (`:compare`, reads the answer as a number and checks it by more than, less than, at least or at most against an amount). Before writing a step type to branch on an answer or a number, ask the developer whether an admin placing one of those three on the canvas is enough. Use this local when the app needs a step type of its own, needs a host's flows on its own pages with its own behaviour when a visitor finishes, or needs to read what a visitor answered. It assumes easy_flow is already installed and a host is declared; if not, hand off to `easy_flow-install` first.
+A Rails engine for flows an admin draws on a canvas and a visitor runs one step at a time. Each step is an instance of a step type. The engine ships six: start (`:start`), end (`:terminal`), question (`:question`, a question with a list of answers, which the admin can mark required so a blank answer is refused), and three that pick a branch from an earlier answer with no code — condition (`:condition`, is or is not a chosen value), switch (`:switch`, follows the connection labelled with the answer) and compare (`:compare`, reads the answer as a number and checks it by more than, less than, at least or at most against an amount). An admin may connect a step back to an earlier one, so a flow can ask the same question more than once, and each visit's answer is kept. Before writing a step type to branch on an answer or a number, ask the developer whether an admin placing one of those three on the canvas is enough. Use this local when the app needs a step type of its own, needs a host's flows on its own pages with its own behaviour when a visitor finishes, or needs to read what a visitor answered. It assumes easy_flow is already installed and a host is declared; if not, hand off to `easy_flow-install` first.
 
 ## Interface
 
@@ -73,18 +73,19 @@ A Rails engine for flows an admin draws on a canvas and a visitor runs one step
    ```
 
    A step whose type is not registered is neither shown nor run as that type.
-4. Use these words to declare the type. Each is called once at class level (or inside the `EasyFlow.step` block):
+4. Ask the developer which hosts' admins should be able to add the type. A registered type is in a host's palette, the step types an admin can add on that host's canvas, only when the host names no list of offered step types or its list includes the type's id. A type that declares `ends_here` is in every host's palette, and a type that declares `begins_here` is in none. When a host that names a list should offer the new type, add the type's id to that host's list through `easy_flow-install`. Leaving a type off a host's list only keeps admins from adding it there, and a step of that type already in one of the host's flows is still drawn and run.
+5. Use these words to declare the type. Each is called once at class level (or inside the `EasyFlow.step` block):
    - `step_name "<label>"` — the name admins see on the canvas. Defaults to the id.
    - `setting :name, type:, label:, options:, required:, limit:, check:, from:, outputs_of:` — a field the admin fills in on the canvas. `type` is one of `:string`, `:integer`, `:float`, `:boolean`, `:select`, `:multi_select`, `:previous_step`, `:from_step`, `:list`, or boot raises `EasyFlow::UnknownFieldType`. A `:select` or `:multi_select` must pass `options:`, or boot raises the same error. `options:` is either an array of strings, or a lambda taking no arguments that returns one; the lambda is called each time the canvas is opened and each time an admin saves the step's settings, so the options follow the app's data without a restart (`options: -> { Region.order(:name).pluck(:code) }`). A saved setting whose value is no longer among the options is refused the next time the admin saves that step. When the options come from the app's records, ask the developer which records, which column is stored as the value, and whether the list must differ by account or host, since the lambda is passed nothing and the same list is offered everywhere the type is used. A `:list` must take a block of `setting` calls describing one entry. `:previous_step` lets the admin pick an earlier step, and is always required. `outputs_of: :<setting>` offers the outputs of the step chosen in that setting, and `from: :<setting>` offers the values of the output chosen in that setting; either one makes the type `:from_step`. `limit:` is the most values a `:multi_select` takes. `check:` is a lambda given the value that returns an error message, or `nil` when the value is acceptable. `label:` defaults to the name humanized.
    - `output :name, type:, label:, values:, from:` — a value the step records. `type` is one of `:string`, `:integer`, `:float`, `:boolean`, or boot raises `EasyFlow::UnknownOutputType`. `values:` is an array or a lambda taking the node, listing the values the output can take; the canvas offers these as the connections leaving the step, so a type that routes must declare them. `from: :<setting>` takes the values from the step chosen in that setting.
    - `names_by :setting` or `names_by { |node| ... }` — what the step is called on the canvas, from a setting or computed.
    - `awaits_input` — the visitor is shown this step and submits an answer to it.
-   - `waits_until { |node, state| ... }` — the run stops at this step until the block returns a truthy value. See step 7.
+   - `waits_until { |node, state| ... }` — the run stops at this step until the block returns a truthy value. See step 8.
    - `answer_check { |node, value| ... }` — checks a submitted answer before it is recorded. `value` is the submitted string, or `nil` when the input sent nothing. Return a message to refuse the answer, or `nil` to accept it. Without it every answer is accepted, including a blank one.
    - `ends_here` / `begins_here` — marks the type as an end or a start of a flow.
    - `displays_by { |node| ... }` — builds the object handed to the step's partial as the local `step`. Without it the partial receives the node itself.
    - `drawn_by "<partial>"` — the partial that draws this type for a visitor. Without it the host's default drawing is used, which expects `step.id`, `step.text` and `step.choices`, so a type with its own display shape needs its own partial.
-5. For a type that computes or routes, define instance methods on the class (or `process { |node, state| ... }` / `route { |node, state| ... }` in the block form):
+6. For a type that computes or routes, define instance methods on the class (or `process { |node, state| ... }` / `route { |node, state| ... }` in the block form):
 
    ```ruby
    def process(node, state)
@@ -101,13 +102,16 @@ A Rails engine for flows an admin draws on a canvas and a visitor runs one step
    - `process` returns the value recorded under this step's id. It runs as soon as a visitor reaches the step, before the next step is shown.
    - A type that declares more than one `output` returns a hash from `process`, keyed by each output's name as a string. A later compare step reads the output the admin picks from that hash.
    - `route` returns the value that picks the connection to follow; it is compared as a string with the value each leaving connection is labelled with, so `false` follows the connection labelled `false`. Returning `nil` follows the first connection. A route that returns `true` or `false` declares `output :result, type: :boolean, values: [true, false]`.
-6. For a type that awaits input, write the partial named in `drawn_by`, for example `app/views/flow_steps/_rating.html.erb`. It receives the display object as `step`. It renders only the input, since the page supplies the form, the Next button and the Back button. The input must be named `answers[<step id>]`, or the answer is not recorded:
+   - In a flow that loops, the first visit to a step is recorded under its id and each later visit under `<id>@<n>`, where `n` counts from 2. `route` is given the latest visit's answer under the plain step id. `process` and `waits_until` are given the answers as recorded, so the plain id holds the first visit's answer and later visits are under `<id>@2`, `<id>@3` and on. A `process` step reached again records its result under its own `<id>@<n>`. When a computing or waiting type reads an earlier step that can be asked again, ask the developer whether it should read the first visit or the latest.
+7. For a type that awaits input, write the partial named in `drawn_by`, for example `app/views/flow_steps/_rating.html.erb`. It receives the display object as `step`. It renders only the input, since the page supplies the form, the Next button and the Back button. The input must be named `answers[<step id>]`, or the answer is not recorded:
 
    ```erb
    <%= label_tag "answers[#{step.id}]", step.text %>
    <%= number_field_tag "answers[#{step.id}]", nil, in: 1..step.scale %>
    ```
 
+   Name the input from `step.id`, never from a stored or hard-coded id. On a later visit to the step in a loop, the node's id is `<id>@<n>`, and the answer is only recorded against that visit when the input is named with it. A `displays_by` block must pass `node.id` through as the display object's `id` for the same reason.
+
    The input must submit one value. An input that submits an array or a hash, such as checkboxes named `answers[<step id>][]`, is dropped and treated as blank.
 
    An answer is recorded as the string the visitor submitted. A compare step still reads a typed answer such as `"12"` as the number it spells, and an answer that is missing or is not a number makes it follow its `false` connection.
@@ -118,7 +122,7 @@ A Rails engine for flows an admin draws on a canvas and a visitor runs one step
    setting :required, type: :boolean
    answer_check { |node, value| "Fill this in to go on." if node.config["required"] && value.blank? }
    ```
-7. For a type that waits, declare `waits_until` with a block that says whether what the step waits for has happened:
+8. For a type that waits, declare `waits_until` with a block that says whether what the step waits for has happened:
 
    ```ruby
    module FlowSteps
@@ -142,7 +146,7 @@ A Rails engine for flows an admin draws on a canvas and a visitor runs one step
    - The page does not reload itself. Ask the developer how the run should move on when what it waits for happens:
      - The visitor reloads the page. This needs nothing more, and works whether or not the flow keeps a stored run.
      - The app calls `run.advance` where the event is handled, such as a webhook or a job. See "Read a run and its answers". This needs a stored run, so it only applies to a flow the admin set to save each step.
-8. Restart the server, open a flow on the canvas and check the type is offered, its settings show, and a preview walks through it.
+9. Restart the server, open a flow on the canvas of each host that should offer the type, and check the type is in the palette, its settings show, and a preview walks through it. On a host that names a list of offered step types without the type's id, check the type is not in the palette.
 
 ### Serve a host's flows from the app's own controller
 
@@ -198,24 +202,29 @@ A Rails engine for flows an admin draws on a canvas and a visitor runs one step
    end
    ```
 
-   - `state_on_path(answers)` — only the answers on the path the visitor actually took, dropping answers left behind by going back.
-   - `question_text(id)` — the text of a question step. It returns `nil` for a step of any other type.
-   - `choice_label(id, value)` — the label of the chosen answer, or the value itself when there is no label.
-   - `steps`, `step(id)`, `next_step(answers)`, `steps_on_path(answers)`, `slug` and `headline` read the rest of the document.
+   - `state_on_path(answers)` — only the answers on the path the visitor actually took, in the order they were given, dropping answers left behind by going back. In a flow that loops, it holds every visit: the first under the step id and each later one under `:"<id>@<n>"`, such as `:"job@2"`. Ask the developer whether each visit is shown as its own line or the visits to one question are grouped together; to group them, take the part of the key before `@`.
+   - `question_text(id)` — the text of a question step, given either its id or a visit key such as `"job@2"`. It returns `nil` for a step of any other type.
+   - `choice_label(id, value)` — the label of the chosen answer, or the value itself when there is no label. It takes a visit key the same way as `question_text`.
+   - `step(id)` finds the step for either its id or a visit key.
+   - `steps`, `next_step(answers)`, `steps_on_path(answers)`, `slug` and `headline` read the rest of the document.
 
 ## Conventions
 
 - A step type's id comes from its class name or the id passed to `EasyFlow.step`, and it is stored in flow documents, so renaming the class or id breaks every flow that uses it.
 - Never give a step type one of the built-in ids: `start`, `terminal`, `question`, `condition`, `switch`, `compare`.
 - Register class-based step types inside `to_prepare`. A type registered anywhere else is lost on code reload in development.
+- Registering a type does not put it in the palette of a host that names a list of offered step types without the type's id. Which step types a host offers is set through `easy_flow-install`, not here.
+- A type that declares `ends_here` is in every host's palette, and a type that declares `begins_here` is in no host's palette.
 - An `options:` lambda is passed nothing, and one list is offered on every host's canvas, so it cannot narrow the options by admin, account or host.
 - A type that routes declares the values its output takes, or the canvas offers no connections to label.
 - Always read a run against `run.pinned_definition`, never the flow's live version, since a run keeps the version it started on after a new one is published.
 - Always look flows and runs up through a host.
-- A step's input field is named `answers[<step id>]` and submits one value. Any other name is ignored, and an array or hash is treated as blank.
+- In a flow that loops, a later visit's answer is keyed `<id>@<n>`, so code that reads answers never assumes one answer per step id. A step id may not contain `@`, and a flow with one is refused when published.
+- A loop that comes back to a step with no answer given since the last visit to it ends the flow there, so every loop needs a step that awaits input.
+- A step's input field is named `answers[<step.id>]` and submits one value. Any other name is ignored, and an array or hash is treated as blank.
 - An answer the type's `answer_check` refuses is never recorded, and the visitor is shown the same step with the check's message. An answer no check refuses is recorded, a blank one as `""`.
 - A `waits_until` block is given only the step and the answers recorded so far, so what it waits for must be findable from those.
 - A type that waits never also declares `awaits_input`.
 - `run.advance` only moves a stored run, and never finishes it; the visitor's next page load does.
 - A `FlowsController` subclass needs all four named routes for its prefix; a missing one raises when the visitor is linked or redirected to it.
-- The engine installs, mounts and configures hosts, layouts, the default drawing and checks through `easy_flow-install`, not here.
+- The engine installs, mounts and configures hosts, the step types each host offers, layouts, the default drawing and checks through `easy_flow-install`, not here.

data/the_local/agents/easy_flow-info.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 name: easy_flow-info
-description: Use to learn what easy_flow offers — guided flows an admin draws on a canvas and a visitor runs one step at a time, versioned documents of steps and connections, hosts, runs, the built-in step types including questions that can require an answer and branching on an answer or comparing a number, step types the host app registers, the checks they make on an answer, and steps that hold a run until something outside the flow has happened, and the settings an admin fills in, including picks whose options come from the app's data.
+description: Use to learn what easy_flow offers — guided flows an admin draws on a canvas and a visitor runs one step at a time, versioned documents of steps and connections, flows that loop back to ask a step again, hosts and the step types each offers its admins, runs, the built-in step types including questions that can require an answer and branching on an answer or comparing a number, step types the host app registers, the checks they make on an answer, and steps that hold a run until something outside the flow has happened, and the settings an admin fills in, including picks whose options come from the app's data.
 tools: Read
 scope: guided flows — versioned documents of steps and the connections between them, drawn on a canvas by an admin and run by a visitor one step at a time, with step types the host registers
 ---
@@ -17,15 +17,16 @@ Reach for it when an app needs a questionnaire, an intake form, or any decision
 
 easy_flow declares no commands of its own for this local. Its surface is split between the other two:
 
-- **easy_flow-install** owns putting the engine into an app: its migrations, mounting it, choosing the controller it inherits from, naming hosts, choosing the default step drawing, the flow checks, and the admin pages.
+- **easy_flow-install** owns putting the engine into an app: its migrations, mounting it, choosing the controller it inherits from, naming hosts and the step types each one offers, choosing the default step drawing, the flow checks, and the admin pages.
 - **easy_flow-develop** owns building on it: declaring and registering step types, including ones that wait, moving a run on once what it waits for has happened, serving a host's flows from the app's own controllers and routes, and reading a visitor's run and answers.
 
 ## How to use it
 
-- To get easy_flow running in an app, or to change how it is configured, use **easy_flow-install**.
+- To get easy_flow running in an app, or to change how it is configured, including which step types a host's admins can add, use **easy_flow-install**.
 - To add a step type, give a step type its own rule for refusing an answer, hold a run until something outside the flow has happened, put a flow on the app's own pages, or act on what a visitor answered, use **easy_flow-develop**.
 - To branch a flow on an answer or on a number the visitor gave, no code is needed: an admin places one of the built-in branching steps on the canvas.
 - To make a visitor answer a question before going on, no code is needed: an admin marks that question step as required on the canvas.
+- To ask a step again, such as repeating a question until the visitor says they are done, no code is needed: an admin connects a later step back to an earlier one on the canvas.
 - If the question is only what a word below means, this page is the answer.
 
 ## Conventions
@@ -48,9 +49,15 @@ easy_flow declares no commands of its own for this local. Its surface is split b
 - **Compare** — a built-in branching step that reads an earlier step's answer as a number and checks it against an amount by more than, less than, at least or at most, then follows the true or the false connection. When the earlier step recorded several outputs, the admin picks which one. An answer that is missing or is not a number decides false.
 - **Waiting step** — a step whose type carries a rule saying whether what it waits for has happened, such as a payment clearing or a document being signed. A run that reaches it stops there, and the visitor sees "Waiting for" followed by the step's name, with no form to submit. Once the rule says it has happened, the run moves past the step the next time the visitor's page is loaded or the app moves the run on, and the step is recorded as `true`.
 - **Registry** — the list of step types the app has registered, alongside the built-in ones. A step whose type is not registered is not shown or run as that type, and its answers are not checked.
-- **Host** — a named part of the app that owns a set of flows. A host sets the visitor layout and the admin layout, how admins are authenticated, how visitors are authorized, and how a refusal is answered. Flows are always looked up through a host, so one host never sees another's flows.
-- **Run** — one visitor's pass through a flow. A run is pinned to the version that was live when it started, so publishing a new version does not change a run already under way. It records each answer by step id, and going back discards the last answer on the path.
-- **Answers** — the recorded state of a run, keyed by step id. The next step is always worked out from these answers and the connections in the pinned version.
+- **Host** — a named part of the app that owns a set of flows. A host sets the visitor layout and the admin layout, how admins are authenticated, how visitors are authorized, how a refusal is answered, and optionally which step types it offers. Flows are always looked up through a host, so one host never sees another's flows.
+- **Offered step types** — the list of step types a host names for its admins to add. A host that names no list offers every registered step type. The list only narrows the palette.
+- **Palette** — the step types an admin can add on a host's canvas. It never holds the start step, always holds the end step, and otherwise holds the step types the host offers. A step already in a flow whose type the host does not offer is still drawn and run.
+- **Run** — one visitor's pass through a flow. A run is pinned to the version that was live when it started, so publishing a new version does not change a run already under way. It records each answer by visit, and going back discards the last answer on the path.
+- **Answers** — the recorded state of a run, keyed by visit. The next step is always worked out from these answers and the connections in the pinned version.
+- **Loop** — a connection that leads back to a step the run has already passed, so that step is visited again. Branching steps read the most recent answer to a step, so a loop ends when an answer sends the run down a different connection.
+- **Visit** — one time a run reaches a step. The first visit is keyed by the step id alone, and each later visit is keyed by the step id, an `@`, and the visit number, such as `size@2`. Every visit's answer is kept, and a finished run lists each one.
+- **Stopped loop** — a run that comes back to a step with no new answer given since its last visit there ends at that point rather than cycling forever. Only answers the visitor gives count, so a loop made only of steps that act on their own stops the first time it comes round.
+- **Reserved `@`** — a step id may not contain `@`, since that mark numbers later visits. A flow holding such a step id is reported as invalid.
 - **Refused answer** — an answer the step's answer check turned down. Nothing is recorded for that step, and the visitor is shown the same step again with the check's message. This works the same whether the flow keeps a stored run or carries its answers in the page.
 - **Blank answer** — a step the visitor leaves blank. On a step whose answer check does not refuse it, such as a question that is not required, the blank is recorded and the visitor moves on to the next step.
 - **Checks** — warnings on a flow's shape: an answer value no connection routes, a path nothing follows, and a step that leads nowhere. The engine turns all three on by default. These are separate from answer checks, which look at what a visitor submits.

data/the_local/agents/easy_flow-install.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 name: easy_flow-install
-description: Use to hook easy_flow into a project — copying and running its migrations, mounting the engine for each host, setting the controller it inherits from, declaring hosts with their layouts and access methods, choosing the default step drawing, turning on optional checks, and reaching the admin pages.
+description: Use to hook easy_flow into a project — copying and running its migrations, mounting the engine for each host, setting the controller it inherits from, declaring hosts with their layouts, access methods and the step types each offers, choosing the default step drawing, turning on optional checks, and reaching the admin pages.
 tools: Bash, Read, Edit
 scope: guided flows — versioned documents of steps and the connections between them, drawn on a canvas by an admin and run by a visitor one step at a time, with step types the host registers
 ---
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ A Rails engine for flows an admin draws on a canvas and a visitor runs one step
 - `bin/rails easy_flow:install:migrations` — copies the engine's migrations into the host's `db/migrate`, creating the flow, version and run tables.
 - `mount EasyFlow::Engine` — the route that serves one host's visitor pages and admin pages under a path, with the host named in `defaults: { easy_flow_host: "<host>" }`.
 - `EasyFlow.base_controller=` — the name, as a string, of the host controller every engine controller inherits from. Defaults to `"ActionController::Base"`.
-- `EasyFlow.host` — declares a named host with its visitor layout, admin layout, admin authentication method, visitor authorization method and refusal method.
+- `EasyFlow.host` — declares a named host with its visitor layout, admin layout, admin authentication method, visitor authorization method, refusal method, and the step types its admins can add on the canvas.
 - `EasyFlow.draws_with` — the partial that draws a visitor's step when the step's type names none. Defaults to the engine's own `easy_flow/steps/choosing`.
 - `EasyFlow.check` — turns on an optional flow check: `:unrouted_value`, `:unfollowed_path` or `:dead_end`.
 - `/manage/flows` — the admin pages, under each mount path, where flows are listed, created, drawn on the canvas, previewed and published.
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ A Rails engine for flows an admin draws on a canvas and a visitor runs one step
      host.admin_authentication_method = :authenticate_admin!
      host.visitor_authorization_method = :easy_flow_visitor_permitted?
      host.refusal_method = :refuse_flow
+     host.offers = %i[question condition switch compare]
    end
    ```
 
@@ -50,6 +51,7 @@ A Rails engine for flows an admin draws on a canvas and a visitor runs one step
    - `admin_authentication_method` — a method on the base controller, called with no arguments before every admin page. With none set, the admin pages are open to anyone.
    - `visitor_authorization_method` — a method on the base controller, called with the flow, returning true when the visitor may run it. With none set, every visitor is refused.
    - `refusal_method` — a method on the base controller, called with the refusal error when a visitor is refused or a flow is unpublished or withdrawn. With none set, the response is `404 Not Found`.
+   - `offers` — the step types this host's admins can add from the canvas palette, as a list of step type names. With none set, every registered step type is offered. The engine's own names are `question`, `condition`, `switch` and `compare`. A step type the app declares is named by the id passed to `EasyFlow.step`, or after its class when it is a step class, so `Steps::Notify` is `notify`. The End step is offered whether it is listed or not, and the Start step is never offered. Ask the developer which step types each host should offer.
 
    Each method named here must exist on the base controller. Ask the developer to point at it or write it. Do not invent its logic.
 7. Mount the engine in `config/routes.rb`, once per host. The host name in `defaults` must match a name declared in step 6. When there is more than one mount, give each an `as:` name:
@@ -60,7 +62,7 @@ A Rails engine for flows an admin draws on a canvas and a visitor runs one step
    ```
 
    A mount whose host name is not declared serves no flows, and its admin pages return `404 Not Found`.
-8. Ask the developer whether visitors' steps should be drawn with the engine's own partial or with one from the app. For the app's own, create a partial, for example `app/views/steps/_step.html.erb`, which receives the step as the local `step`. It is rendered inside the engine's form, so it draws only the fields, and the visitor's answer must be submitted as `answers[<%= step.id %>]`. Then add to the initializer:
+8. Ask the developer whether visitors' steps should be drawn with the engine's own partial or with one from the app. For the app's own, create a partial, for example `app/views/steps/_step.html.erb`, which receives the step as the local `step`. It is rendered inside the engine's form, so it draws only the fields, and the visitor's answer must be submitted as `answers[<%= step.id %>]`. Always build the field name from `step.id` and never from a fixed id. When a flow loops back and asks a question again, `step.id` names that visit, so each visit's answer is stored apart. Then add to the initializer:
 
    ```ruby
    EasyFlow.draws_with("steps/step")
@@ -74,5 +76,7 @@ A Rails engine for flows an admin draws on a canvas and a visitor runs one step
 - After install, check that `<mount path>/manage/flows` shows the flow list and that a new flow opens on the canvas. If the canvas is blank, check that the admin layout calls `yield :head`.
 - After publishing a flow, check that `<mount path>/<slug>` shows it to a visitor who passes the host's visitor authorization method.
 - After upgrading easy_flow, run `bin/rails easy_flow:install:migrations` again and then `bin/rails db:migrate`. Only migrations the app does not already have are copied.
+- After setting a host's `offers`, check that the canvas palette on that host's `<mount path>/manage/flows` lists only those step types and End.
+- Taking a step type off a host's `offers` removes it from the palette only. Steps of that type already in the host's flows stay in them and keep running.
 - The initializer runs once at boot, so a change to it needs a server restart.
 - Declaring step types, serving a host's flows from the app's own controllers and routes, and reading runs and answers are out of scope here. They belong to the `easy_flow-develop` local.

data/the_local/interface.yml

@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ sources:
   - app/models/easy_flow/steps/question.rb
   - app/models/easy_flow/run.rb
   - app/models/easy_flow/runner.rb
+  - app/models/easy_flow/digest.rb
+  - app/models/easy_flow/validator.rb
   - app/models/easy_flow/question_runner.rb
   - config/routes.rb
   - db/migrate/20260924120000_create_easy_flow_definitions.rb

metadata

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 --- !ruby/object:Gem::Specification
 name: easy_flow
 version: !ruby/object:Gem::Version
-  version: 0.4.8
+  version: 0.5.0
 platform: ruby
 authors:
 - tylercschneider