Visual statechart editor for non-programmers, with limited conditions, events and actions

Question

I'm looking for some visual statechart-editor, for my customer. I'm building for him server application, and he needs tool to build statecarts and upload them to the servers. Ofcourse, the tool needs to have the capability to export to some readable format (such as SCXML), so I could build a reader for it.

I saw some tools, like fsm-editor. But they can't be good for me, because I want to limit my customer to set of specific set of parametrized-conditions, parametrized-events and parametrized-actions.

For example, I'll define:

conditions: coIsDoorOpen, coIsThereNAppelsOnTheTree(n as uint[0..200]), ...
    events: evLightOn, evLightOff, evTimeout(ms as uint[1..10,000]), ...
   actions: acSetAlarmOn, acCloseWindowN(n as uint[1..10]), ...

and my customer could build some dozens statecharts with those explicit predefined attributes (conds, events & actions), and upload the export of them to the approperiate places.

There is no need to be strict to one statechart-standard or to another. But I need support on this things:

• parametrized conditions/events/actions
• before entering/exiting state actions

no need to support inner variables; I can use actions&conditions for it.

Is there any tool for it (preferably free)?

If not - is there any OpenSource (C# / JS) implementation of editor that supports all abpve without the stricting of conds/events/actions, that I could easily break in to it and add the requested strict mode?

Answer 1

Based upon your needs, my knee-jerk reaction of recommending Visio or Dia would be inappropriate here. You appear to require a tool with some form of an API or descriptive language to lock users to a constrained set of components Lemmings-style, and your needs would best be serviced by something relatively simple if possible.

I'm curious why altering the source code to SCXML-GUI (fsm-editor) or Violet would not solve your needs, however. You seem to indicate that an open source utility written in C# or JavaScript is most desirable, which I cannot easily locate.

But, in the interests of completeness, here's a comparable question that may help your search. Most notably, this appears to be exactly what you desire and may be worth purchasing.

Best of luck with your project.