These tutorials will help you to understand EasyMorph and will guide you through how to get started building your first workflows.
The tutorials are divided into 3 parts: Workflow basics, Advanced workflows, and Automation. It is
recommended to begin with Workflow basics and work your way through the tutorials.
Most topics include videos and examples. You're welcome to watch the videos, and download and explore the examples.
Many of the tutorials include an Advanced topics section at the bottom which delves into deeper and more advanced aspects of EasyMorph.
If you are new to EasyMorph you may want to skip these advanced topics on your first walk through the tutorials and come back to them later.
Hint: Specific hints appear in the tutorials like this and highlight something which may not be obvious or may be a common issue people experience when first
working with EasyMorph.
Overview and navigation
The basic concepts of EasyMorph
The below terms are used through out EasyMorph and these tutorials:
Project - A project is the main wrapper for everything in EasyMorph. It is saved into a ".morph" file.
Module - Are similar in concept to functions or subroutines in code and can be thought of as logical blocks of data processing or automation which
can be called from within other modules one or more times and which can be passed data or parameters and which can also pass back data.
Groups - Are used to break down very large workflows into smaller more manageable sections. They are run one after the other and are different to modules in
that they can't be called individually or passed data.
Workflows - A workflow is the visual representation of a series of actions within EasyMorph. They can be relatively simple but can also be incredibly complex
with branching, looping and logic.
Tables - A table in a workflow represents a set of data which is loaded into EasyMorph and which can have a chain of actions to load, manipulate and save
the data. Although known as a table, it can in fact only contain a single value which you can imagine to be a table with only one column and one row. Tables can be chained
together allowing data to pass from one table to another to be further manipulated.
Actions - Are the individual building blocks within an EasyMorph workflow which are configured to do a single task such as loading in data, manipulating
data in some way, calling a web API or performing an action on a file. They can be chained together into "Action chains" within tables to perform complex series of tasks.
NOTE: EasyMorph doesn't store data in project files. Data is loaded and kept entirely in memory when a project is run. When EasyMorph is
closed, all the data it worked with is erased from memory. All calculations are performed only in the computer that runs the project. No data is sent to the cloud or another
computer (unless you explicitly instructed EasyMorph to do it).
Watch a similar video in
Opening EasyMorph
Once installed, you can open EasyMorph the same way you would open any application in Windows.
On first opening, EasyMorph will display the start tab and look similar to the below:
At the top of the main body of the Start window you will find quick links to allow you to create a new project or open an existing project. Below this are 4 sections which
cover the most common things you would want to do. "Start a workflow" shows you the most common actions which you may want to use to begin a new project such as loading in
data from a database or file. "Recent projects" shows the most recent EasyMorph projects you've opened and allows you to quickly return to a project. "Favorite projects"
shows projects which you have marked as favorites. And "Examples" shows you a series of pre-installed examples which come with EasyMorph and can be useful to explore when
first getting started with EasyMorph.
At the top of the screen you will find a tab bar which you can use to navigate within EasyMorph.
To the left of the screen are 4 main buttons used to navigate to key "areas" within EasyMorph. "Add/edit connectors" allows you to manage connectors to databases or systems.
"Workflow editor" takes you to the main workflow editor within EasyMorph and will be the selected area when EasyMorph opens. "Explorer" allows you to work with EasyMorph
Server to create and manage boards and catalog assets. A link to an EasyMorph Server is required for this area to work. "File manager" allows you to work with files stored
on an EasyMorph Server. A link to an EasyMorph Server is required for this area to work.
In the top right hand corner you will find a link to connect EasyMorph Desktop to an EasyMorph Server if you have one.
At the bottom of the screen you will find a series of useful links to resources such as the EasyMorph help, these tutorials, our YouTube channel and many more.
The Main tab
The Main tab is where you will spend the most time when working within EasyMorph. It is where we create, edit and execute our workflows.
Menu Bar - The menu bar is found at the top of the screen and like many familiar Windows applications such as Microsoft Word or Excel, it contains buttons
allow you to access all the main commands quickly.
Settings Bar - The settings bar is found to the left of the screen. If you aren't able to see the settings bar then it is likely minimised. Clicking the
small arrow in the centre right will expand or collapse the settings bar. The settings bar changes to provide us with the settings for the currently selected item such as
a table or actions.
Workflow Workspace - The workspace is where you will see the visual representation of the tables and actions which you create within your workflow. At the
bottom of the workspace you will find the "Groups" which you can add or edit to break up complex workflows into more manageable logical sections.
Modules - The modules bar is located to the right of the screen. If you aren't able to see the modules bar then it is likely minimised. Clicking the small
arrow in the centre right will expand or collapse the modules bar. A project always has at least one module which by default is labelled "Main". One module within a project
will be displayed with a red flag next to it's name, indicating that this module is "start module" which EasyMorph will execute when the project is run. Other modules will
not be executed unless called by an action in the start module (or another module which has already been called).
The two most frequently used buttons on the EasyMorph Menu Bar are "Add data" and "Add action" in the "Main" menu (see below).
Before data can be transformed in EasyMorph it should be loaded into EasyMorph first, which is usually done by pressing the "Add data" button. After
EasyMorph loads data (a respective import action is created automatically), press the "Add action" button to apply a transformation (action) to the loaded
dataset.
Later in this tutorial, we will explain how exactly different types of data can be loaded, and what actions can be applied. For now, just remember that
"Add data" loads data into EasyMorph and "Add action" adds a transformation step (action). As simple as that.
Workflows and Actions
A workflow is visual representation of the logical processing within an EasyMorph project. They are made up of tables which are formed using one or more actions.
As can be seen in the above workflow, tables can be linked together either. Tables which result from another table are shown linked to that table using a solid arrow.
Where an action within a table uses some data from another table in an intermediary step, the tables are shown linked with dashed arrows.
At the top of each table are shown one or more actions displayed as icons. The first of which is most commonly an "import" actions loading in data from a files, table or other
source.
Action chains are processed left to right. In EasyMorph you don't have to connect actions together but instead it is implicitly assumed that if one action is followed by another
within a table, then the output of the former becomes the input of the following. Any action in EasyMorph can chain with any other action.
Hint: You can drag actions to re-order them within an action chain or to move them from one table to another. Use Shift+click actions to select multiple actions. Right-click an action for
the action context menu.
Selecting an action will display its output in the datagrid of the table and the Settings Bar will show the settings for that action. Clicking on each action
one-by-one will therefore allow you to see how the action chain manipulated the data step-by-step. The datagrid shows the whole result of an action (even if it's
millions of rows), not just a preview with a few top rows.
Some actions (e.g. "Export to Excel") don't transform data because they perform an external operation such as
Export to a database or Sending an email. The output of such actions is always the same as the input. External actions are explained
later in the "Automation" section of this tutorial.
Hint: Tables can be maximized, minimized, resized, and dragged around similarly to windows on your computer desktop. Maximizing a table will enable "Analysis Mode".
Examples
EasyMorph comes with a few pre-installed examples that you can see on the Start page of the application.
Every example comes with a detailed description and explanation.
You can find many practical examples and ask questions about EasyMorph on the EasyMorph Community forum.
