Introduction to the basic concepts of ciphereditor
In this article, we go over the most important terms “operation”, “control” and “blueprint” and briefly discuss how they relate to each other.
In the ciphereditor universe methods of manipulation (e.g. translation, encoding, encryption, …) get represented by so-called “operations”. Operations can be placed on a “blueprint”, this is what we call a ciphereditor document. You can execute an operation by feeding a new value to it through one of the so-called “controls” it offers. When the operation is completed the result will be reflected in one or more of its controls.
New values can be fed manually to a control by expanding it (by clicking on the control) and editing the value using the input fields that appear. Note that some controls are read-only and thus their values cannot be changed. What input fields appear within a control depends on the type (e.g. text, number, bytes, …) of the current value. You may change the value type in the lower left corner of the expanded control view. What value types are available may be restricted by the operation control in use due to its nature.
Alternatively, new values can be propagated automatically through the blueprint. This can be done by connecting two or more controls. To do this, press down your pointer inside the circle at the top right of a control, hold it down, and drag it onto another control. As soon as one of the controls attached to a connection receives a new value (either manually or due to a completed operation execution), it gets propagated to all the other controls within the connection. This lets you chain together simple operations into complex structures.