Is the tool palette location movable?

[chrisesposito4]

I'd like to move it from the right side of the editor window to the left. I haven't discovered a way to do this interactively. Is there a way to do this in code?

[rsoika]

Hi @chrisesposito4, the tool palette is part of the GLSP Framework which is the foundation of Open-BPMN . So yes everything can be customized to your needs. The position of the Tool palette is defined in fact by a CSS definition:

.tool-palette {
  position: absolute;
  right: 45px;
}

If you create a custom build of Open-BPMN you can overwrite this setting. In Open-BPMN this the file

open-bpmn/open-bpmn.glsp-client/open-bpmn-glsp/css/diagram.css

Line 17 in d947c9e

.tool-palette .palette-body .group-header {

Maybe you can give a little bit more background what you plan to develop.

===
Ralph

[chrisesposito4]

Thanks Ralph. Here's a bit more on what I'm working on. some colleagues of mine and I have been interested for a long time in the design and evaluation of interactive human / machine system designs, where the work to be done by the system is distributed across manual tasks, human interaction with software, and the work the software does. We're working on formal methods for proving properties of the system's behaviors, and automatically generating counterexamples to document where and how the system doesn't behave as required. The system has 3 major parts: 1) an abstract modeling phase that consists of a class diagram and a state machine done in uml; these capture the minimal set of data needed, and a high-level definition of the work to be done that is independent of any particular way of doing it. As such, the state machine is used to represent the minimal set of key system state changes from start to finish, and the data driven constraints, decisions and conditions needed to enable them. 2) The next step is using BPMN 2 (+ some extensions) to do a somewhat more detailed implementation of a system that claims to implement the abstract work definition for the system described in step 1. The BPMN models are extended with the ability to add blocks of Promela code as guard conditions on some edges and as a way of expressing how the inputs to a task get transformed to their outputs, along with state changes. I've worked on steps 1 and 2. Step 3 is done by someone else (Eric Mercer @ BYU) whose specialty is formal methods in CS. This is my best understanding of what his piece does. 3. The outputs from (1) and (2) are fed to a formal verification system based on linear temporal logic and model checking. Since Promela supports nondeterminism as a first class principle, the entire BPMN network (including the embedded promela) is translated into promela and fed to the SPIN model checker, which explores the entire space of possible model executions and either verifies that the system always behaves, or documents the existence of path(s) (along with associated variable values for each path) where the system fails. These paths constitute the counterexamples. The plan at this point is to feed these counterexamples back to the BPMN modeler as feedback to the system designer that the design needs to be modified.

…

________________________________ From: Ralph Soika ***@***.***> Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2025 12:33 AM To: imixs/open-bpmn ***@***.***> Cc: Chris Esposiro ***@***.***>; Mention ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [imixs/open-bpmn] Is the tool palette location movable? (Discussion #431) Hi @chrisesposito4<https://github.com/chrisesposito4>, the tool palette is part of the GLSP Framework<https://eclipse.dev/glsp/> which is the foundation of Open-BPMN . So yes everything can be customized to your needs. The position of the Tool palette is defined in fact by a CSS definition: .tool-palette { position: absolute; right: 45px; } If you create a custom build of Open-BPMN you can overwrite this setting. In Open-BPMN this the file https://github.com/imixs/open-bpmn/blob/d947c9e4aeb9fc5ad7ce4dd416c6d61d8a9aac0f/open-bpmn.glsp-client/open-bpmn-glsp/css/diagram.css#L17 Maybe you can give a little bit more background what you plan to develop. === Ralph — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#431 (comment)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BJZB6POJNINW3OLQVO5ISWD32G5ODAVCNFSM6AAAAACKTTNJQWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTIOBSGM2DOMI>. You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[rsoika]

Hi Chris,
thanks for sharing the details about your research project - this sounds like a very interesting approach to formal verification of human-machine systems!
Regarding your original question about moving the tool palette: As mentioned, you can customize this in your own build by overriding the CSS settings.
However, based on what you've described, I think the Open-BPMN Meta Model might be also relevant for your project. It's a Java library that allows you to:

• Programmatically create, load and manipulate BPMN models
• Work with BPMN 2.0 extensions - which seems crucial for your Promela code blocks
• Directly operate on the XML/DOM structure for maximum flexibility
• Parse and transform BPMN models for your verification pipeline

The Open-BPMN Meta project is the base library for the Open-BPMN Modeller. This could be particularly useful for:

• Adding your custom Promela code extensions to BPMN elements (guard conditions, transformations)
• Automatically extracting/transforming BPMN models into Promela for SPIN
• Feeding counterexamples back into the BPMN model programmatically

The Meta Model is available as a Maven dependency and provides factory classes to easily work with BPMN elements.

Feel free to open a discussion if you want to dive deeper into how Open-BPMN could support your verification workflow!

Best,
Ralph

[chrisesposito4]

Hi Ralph, Sorry for the delay; I'm definitely interested. I'll open a discussion for this. Chris

…

________________________________ From: Ralph Soika ***@***.***> Sent: Friday, October 31, 2025 1:04 AM To: imixs/open-bpmn ***@***.***> Cc: Chris Esposiro ***@***.***>; Mention ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [imixs/open-bpmn] Is the tool palette location movable? (Discussion #431) Hi Chris, thanks for sharing the details about your research project - this sounds like a very interesting approach to formal verification of human-machine systems! Regarding your original question about moving the tool palette: As mentioned, you can customize this in your own build by overriding the CSS settings. However, based on what you've described, I think the Open-BPMN Meta Model<https://github.com/imixs/open-bpmn/tree/master/open-bpmn.metamodel> might be also relevant for your project. It's a Java library that allows you to: * Programmatically create, load and manipulate BPMN models * Work with BPMN 2.0 extensions - which seems crucial for your Promela code blocks * Directly operate on the XML/DOM structure for maximum flexibility * Parse and transform BPMN models for your verification pipeline The Open-BPMN Meta project is the base library for the Open-BPMN Modeller. This could be particularly useful for: * Adding your custom Promela code extensions to BPMN elements (guard conditions, transformations) * Automatically extracting/transforming BPMN models into Promela for SPIN * Feeding counterexamples back into the BPMN model programmatically The Meta Model is available as a Maven dependency and provides factory classes to easily work with BPMN elements. Feel free to open a discussion if you want to dive deeper into how Open-BPMN could support your verification workflow! Best, Ralph — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#431 (comment)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BJZB6PMIVTGEOWXL6I2UYC332MJ2TAVCNFSM6AAAAACKTTNJQWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTIOBTGUZDKMI>. You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>