Placeholder activities and in-lining of code editors in workflow designer

A method of editing a declarative workflow application, the method comprising:

• receiving a declarative workflow definition, wherein the workflow definition comprises one or more workflow elements;
• loading the workflow definition into a workflow designer to graphically display the workflow;
• at the workflow designer receiving user input from a developer selecting a workflow element to be edited;
• opening an imperative code editor in response to the user input selecting the work flow element to be edited;
• at the imperative code editor receiving user input from the developer adding or modifying imperative code underlying the selected workflow element;
• and
• receiving user input from the developer indicating that the developer is finished coding the imperative code.

A method of developing a declarative workflow application, the method comprising:

• in a first instance of a workflow designer application, receiving user input defining a declarative workflow definition, including receiving user input adding one or more workflow elements to the workflow definition, wherein one or more of the workflow elements are dummy workflow elements having no underlying imperative code;
• providing the declarative workflow definition to a workflow developer;
• loading the workflow definition into a second instance of a workflow designer application and graphically displaying the workflow;
• in the second instance of the workflow designer application, receiving user input from a developer selecting one of the dummy workflow elements to be replaced;
• and
• replacing the selected dummy workflow element with one or more replacement workflow elements, wherein replacing the selected dummy workflow element with one or more replacement workflow elements comprises pointing the incoming and outgoing links of the selected dummy workflow element to the one or more replacement workflow elements, and changing a parent activity collection to replace the selected dummy a workflow element with the one or more replacement workflow elements.