Setting up a workflow

Your first step in setting up a workflow is creating the workflow instance, or the primary action of the workflow. Then you design and create your process with the properly ordered actions. You either set the properties and attributes for actions as you place them on the canvas, or you can wait until you've finished laying out the entire process.

After completing the workflow layout, you need to assign an event listener to the workflow, as well as any field mapping, if applicable. Your workflow is ready to use once you've connected the process to the event listener. See "Event listeners".

To set up a new workflow

1. In the Workflow explorer window, right-click Workflows (or the folder where you want the new workflow to reside).
2. Click New | Folder.
3. Type a name for the folder and press Enter.
4. Right-click the new folder and click New | Workflow.
5. Type a name for the new workflow and press Enter.
6. Double-click the new workflow to display its editing canvas.
7. From the Actions toolbox, drag and drop the first action onto the canvas.
8. Click, drag, and release to draw an arrow from the workflow icon to the first action.
9. Drag any subsequent actions onto the canvas.
10. Draw arrows between each action to define their order in the workflow.
11. Click on each action and set its corresponding properties in the Attributes window. See "Configuring attributes".
12. When you are finished defining the workflow, click Save on the toolbar.

Tips

• Workflows always reside within a folder or subfolder. You can create infinite levels of folders and subfolders to organize your workflows.
• To select an action on the canvas, click its icon. When an action is selected, a green box frames its icon on the canvas. If you do not see the green box, you may need to click the action again to give it focus so you can define its attributes.
• To move an action to a different position on the canvas, click the action to select it. Then place the mouse pointer just outside the green frame that highlights the icon and drag it to a new position on the canvas.
• To nest a workflow inside another, simply drag the "child" workflow to the canvas of the "parent", as you would do with any other action. Then click on the action or result you want to launch the child workflow, and draw a directional arrow to the child workflow.
• As your workflow continues to grow, you can use the Layout diagram, Zoom, or Fit diagram to screen buttons on the toolbar to refresh the view. This can make it easier to see the entire process, or to zoom in or out on parts of it.
• Each time you add a new action, the workflow automatically self-validates and reports any errors or missing attributes in the window directly below the workflow canvas. You can click the Stop/Resume error check button to toggle this error checking on and off.