Creating and Editing a Workflow
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To create a new Workflow, click on the “New Workflow” button at the top right of the Workflow Management screen. You will be prompted to select the type of initial Trigger and then the Workflow Studio Builder screen will be shown.
To edit an existing Workflow, go to the Action menu for that Workflow and select Edit. The Workflow Studio in Builder view will then open with the exiting Workflow.
The Builder screen is divided into three main areas. In the screenshot above (click to zoom), on the left are the Connectors that you will use to build the workflow, and the large area on the right is panel where you build the Workflow structure.
When you click on any of the Connectors in the Workflow, a sidebar will appear on the right. Use this sidebar to configure the Connectors.
The red and white exclamation marks will show you which Connectors and Tabs contain fields that need to be filled in to make the Workflow valid.
The top right corner row will show you whether or not the Workflow is valid, allow you to publish the workflow, the View History option will let you look through the different saved versions of the workflow.
Once valid, all Workflow changes will be saved automatically.
So if you make changes to the Workflow and you change your mind, go to View History and restore an older version.
Watch this video for an overall description of the Builder view, or go to the Designing A Workflow page to start designing and building.
Understanding the Step Ids
Warning: Complex Explanation Follows. Stay with us and it will get easier.
Each node in the Workflow has a Step Id, such as request5625. The step id is displayed under the node title on the diagram, and on the Details tab for the node. We recommend that you do not edit this field. If you do the Workflow may break.
This step id is what Gruntify uses to link up the parts of the Workflow. If you look at the image below (click on it to zoom it up), you will see four Request Connector nodes. All four refer to the same Request in Gruntify - the one created by Inspect New Asset. So, a different step id doesn’t mean a different request - it means each step is doing something different with the request.
On the Parameter Selection screen that appears when you do Generate Link, you will see the names and step ids for possible matching “Create” and “Check Status” nodes as these nodes list the request (or job) itself as an output on the Output tab. If you were to look at the outputs from the Get Request Form Information node, then you would see the “Read Form” nodes output the data from the form, not the request (or job) itself.
This may sound very confusing. Don’t worry - you don’t actually need to understand these step ids. When you use that Parameter Selection box, Gruntify will sort out the step id for you and put the correct step ids in the fields in the Input Data tab.
But if you can follow the step ids, then it might help you sort out issues in your workflows.
But the most important lesson is:
Don’t change the step ids unless you understand how all this works! Otherwise, the Workflow is likely to break now or in the future.
Zooming, Undo and Redo
The building panel has a number of on-screen controls:
Undo and Redo controls.
Zoom controls.
From left they are:
Reset the zoom back to normal
Zoom On - make all boxes bigger on screen.
Zoom Out - make all boxes smaller on screen.
Full Screen - expand the building panel to take up the whole of the screen area, hiding the connectors in the process. Click again to return to normal.
Zooming can also be done using your mouse wheel.
To move the visible drawing area around (so that you can see other parts of the design) click down with the mouse on the background, drag, and release. You will see the hand cursor go from open, to closed when the mouse is down and back to open when you release.
Parameter, String, Number, and More
On many of the fields on the Input tabs, you will see a drop-down with the choices such as String, Number, Parameter, and Reset. This allows you to switch the type of inputs that go in that field.
Most fields will have two or three options - Reset and Parameter, or Reset, Parameter and the natural type for that field. For example, the button link for the Email connector has String for you to type in your own URL or Parameter for you to pick up the Link URL from a previous connector.
Parameter Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Reset appears in all the drop-downs. If you are having problems with a format click on the Reset and it will go back to the default and you can start again. |
| A Parameter is the selection of a value from elsewhere in the workflow. |
Form allows you to select a Form to apply to this Connector. | |
| An Array is a list of the same sort of things. It indicates that you can enter one or more values in this field. For example, a list of email addresses or a list of job statuses. To delete a value click on the “x” in the value tag: |
| Options will contain a drop-down list of choices. For example, Location Type options on a New Asset are Geometry and Geolocation. |
| String allows you to enter a text value. |
| Boolean is an on/off or true/false value. A toggle field in a Gruntify form is a Boolean value. |
| Number allows you to enter a numeric value. This is used for entries such as Latitude and Longitude. |
Remember, the Workflow is the definition of the Process, and when the Workflow runs it makes an Instance. So the Builder lets you build (and edit) the Workflow Definition, and the Instances let you view current and previous runs.