1.3.1.2.1. Workflow Management
- wiki
Workflows Management refers to selecting different management options available for a workflow display name, version and timestamp and applying them to have a better management of the workflow structure.
Create/Import Workflow
For information about creating a new workflow in Flowster Designer, please visit 2.4.2.1. Create New Workflow (This option is only available in Flowster Designer).
For information about importing a new workflow into Administrator, please visit 1.3.1.1.2. Category Import workflow(s) (This option is only available in Administrator).
Edit Workflow
A workflow is represented by a three level structure: display name, version and timestamp. The edit option is available for all three levels of a workflow. In order to edit a workflow's display name, right click over it and select the Edit option, as seen below:
The Edit display name window will be opened. Type in the new display name, select language and click Save:
In order to edit a workflow's version, right click over it and select the Edit option, as seen below:
The Edit Version window will be opened. Type in the new version and click Save:
In order to activate/deactivate a workflow's timestamp, right-click over it and choose the Activate/Deactivate option.
Auto Assign to workflow scheduling
If In Settings → General the Auto Assign to workflow scheduling flag is set to true and there is a scheduled workflow timestamp and the user activates another timestamp of the same workflow, the scheduled workflow will change to the newly activated timestamp automatically.
In order to edit a workflow's timestamp, right-click over it and choose the Edit option.
The Edit Workflow wizard will be opened. The Edit Workflow wizard consists of three different steps.
- Step 1/3: on this step, all workflow details can be changed, except the workflow's Filename. Click Next to go to the next step, or Finish to complete the editing.
- Step 2/3: on this step, user permissions can be changed for the timestamp. Click Next to proceed to the next step, Previous to go back to the previous step or Finish to complete the editing of the workflow. Click Close to abort the current operation.
- Step 3/3: this step only presents the editing summary. Click Previous in order to go back to the previous step (if other changes are necessary) or Finish in order to complete the workflow editing process. Click Close to abort editing process.
Delete Workflow
The edit option is available for all three levels of a workflow. The deletion can be done by right clicking over a workflow display name, version or timestamp and select the Delete option.
Assign Workflow To Category
This option is only available on the timestamp level. In order to assign a workflow timestamp to a different category, right click over it and select the Assign To Category option:
If the timestamp display name does not exist on the new category, it will be created once the assignment is completed.
Converting a snippet workflow into a workflow can be done by assigning the snippet workflow to a new category, different than Snippets category or by cloning (option only available in Flowster Designer) a snippet workflow and selecting a different category than Snippets category.
NOTE: converting a workflow to a snippet workflow can be done the same way, by changing the parent category of the workflow into Snippets category.
Export Workflows
This option is only available on the timestamp level.
A single workflow can be exported by right clicking over a timestamp and then selecting the Export option. The Save As window opens, allowing the user to select the export path for the workflow zip.
Multiple workflows (with all their available profiles and execution logs) can be exported only for a selected category by right clicking over the category and selecting the Export option.
Compare Workflows
This option is only available on the timestamp level. In order to compare two timestamps press Ctrl and select the desired timestamps to be compared, then right click a selected timestamp and from the context menu choose the Compare option. The Compare Workflows Parameters window opens showing the differences between the two timestamps' parameters:
View Workflow's History
This option is available only on the display name level. In order to view a workflow's history, selects the workflow's display name, right click and then choose the History option.
In the Workflow History window you should see changes made on all the timestamps of the workflow such as for: creating a new workflow, checking out , checking in, checking out read only, cloning a timestamp, timestamp parameters, creating a profile, updating a profile.
View Scheduling History
This option is available only on the timestamp level. In order to view the scheduling history of a timestamp, right-click on the timestamp and select View Scheduling History option:
In the Scheduling History window users can see changes in the scheduling plan for the selected timestamp such as: edit of parameter values, edit of the initial schedule plan etc.
NOTE: if the timestamp is no longer scheduled for execution in Portal, the Scheduling History will not be available.
Assign Scheduling
This option is available only on the timestamp level. In order to assign scheduling of a timestamp, right-click on the timestamp and select Assign Scheduling option:
After clicking on Assign Scheduling, a new window Assign timestamp to schedule appears. On this window, the users can see all the schedules with all the information needed , including Parameters Match.
Select the desired schedule and click Assign button or Cancel button to abort it.
If parameters do not match, a confirmation pop-up will appear specifying this. Click here for more details, Yes if you desire to proceed with assign scheduling or No to abort it.
When clicking on Parameters do not match, a new window opens (Compare Parameters), where the users can check if the parameters are matching by name, number and type.
Click Assign button or Cancel button to abort.
After a timestamp is assigned to a different schedule, users can edit the input values from Portal/Scheduled/Edit or Administrator/Scheduled Workflows/Edit.
Edit the input values and click on Update Scheduled Workflow.
Stage to Flowster instance
This option is available only on the timestamp level.
Staging a workflow timestamp to an instance requires for at least one instance to exist (for more information about instances, please visit 1.3.5.3. Flowster Instances page) and at least one destination tenant (for more information about tenants, please visit 1.3.2.5. Manage Tenants page) and translates into copying a workflow timestamp with all its linked objects (dependent global variables, scripts, profiles, snippets) to a destination tenant(s) that are accessible to the logged in user/other user used in authentication step.
Before initiating the staging process, please check that Flowster Studio is configured properly for a successful staging:
Staging Configuration
There will be described the configuration necessary to perform a workflow staging from a source tenant to a destination tenant. The following terms will be used:
- Source tenant: is the database that stores the workflow to be copied
- Destination tenant: is the database where the workflow will be copied
- Instance: the setting which will create the link to the destination RestAPI
- Staging: the process to copy a workflow from a source tenant to a destination tenant
- Staging User: logged in user/other user used in the authentication step that performs this operation
Staging User - Security
The Staging user should be member in the destination tenant(s) SuperAdmins security group or into an Admin type security group with an Administrator Permission role to manage workflows and specific categories. Destination Tenant rights are not needed anymore, the list of tenants accessible to the Staging User is now determined based on the security groups membership from all tenants from the specified instance.
Previous Configuration DEPRECATED starting with version Flowster Studio 5.3 - The Staging User should have rights to the destination tenant (the assignment can be done from the Settings → Manage Tenants → Rights) and it should have rights over the destination tenant’s categories. For this, the Staging User can be added in the destintation’s tenant SuperAdmins security group or into an Admin type group and creating Permission roles to specific categories
Source Tenant - Instance
An Instance will be configured on the source tenant (Go to Administrator → Configuration Items → Flowster Instances):
An instance requires the following info:
- A Name and a Description
- The RestAPI URL (the RestAPI endpoint, which can be taken from the configured api client from the destination tenant)
- The RestAPI client Hash (the RestAPI Client Hash, which can be taken from the configured api client from the destination tenant)
Destination Tenant - RestAPI Client App
The RestAPI client will be configured on the destination tenant, by creating the app in Client Apps menu, or by using the default deployed client app for this purpose.
Initiate Staging Process
In order to initiate the staging process, select a workflow timestamp, right click over it and select Stage to Flowster instance option to open the Stage to instance wizard:
Staging a workflow via Stage to Instance wizard steps:
- Select an instance from the list of available instances. Click on Next button to continue with the staging process or Close button to abort.
- Authentication with currently logged in user or a different user (if a different user is used, please check the Staging User permissions requirements for the destination tenant). Accepted formats for authentication are domain\username or username@domain. For custom users, only the username is required (e.g customuser1). Click on Next button to continue with the staging process or Close button to abort.
- Select Tenant(s) from the list of Available tenants for the logged in user. It will display all tenants returned from the selected instance. Multiple selection of tenants is allowed. Click on Next button to continue with the staging process or Close button to abort.
- List Of items
The list of items which have been successfully loaded is displayed per tenant. These items are loaded to compare the matching dependencies of the staging workflow. The user can select to Add/Overwrite/Skip the conflict dependency.
E.g. if the workflow has a global variable as dependency and the destination tenant has a global variable with identical name, the user has the option to solve the conflict by skipping/overwriting the value of that global variable.
When the loading of items is finalized, for each tenant selected a new tab will be displayed with a sub-menu to select:
- Destination Category
User can select the destination category for the workflow to be transferred (displayed the list of categories from the destination tenant, where the staging user has rights). It is mandatory to select one category:
- Global Variables
User can visualize the conflicts between the workflow’s global variables/attributes dependencies and the destination tenant’s items. In the following example, the workflow to be transferred has one global variable, that already exists on the destination tenant so the user must solve the conflict by selecting Overwrite/Skip option:
- Snippets
User can visualize the conflicts between the workflow’s snippet dependencies and the destinations tenant’s items. If the dependent snippets have nested snippets, user can decide to solve conflicts on each level of nesting. In the following example, the workflow to be transferred has a snippet as dependency with two level nested snippets, but the dependent snippet already exists on the destination tenant, except the third level nested snippet, therefore user must solve the conflict by selecting Add/Skip option:
- Scripts
User can visualize the conflicts between the workflow’s scripts dependencies and the destination's tenant’s items. In the following example, the workflow to be transferred has two scripts as dependency and none of the scripts versions exist on the destination tenant so they will be automatically added without conflicts:
- Profiles
User can select which profiles to be added to the destination tenant. The last selected profile will be automatically applied:
- Scheduled Workflows
Users can check which scheduled configuration of the workflow should be transferred. If the workflow is not currently scheduled, this list will be empty.
- Miscellaneous
User can check the Make workflow active after transfer option to configure the Is Active setting to ON for the timestamp transferred.
User can check the Same settings for all Tenants option to apply all the settings (conflicts resolution) for each selected tenant.
- Next -> Summary
The list of selected workflow’s dependencies is displayed in the Summary page. The staging process will start after clicking on Finish button. Users can follow the operations performed during staging:
