Advanced Workflow
Some types of applications or questionnaires represent ongoing business processes. For example, a record in the Findings application must be reviewed, responded to, and closed. Advanced workflow enables you to manage the lifecycle of records in these types of applications or questionnaires by visually modeling your business process and tying the different steps in that process to actions in Archer.
Advanced workflow can:
- Update values in a record.
- Evaluate values in a record in order to determine which path to follow in your process.
- Send a notification.
- Create a task (and tasks created during an advanced workflow can be mapped to the task driven landing page of a user).
- Display different layouts to your users, based on which step of the process they are currently on.
- Prompt your users to take an action or make a decision in the record.
Note: Applications and questionnaires can have only one advanced workflow, and leveled applications can have only one advanced workflow per level.
Advanced workflow is available for on-prem, hosted, and SaaS deployments.
On this page
Terminology
|
Term |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Process |
The blueprint for a workflow. The process defines all of the possible paths that a content record could follow through the steps of your business process. |
|
Job |
A specific instance of a workflow process. A job represents one actual path that a content record takes through the steps of the business process. Depending on how you choose to enroll content records into your advanced workflow, jobs can be created for new records, updated records, or records initiated by the user. Note: Jobs in an advanced workflow are not related to the Archer Job Engine. For information about the Job Engine Manager in Archer, see "Configuring the Job Engine Manager" in the Archer Control Panel Help. |
|
Node |
A single unit of work (step) in the workflow process. |
|
Transition |
The path of the workflow from one node to another. |
|
Action buttons |
Buttons in the content record that prompt end-users for an action or decision and, when clicked, determine which path in the workflow to follow. Action buttons are automatically created when you configure transitions out of a User Action node. For example, you might create Accept and Reject transitions, each of which corresponds to a different path in the workflow. If a user clicks the Accept action button in the record, the workflow follows that path. Action buttons only appear in the content record if the record is in Edit mode. |
|
Custom layouts |
Additional layouts that display only the information that a user needs while on a particular step in the workflow process. |
Interface
The Workflow Process Designer is the interface within an application or questionnaire that you use to create and build advanced workflows.
For more information about the elements, see Using the Advanced Workflow Interface.
Node types
Nodes represent a single unit of work (step) in the advanced workflow. For example, the following simple workflow has three nodes: Start, Stop, and Send Notification.
|
Node Type |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Start Node |
Marks the beginning of the process. A Start node is required. |
|
Stop Node |
Marks the end of the process. A Stop node is required. |
|
Text |
Allows you to add comments to any part of the advanced workflow diagram. |
|
Evaluate Content |
Allows you to determine the path of the advanced workflow based on values in the content record. For example, in a purchase request application, you could create rules so that if the amount of the request is under $1000, the workflow follows an "Approved" path, and if the amount is over $1000, the workflow follows an "Escalate to Manager" path. |
|
Send Notification |
Sends a notification to alert users of the current workflow state or of a task that they need to complete. |
|
Update Content |
Updates values in content record fields. The Update Content node supports text, numeric, date, values list, and User/Group fields. Note: The Set Current Date functionality is only supported for use with Time/Date fields. |
|
User Action |
Waits for the user to take an action or make a decision. In a User Action node, action buttons correspond to the outgoing transitions and are displayed in the content record. For example, If you create Approve and Reject transitions out of a User Action node, your users see Approve and Reject buttons in the content record. Note: Action buttons only appear in the content record if the record is in Edit mode. A User Action node can have a task associated with it that appears on the landing screen of the assigned user. The task link takes the user directly to the record, and the lifecycle of that task corresponds to the time spent on the Transition node. |
|
Wait for Content Update |
Should be used in combination with an Evaluate Content node. If none of the rules in an Evaluate Content node are met, you can configure the default transition to go to the Wait for Content Update node. The Advanced Workflow job stays at the Wait for Content Update node until content is saved by the user or the delay timeout is reached, at which point it reverts back to the Evaluate Content node. |
System fields
When you enable advanced workflow in an application or questionnaire, three system fields are added by default:
- Workflow Job Status
- Workflow Current Node
- Workflow Process Version
These system fields are added when you enable advanced workflow in an application or when you upgrade any application that already has advanced workflow enabled. Once advanced workflow is enabled, these three fields appear in the Available Fields menu and can be dragged on and off a layout. You can use these fields to identify records based on workflow data, which can help you make decisions critical to a business process.
For more information about these fields and how they interact with other functionality, see Advanced Workflow System Fields.
Displaying user action nodes in records
If the Enable Workflow Auditing option is selected for the Advanced Workflow, records enrolled in that Advanced Workflow display a workflow tracker of previous, current, and next user action nodes in the workflow. The workflow tracker displays if there is a user action on at least one user action node. The workflow tracker displays up to four nodes on a page.
You can view node details by hovering over the node. To view the details for all nodes, click Details. The following details are displayed for each user action node:
- Node name/node title
- Action taken by the user
- Name of who performed the action
- Date on which the action was performed
Note: Only user action nodes are displayed.
How advanced workflow works with other features
Questionnaires
If you are creating an advanced workflow for a questionnaire, keep in mind that questionnaire records are first saved when a user clicks Apply after selecting the target of the assessment (or when the campaign creates and assigns the assessments). If you choose to enroll new records, this means that the record would be enrolled in advanced workflow before the record is first presented to the user. If there are any other required fields within the questionnaire, then the record is saved without validation of the required fields. You should ensure that the user makes a change to the record in order for that record to perform a validation check on any required fields. For example, the user can populate a field that does not have an existing value or update an existing value in a record field. Keep this in mind as you design the questionnaire and workflow.
For example, if you have any required fields in the questionnaire, and the workflow proceeds through an Update Content node immediately upon enrollment, the advanced workflow job will enter an error state (unless the required fields have been populated by the workflow). If the workflow design requires the use of required fields, one option is to place the workflow into an Evaluate Content. Wait for Update loop, which can hold the record in that state until a user has populated the fields. Another option is to use a different advanced workflow enrollment option.
If you run into further issues regarding validation of questionnaire records within AWF, search for the content ID of the record within the instance level AWF logs.
History log
The History Log field type tracks field-level changes for individual records in an application. Users with access to history log data are able to track advanced workflow transitions by users as well as the enrollment status history of the content record. By capturing this data, auditors are able to view an accurate representation of advanced workflow content changes. When
In order to store advanced workflow auditing data, you must do the following:
- When building Advanced Workflows, enable the recording of advanced workflow audit information, assign user permissions, and create a retention policy for the data.
- When adding a History Log field, enable Display Workflow Tracking in the History Log field.
Updating advanced workflows
If you make changes to an existing advanced workflow, Archer creates a new version of the advanced workflow. Newly enrolled items are then enrolled into the new advanced workflow. For existing enrolled items, you can either let them finish their old advanced workflow path or use the Job Troubleshooting tool to delete each item from the advanced workflow. For more information on updating jobs in bulk, see Using the Advanced Workflow Interface.
Overall process
Who can work with advanced workflows?
Access is defined by the access role.