Workflow Designer

The Workflow Designer is where a workflow definition is built. Open it by creating a workflow in Workflows > Workflow Administration > Workflow Definitions, or by choosing Design from the Actions menu of an existing workflow.

If you have not built a workflow before, start with Create Your First Workflow.

Creating a workflow

Click New workflow on the Workflow Definitions page.

The Edit dialog also has Responsible user. This user is used as the requester when a workflow starts without a person, which is required for scheduled and public form workflows.

Designer layout

The page header shows the workflow name and its state, for example Draft · v3 or Published · v2, and an Unsaved changes badge while you have edits. The header buttons are:

The designer has four tabs: Flow, Form, Trigger and Simulation.

Form tab

The form is what the requester fills in. The tab has three panes: Field types, Form layout and Properties.

• Click a field type to add a field. Use Move up, Move down and Remove field on each row.
• Click Add section to split a long form into sections. A Section setting appears on each field once the form has more than one section.

Field types

Short text, Long text, Number, Money, Date, Time, Date and time, Yes / No, Single select, Multi select, User, Role, Organization unit, Attachment, Static text, Repeating rows and Calculated.

• Attachment is only offered for workflows that have a public form, and only when attachments are allowed by the host. Signed-in requesters attach files in the Workflow attachments section of the request page instead.
• Static text shows text to the requester without asking for input.
• Repeating rows lets the requester add several rows, each with its own Row fields, for example the lines of an expense claim.
• Calculated computes a value from other fields with an Operation (Sum, Subtract, Multiply, Average, Smallest, Largest, Count) over Source fields.

In this version, the request page cannot yet be filled in for User, Role, Organization unit and Repeating rows fields. They can be designed, but the request page shows This field type cannot be edited here yet. for them. Until this is supported, use the request page's Workflow attachments section for files, and the other field types for the remaining data.

Field properties

The Key identifies the field in conditions, notifications and integrations. Choose it carefully and avoid changing it after the workflow is in use.

Flow tab

The flow is the path a request takes. It is drawn on a canvas.

Adding and connecting steps

• The Steps palette groups step types into Flow, Human tasks, Control, Integration and Outcomes. Use Search steps to filter it. Click a step to add it near the centre of the canvas, or drag it to a position.
• A workflow has exactly one Start step.
• To connect steps, drag from an output port to the input port (the circle on the left) of the target step. A step with one outcome has a single port on its right. A step with several outcomes shows one labeled row per outcome.
• Each outcome takes one connection. A step cannot connect to itself, and nothing can connect into Start.

Step outcomes

Editing steps

Select a step to edit it in the Properties panel on the right. The General tab always has Name and Description, the step's connections and a Remove step button. Other settings are grouped in tabs such as Behaviour, Assignment, Delivery, Recipients, Mapping and Service level.

With nothing selected, the panel shows What this workflow does, a plain-language summary of the flow.

To delete a connection, click it and choose Remove connection, or use the × next to it in the step's connection list. Deleting a step also deletes its connections.

Canvas toolbar and shortcuts

The toolbar has Undo, Redo, Copy, Paste, Delete, Outline (a list view of the steps), Auto layout and a Steps N / max counter for the step limit. Zoom controls and a minimap are at the bottom.

Step reference

Some steps depend on capabilities the host turns on in Administration > Settings > Workflows. Steps whose capability is off are not listed in the palette, or fail validation.

Start

Where every request enters the workflow. It has no settings of its own. How requests are started is set on the Trigger tab.

Form

The requester fills in and submits the form. A workflow must have a Form step, and the Changes requested outcome of an approval usually returns to it.

Approval

Assigns a decision to people, roles or organization units.

Assignees

On the Assignment tab, choose an Assignee type, pick the user, role or organization unit, and click Add assignee. Add as many as you need.

Requester's manager resolves from manager relationships stored for the tenant's users. This version does not include a screen for maintaining them, so populate them from your own code or integration, or also add a Role or Fallback role assignee so the task always has someone who can decide. Use Simulation to check who each step resolves to.

Behaviour

Whether a requester may approve their own request follows the tenant's Default self approval policy. See Workflow Settings.

Delivery

Channels also delivers the task to Microsoft Teams or Slack, using a Connection profile. Allow approve and reject from the chat message lets approvers decide from the chat card. These options require the channels to be enabled by the host and in the tenant's workflow settings.

Service level

Form and Approval steps have a Service level tab:

Condition

Takes a different path per branch, based on form values.

Click Add branch and define the branch in its editor:

• Branch name: the label of the branch's outcome.
• Field: a form field or a workflow variable.
• Operator and Value. The operators depend on the field type:

For Is one of and Is not one of, enter the values separated by commas.

Branches are evaluated from top to bottom and the first matching branch is taken; use Move up and Move down to order them. The Otherwise outcome is taken when no branch matches and must always be connected. When AI authoring is available, you can also describe a rule in your own words and click Suggest a condition.

Parallel and Join

Parallel starts several branches at the same time, for example a finance and a legal review. Join waits for them before the flow continues.

• Parallel: Join step, Cancel the other branches when one is rejected (on by default).
• Join: Parallel step, Join mode (Wait for every branch, Continue on the first branch or Wait for a number of branches) and Required branches.

Timer

Holds the request for a while.

• Timer mode: Wait for a duration with Wait for (minutes); Wait until a form date with Date field and Offset (minutes); or Wait until a fixed date.
• Use the business calendar (off by default).

Notification

Sends an in-app notification or an e-mail.

Subject and Message can contain these placeholders: {workflowName}, {businessReference}, {stepName}, {workflowInstanceId}, {requesterUserId}, {workflowDefinitionId}, {workflowDefinitionVersionId}, {workflowRevisionId}.

Action

Calls a registered application action or an outbound webhook. Available when external actions are allowed.

• General: Action kind (a registered action, an outbound webhook or an HTTP connection profile) and its settings.
• Behaviour: Timeout (seconds), Max attempts, Continue when the action fails.
• Mapping: Action inputs, which fill the action's parameters from form values.

The actions a tenant can use are managed in Action catalog. HTTP calls use the endpoints and credentials in Connection profiles and Workflow secrets.

Subprocess

Starts another published workflow and optionally waits for it. Settings: Workflow, Wait until the subprocess finishes, Outcomes (Continue on a single outcome or Branch on the sub-workflow outcome), Cancel the subprocess when this request is cancelled and Input mapping.

Wait for event

Holds the request until an external system reports back, for example a payment confirmation. Events are defined in Workflow events. Settings include Event, Match the event by, Correlation field, Give up after (minutes), When it times out, Payload mapping and Waiting message.

Slack and Teams messages

Send a Slack message and Send a Teams message post a message as a step of their own: Connection, Channel, Title, Message, Importance, Include a link to the request and Fields to show.

Approved, Rejected and Cancelled

Close the request with that outcome. A workflow must contain an Approved and a Rejected step.

Trigger tab

Start type decides how requests are started:

Trigger is active turns the trigger on or off. The Trigger tab only works after a Start step has been added.

For a scheduled trigger, set Repeats, Every, Days of the week or Day of the month, Time, Time zone, what to do If it falls on a non-working day, and What happens when it runs: Create a draft request for the responsible user or Submit automatically using default values. Automatic submission requires every required field to have a default value. Next runs previews the upcoming runs.

For a public form, set the Public form address, Require captcha verification, Verify the submitter email address and Allow file attachments.

Validation

Validate runs the same checks as publishing. Each problem names the step or field it belongs to. The most common ones for a new workflow are:

Simulation tab

Simulation runs the workflow without creating a request. Choose a Requester, a Priority, a decision for each approval under Decisions per approval, and enter Sample form values, then click Run simulation.

The Result shows the path the request takes, who each step is assigned to, due dates and escalation times. It warns when No assignee resolves for this step or when The requester would approve their own request here. Run a simulation for each path before publishing.

Drafts, versions and publishing

• You always edit a draft. Save draft stores it after a light check.
• Publish validates the draft again, makes it the new active version and retires the previous one. Requests that are already running continue on the version they started with.
• A published version opens read-only. The next edit creates a new draft from it.
• Version history in the Actions menu lists every version.

Managing workflows

The Actions menu on the Workflow Definitions page offers, depending on your permissions and the host settings:

Templates

Click Save as template in the designer to save a design as a template. Templates are listed in Workflows > Workflow Administration > Workflow Templates, where they can be previewed, used with Use this template, or deleted (templates saved by your tenant only). They are also offered in the Start from a template option of the New workflow dialog.

Every tenant starts with the product templates Leave request, Expense claim and Purchase request. They can be used but not deleted. Their approval steps have no approvers until you assign them.

Next

• Requests and Approvals