Getting Started with Workflow
The Workflow
Our process model ties our two forms together and sends an email.
It has the following elements.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Start Candidates | The users who are allowed to start our process - ie the visitors to our website |
| Start Event | Every process has a start event, usually a form submission |
| Start Form | The form that our user will submit to start the process |
| User Task | The task carried out by our agent |
| User Task Candidates | The group of users who will carry out the user tasks |
| User Task Form | The form our agent will fill in to complete the user task |
| Mail Task | The mail task that will send a confirmation email to our start user when the task is complete |
| End Event | This ends the process execution when it is reached |
Model Properties
When you first create or edit a model, without selecting any of the elements, the properties section beneath the work area displays the properties of the model itself.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Process Identifier | The unique identifier of the process definition. This is generated automatically when you create your model |
| Name | The name of the process definition, displayed within the modeller. |
| Namespace | This is how the model is organised in the modeller, it doesn't affect the process or how it is used |
| Description | The description of the process definition, displayed in products like the Self Service template. This value can include form field values using the ## substitution method. |
| Candidates | Only the users (or user groups) selected here are able to start instances of this process. These will normally be logged in site users, which is useful so we can access details from their user profile, but can also be the anonymous/public user. If you want users to be able to track their requests in the Self Service and User Request templates you'll need some way to identify them, in which case it is best if they have to log in before they start a process |
Start Event
Every model must have a start event. For our example, leave all of the properties as their defaults.
User Task
The user task assigns a task to one of our agents. In this example we can leave most of the properties blank, but you will always need to set the name, candidates and iCM form.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | This name will appear in the claimable task lists in templates like Self Service. You can include values from the form submission that started the process instance (or any other process variable). For this example, use |
| Candidates | Select the users or user groups you would like to be able to claim this task. This should be a group that represents "staff" members |
| iCM Form | This is the form that will be used to carry out the task. For this example, select the "Complete a simple process" form described in the previous step |
Mail Task
Once our agent completes the user task, the process execution is passed to a mail task. In this example we're going to use elements from both form submissions to construct our email.
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The name of the task isn't visible in normal use, but can be useful if you need to debug any errors. For this example call it Mail Task |
| To | We want to send the email to the original user who submitted the query. The user supplied their email address in a field called EMAIL, so we can access that email address using |
| From | Any "from" address you enter must be authorised and verified to be able to send emails from your domain. Leave this field blank to use the default set for your platform |
| Subject | This is the subject line of the email. Just like the email address, we can use a value from the form submission. Enter |
| HTML | This will make up the body of the email. In this example we're going to include a value from the original form and a value from the agent's response.
|
End Event
The end event stops the process execution when it's reached. End events end this branch of the process execution. Terminate events terminate the entire process execution, even if it has multiple branches.
As our example only has one line of execution, either can be used.
Save and Deploy
Save and deploy your workflow model. It will now be available as a process that can be selected in the Workflow start Action form field and be displayed on articles using the User Requests and Self Service templates.
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