How can I publish changes I have made to a Workflow?
Once you're happy with the changes you've made to your workflow, it's time to Publish.
Publishing creates a new version of the workflow with your updates. To do this, just click the green Publish button in the upper right-hand corner to open the workflow 'Card'.
After clicking the Publish button, a pop-up window, called a Card, will appear, as shown below. From this point, there are several actions you can perform, let's delve into each of them below.
Test Workflow
Here, you have the option to ‘Test Workflow’ or to ‘Publish’. It is important to test your workflow before publishing. You can use our handy Testing a Workflow guide to help with this.
Version History
Each time you publish the changes you've made, they will be recorded in your Version History.
This log keeps track of all past versions of the workflow. You can access these previous versions whenever you need; they are stored for your convenience in case you require them in the future.
Workflow Name
You can add a name for your workflow here. Ensure it's both clear and concise, as this name will be how your workflow is displayed in the workflow index. Learn a bit more about this with our Workflows article.
Name for Workflow Run
You should also give a name to the workflow run. Arbor Workflows will use this name on the Activity and My Things pages, and it will also be included in any email invitations.
You have the option to dynamically set workflow names by using data collected during the workflow run. This can be done using the tag picker, similar to how you reference data in other parts of the workflow.
For instance, consider a scenario where you're running an expense claim workflow. In this case, the workflow name could logically be the employee's name along with the amount of their expense. As shown in the example below, you can reference the data collected (from the trigger form) to set the workflow name when it's running. For more details about tagging information, refer to Adding a Tag
Workflow Tags
Similar to setting a workflow name, you can also configure up to four workflow tags. These tags provide an effective way to include extra contextual information within a workflow, as the chosen data will be displayed on the activity page.
As demonstrated below, you can use the tag selector to select the data you want to be visible. In the example below, we've created cards and illustrated how the associated data appears on the activity page when a workflow is executed.
Once you have added your Workflow Tags, ensure you click on the blue tick to save your selection. Once this has been selected, you will see the information that will display as a Workflow Tag in the Activity Page.
Workflow Documents
The next crucial step is ensure your Workflow Documents area is completed. Workflow Documents can be PDFs of steps within your workflow or documents that are uploaded into it. We recommend adding any documents you want to be surfaced easily to workflow documents, as these will be pulled out of your workflow run and deposited into an area on your activity page.
Select the 'documents to add' box to open the drop-down menu which will include the steps of your workflow.
Select the documents you want to include, which will be within the step number that relates to where they are collected or produced, if a PDF. Anything included in 'This' relates to information that will be contextual to the workflow run, such as workflow ID or workflow runs organisation, which refers to that school.
Rollout
Next to the General tab, you will see a tab entitled Rollout.
Click on the Rollout tab to choose which organisations will be using this workflow. If you are an individual school, this will only show your school, whereas if you are part of a MAT or Group of Schools, this will show the organisations available to you. As shown below, you can use the toggle next to each organisation to select or deselect them.
For example, if there are seven schools where this workflow will be used for expense claims, you can turn on the workflow for only those schools. Other schools may have a different process, in which case, you can leave the workflow off for them.
If circumstances change, you can adjust the active organisations for the workflow at any time here. If you are adjusting the organisations in which this is deployed, ensure you have refreshed the selection by selecting the refresh button.
People
Beside the Rollout tab, you'll discover the People tab.
When you click on the People tab, you'll gain insight into which individuals can engage with your workflow and the specific roles they hold.
Within Arbor Workflows, there are three distinct roles: Editor, Manager, and Follower.
From here, you are able to assign these roles for all workflow runs. Additionally, you can designate managers and followers for particular workflow runs by adding an update. This feature proves especially useful when you need to share information, such as including a school's business manager as a follower for all requisition orders. Check out Adding an Update and Adding a Follower for more information!
You can add People and Roles, and can use the Person or Role search bar to find the relevant information.
Once you have selected the Person or Role, you will need to select what level of access they have and if you want that user to be notified that they have been added as a Follower or Manager of the workflow or not.
From here, you will see the Person or Role populated below, where you will have the added functionality to edit these permissions.
Issues within a Workflow
If there are any issues within your workflow, these will be shown below the Publish Changes button, as pictured.
Issues will also be displayed on the main workflow editor in the top right-hand corner.
If you click on the red circle, it will detail what issues occur. This example is showing one issue in Step 2, that the recipient of the task (which in this case is the approver of the decision) is empty.
Finally, when a step has an issue, you'll see an indicator on a tab at the top of that step.
This setup helps you identify and address any problems before you publish your workflow.
Once the issues are fixed, the issue checker will disappear, and the option to Publish your changes will be available again.
It is important to Publish your workflow whenever you make changes to ensure these are reflected in the live running of the workflow.