How to Delete a Workflow (and Clean Up Your Workspace)
Whether you are finishing a temporary process, replacing an old procedure or just want to clean up your 'playing around' workflows, you can easily remove a workflow.
How to Delete a Workflow
To completely remove a workflow from active use, follow these steps within the editor:
1.Navigate to the Editor:From your Arbor MIS: Go to your Arbor Workflows dashboard inside the MIS and open the specific workflow you wish to remove.
2.Open the Publish Tab: Look at the top of the workflow editor menu and click on the Publish tab.
3.Delete the Workflow: Scroll down on the pop up to see the 'delete' button. Locate and click the Delete Workflow button. Confirm your choice on the pop-up prompt to finalise the action.
Deleting a workflow is permanent and cannot be undone - so triple check you are in the correct workflow before deleting.
What Happens to My Workflow Data?
A common question is whether deleting a workflow wipes out historical data and logs.
Immediate Effect: The workflow and its history are instantly hidden from your Activity page to keep your workspace tidy. You and your team will no longer see past runs of this workflow in your active logs.
Sometimes you may want to keep the associated data with the workflow so deleting it may not be the best alternative. There are a range of alternatives to deleting the workflow and we will explore these below.
Alternatives to Deletion: Better Housekeeping
If you want to stop a workflow from running but do not want to lose visibility of its past data on your Activity page, do not delete it. Instead, use these native features built into your Publish tab and structural settings:
1. Make the Workflow Invisible (Publish Tab)
Instead of deleting, head to the Publish tab and toggle the visibility setting off for 'visible to everyone'. This takes away the workflow visibility for everyone on the 'My Things' page and stops the ability for new trigger forms from being accessed. As this doesn't delete the workflow all historical run data stays available on your Activity page.
2. Toggle Off School Rollouts (MAT Plus & Advanced Tiers)
If you are managing workflows from a central MAT team, you don't need to delete a workflow to pull it back. Go to the Rollout section within the Publish tab and toggle off the specific schools that no longer require it. This cleanly removes it from their local dashboards. If a user has the trigger url stored locally, they will still be able to access the trigger form but not complete or submit it.
3. Move it to an "Archived" Workflow Collection (School Perform, MAT Plus & Advanced)
If your tier supports Workflow Collections (formerly known as Habits), you can create a dedicated folder named something that is easy for you to identify - "Out of Use" or "Archived Workflows". This should be done in combination with one of the above to ensure the workflow is not continued to be used. Grouping inactive workflows here keeps your primary dashboard clean while leaving your historical data perfectly intact and searchable.