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- You can enter any text you want for in the Subject and Message fields. Clicking on the DEFAULT button, shows "New Task" as the default subject and "You can access your task by clicking <a href="{task.perform.url}">this link</a>" for the default message.
- Clicking on the
down arrow, show a list of templatized fields from your flow, flow/special templates provided by and Task Templates that you can use in the body of your email.
- Type the opening curly brace - {- followed by the control name to enter a field from your flow as a template. Selecting an option enters the control name into the field with the closing curly brace
Built-in flow templates
- {flow.id} - The unique flow instance id. This id is unique for each flow submission.
- {flow.type.id} - The unique id associated with a given flow. See Sharing Forms
- {flow.extid} - Client defined extId passed in the formtype Url parameter.
- {flow.name} - The name of the flow.
- {flow.description} - Description of the flow.
- {flow.activity.id} - The Id of the current workflow step.
- {flow.activity.name} - The name of the current workflow step
- {flow.activity.reject.reason} - The reason a workflow step is rejected
- {flow.id} - The unique flow instance id. This id is unique for each flow submission.
Built-in special templates
- {subject.id} - logged in user's username.
- {subject.roles} - A list of all the roles for the logged in user
- subject.email - logged in users's email address
- {subject.first.name} - logged in users's First Name
{subject.last.name} - logged in users's Last Name
{subject.reports.to} - the user id of the person the logged in user Reports To - configured in the user profile by the Tenant Admin. Typically used to designate a manager/supervisor.
{tn.id} - the Tenant ID where a form/flow is located
{tn.name} - the Tenant Name where a form/flow is located
{user.id} - Owner of form/flow and user folder name in the filesystem
- {app.id} - The unique id associated with a given application. See Sharing Forms
- {app.name} - The unique name associated with a given application.
- Type the opening curly brace - {- followed by the control name to enter a field from your flow as a template. Selecting an option enters the control name into the field with the closing curly brace
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You can access your task list by clicking <a href="{task.listperform.url}">this link</a> |
- {task.list.url} - The special template {task.list.url} can be used in the email body to generate a clickable link to the user's server task list. Users will be taken to their Task List in your tenant after logging into .
Here is an example of the link that is generated:
- {task.perform.url} - This is a URL template to the specific task in question (popupform URL). This is the default.
Clicking this link from the email on a desktop, shows the form/flow rendered in an iframe (similar to clicking Test). Clicking this link on a mobile device shows the mobile rendering (no iframe).
Clinking a link in an email created with this template satisfies the Perform By or Perform Within requirement when setting up Escalations.
Here is an example of the link generated in the email
Consider an Employee On Boarding flow where the manager receives a task notification email to approve or reject the screen flow submitted by the new employee. If this built in template is used, the manager step in the flow displays when the link is clicked without having to access it from the Task List.
- {task.list.url} - The special template {task.list.url} can be used in the email body to generate a clickable link to the user's server task list. Users will be taken to their Task List in your tenant after logging into .
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Let's say you have a 3 step Expense Report workflow. Step 1 (the Expense Report) is filled in by the employee, Step 2 is performed by the employee's manager who approves or rejects the report and Step 3 is performed by an employee in the payroll department who processes the Expense Report for payment. << Employee submits Expense Report (Step 1) ==> the flow is routed to the employee's manager for approval (Step2) ==> once approved, the flow is routed to the payroll department for payment>>. Step 2 in our example workflow is assigned to the employee's manager which is collected by a field in the form named ManagerName. When the employee submits the Expense Report, the designer wants the employee to see the message "Your request has been sent to {Manager name}". {ManagerName} is an example of a template that is replaced at runtime by the name that is entered in the ManagerName field in Step 1. Step 3 in our example is assigned to any user that is assigned the role of Payroll. When the manager approves the report and clicks submit, the designer would like to display the message "The Expense Report has been sent to Payroll for processing" to the manager. To understand where you type in the text for your messages to get them to display when you want them to, think of the Pending Message property as the message that is displayed when users try to access workflow steps. In our example, when the employee submits step 1, the flow moves to step 2, the manager approval step. The message typed into the Pending Msg field for Step 2 - "Your request has been sent to {Manager name}" is shown to the employee instead of the Step 2 form. When the manager approves the Expense Report and submits Step 2, the message typed into the Pending Msg field on Step 3 - "The Expense Report has been sent to Payroll for processing" is displayed to the manager when the flow moves to the Payroll department employees instead of the Step 3 form. To set up the Pending messages discussed in our example, follow these steps:
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Steps performed by the same user in a flow are referred to as a screenflow. The steps of the screenflow are considered one task. The reject functionality will allow users to reject only to the beginning of that screenflow. You cannot reject back to steps after step 1 in the screenflow.
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Steps performed by the same user that are separated by Anonymous Task steps are considered to be a separate workflow tasks. For example, consider a Purchase Order flow with the following navigation: Step 1 is performed by Sales employee > Step 2 is sent to the customer's Email Address (Anonymous user) > Step 3 is performed by the same Sales employee that performed Step 1. You can configure a Reject button on the Sales step that will show both steps as rejection targets even though Step 1 and 4 were performed by the same user. Refer to the Flow Tutorial for an example. |
Customize the Rejection Email
It is possible to customize the subject and email message body that is sent when a workflow task is rejected. The customized rejection email will be sent when the Reject button is clicked on a workflow step or Quick Approval screen.
You can choose controls from your form which will be added to the Message as templates or you can use built-in templates as described below. Click on thedown arrow shows the list.
- {flow.name} - Name of the workflow
{subject.first.name} - First name of the user who rejected the task.
{subject.last.name} - First name of the user who rejected the task.
{flow.activity.name} - The step of the workflow that was being performed when the task was rejected.
{flow.activity.reject.reason} - The reason for the rejection.
{task.perform.url} - The URL to the rejected task.
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Click here for an example showing how the Easy Reject feature works.
Reject to Discard
Most often, steps in an Approval workflow can have three possible outcomes.They can be:
- Approved
- Sent back to a previous step for corrections/more information (Reject to Revise)
- Rejected and terminated (Reject to Discard)
Consider a workflow where Step 1 is filled out by a user, the second Step requires approval by a manager and when approved, Step 3 of the workflow is routed to the VP for review. After approval by the VP, the workflow completes.
The designer must consider what actions the Manager and the VP could take when the workflow appears on their Task List.
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Troubleshooting the Reject Button
Here are some reasons why you might not see the Reject option on a step where "Reject From Here" is selected:
- If the Reject To Here option is not selected in the previous steps, then user won't be able to see the Reject button on current step.
- When consecutive steps are executed by the same user, treats it as a screenflow. Think of those steps in the screenflow as one task. The reject functionality allows users to reject only to the beginning of that screenflow/task i.e. where the previous user started his work. It won’t allow a reject to the in-between steps.
- If the immediate steps prior to the current step were performed by the same user, then he/she cannot reject to those steps (the user is rejecting the flow to himself). Users can reject only to those steps performed by other users, or to steps performed by himself that do not come immediately before the current step.
- If a previous step was skipped because its precondition failed, then the user won't be able to reject to such a step.
- If a precondition on previous step passed when that step was being performed, but the control values change causing the precondition to now fail, the user might not be able to reject to that step.
- The Reject button will not be displayed at all if the conditions are such that users cannot reject to any prior steps.
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In general, a condition is selected that acts as a trigger for the escalations. If the condition is NOT met, then the designer can specify what actions to take. You can elect to reassign, notify, send reminders or skip the task but you do not have to choose all three. However, once a condition is selected one of the actions must be reassign,notify or skip.
For example. if you wanted to send reminder emails to the user(s) who currently have the task on their Task List that the deadline is approaching and then send an email notification to them when the deadline is reached, you would configure the Notifications and Reminders tabs and check None (Notify Only) on the Action tab. Continue reading for more details. |
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- Click on the step in your flow where you want to set up escalation criteria
- Click on Setup Escalation link in the Properties pane. The wizard will display.
- Clicking the ADD ESCALATION button displays the Escalation Condition tab. Multiple escalation triggers can be setup for the same step in a flow.
- Select a condition from the dropdown. There are 4 choices:
Perform By - This condition is met when the user clicks the
- Perform Within - This condition is met when the user clicks the
- Complete By - This condition is met when the user clicks the Continue/Finish button on a form step in a flow before the configured due date.
Complete Within - This condition is met when the user clicks the Continue/Finish button on a form step in a flow before the configured duration.
Info An invalid due date template value will resolve to the current time to prevent any use-mode errors. The following message will appear in the frevvo logfile: "Escalation Due Date {DueDate} resolves to an invalid value":
- Selecting the Perform By or Complete By conditions displays the following screen:
- The Due Date control dropdown displays all date controls in your form. Select from one of these choices or check the Use Fixed Date checkbox to enter a date/time as the deadline.
- The Due Date control dropdown displays all date controls in your form. Select from one of these choices or check the Use Fixed Date checkbox to enter a date/time as the deadline.
- Selecting Perform Within or Complete Within displays this screen:
- Specify the amount of time the user has to perform or complete the task in Days, Hours or Minutes.
- Check the Business Calendar checkbox if you want to use the business days, times and timezone specified for your tenant to calculate a task deadline. The business calendar is set up at the tenant level by the tenant admin.
- Select from the following choices:
- None (Notify only) - Check this option if you want to send reminder emails to the user(s) who currently have the task on their Task List that the deadline is approaching and then send an email notification to them when the deadline is reached. The Notification tab becomes required. The task will not be reassigned or skipped.
- Reassign Task - Reassignment sends the task to the user/role selected if the deadline is passed. Select whether the task will be reassigned to a Role, User or Unlock to Role:
- If you select Role or User, then you must select the user or role in Select Role or User Assigne(s) field. Type ahead to display the Roles/Users in your tenant that begin with the letter you are typing and select from the list or enter comma separated templates. Remember that userids and roles are case sensitive. If reassigning to a specific user, only one user id can be selected but you can reassign to more than one role.
Unlock to Role - This option unlocks the task. Use this option for a step in your flow that has a role assigned to it and you want to handle the situation where one user with that role has the task locked and the deadline for the task has passed. Selecting Unlock to Role unlocks the task and keeps it on the Task list of all users with the role after the deadline expires. Now it can be performed by any user with the specified role again.
For example, let's say you have a step in your flow that is assigned the manager role. Users Jerry and Jim are managers so the task shows up on both their task lists. Jerry clicks the
Reassigned users receive the Task Information email specified by the designer. So be sure to Setup Task Notification Email for the step in your flow where you assigned escalations and you want to reassign the task after the deadline.
- Skip Task - check this option if you want the flow to escalate automatically to the next step when the timer expires. When checked, no further configuration is required.
Info Skipping a task is only supported if the next step in the flow is a form/summary step. Configuring the Skip a task feature on the last step of your workflow will not work.
To set up Notifications:
Click on the Notifications tab.
Slide the
Select whether a Role, User or the Current Owners from the Send To dropdown to specify who will receive email notification reminders when the deadline is reached.
If you select Role or User, then you must list them in the Select User(s) or Role Recipient(s) field. Type ahead to display the Roles/Users in your tenant that begin with the letter you are typing and select from the list or enter comma separated templates. Remember that userids and roles are case sensitive. You can specify more than one user or role.
Current Owners refers to user(s) who currently have the task on their task list.
The subject and body of the notification email are shown once the Recepient(s) are selected. You can customize the email message by adding controls from your form as templates, flow templates, common templates, escalation or task templates. Simply click the
provides built-in templates that can be used in escalation emails.
- {flow.activity.escalation.duedate} - provides the deadline due date in GMT timezone. The tenant admin can change the timezone by selecting the correct timezone for your tenant when configuring the Business Calendar .
- {flow.activity.escalation.condition} - resolves to either 'start' or 'complete' depending on the condition value.
- {flow.activity.assignee} - current user/role
- {flow.activity.escalation.reassignee} - resolves to the new user/role that the task is assigned to.
For example, when a task is reassigned, you may want to specify the user/role that the task is being reassigned to (reassignee) in the email to avoid confusion. Simply add some text with this template in the Notification message section: {flow.step.escalation.reassignee}.
- Emails that serve as reminders as the deadline approaches are configured on the Reminders tab. Reminder emails notify the roles/user(s) originally assigned to this step.
- Specify the interval between reminders by entering the number of reminders in the Every field and select Days, Hours or Minutes from the Unit dropdown.
- You can limit the number of reminders by sliding the
- You can customize the email message by adding controls from your form as templates, flow templates, common templates, escalation or task templates. Simply click the
Click the Submit button to save your setup.
Escalations and Screenflows
Escalation should always be defined on the first step of a task - this is relevant when setting up Escalations for a Screenflow.
Screenflows are steps in a workflow that are performed by the same user. Consider a New Employee On-boarding workflow where steps 1 - 5 are designed to collect the Personal Information, W - 4 Allowances, State Allowances, Health Insurances preferences and Banking Information. Step 6 in the flow is routed to the new employee's manager and step 7 is routed to HR for final processing. Steps 6 and 7 are not part of the screenflow as they are performed by users other than the new employee.
Think of the 5 steps of the screenflow as one task. Escalation for the screenflow task will work as long as you define the escalation on the first step of the screenflow task. The escalation configured on the first step of the screenflow applies to all steps of the screenflow. For example, if a Complete Within 2 days escalation is configured on Step 1 of screenflow, then the escalation is triggered if the whole screenflow is not completed within 2 days.
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If the first steps of a workflow consist of a screen flow, you must configure the flow to use the Save on Navigate and/or Task for First Step properties for escalation triggers to get created |
Escalation Examples
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Escalation Example 1Let's consider a Time Sheet workflow consisting of 3 steps:
In this example, the designer has configured a 10 minute interval for the Manager to approve/reject the task. The Escalation tabs are shown  Employee William submits his Time Sheet at 12:55 PM. The deadline to complete this task is 1:05 PM. William's Manager Jerry receives a Task Notification email notifying him there is a task that requires his attention. The email includes a link he can use to access it.  In this example, the deadline to complete the task is 1:05 PM. Based on the setup of the Reminder(s) section shown above, Jerry will receive 3 reminders every 3 minutes as the deadline approaches. The emails contain a link that Jerry can click to get to the task. The first one arrives as 12:56 PM, the second at 12:59 PM and the final reminder before the deadline arrives at 1:02 PM.  At 1: 05 PM, the task is removed from Jerry's task list since it was not completed in the allotted time and is routed to the task list of any users with the role of Supervisor. Jerry receives an email informing him that the deadline for the task has expired and the task is now assigned to any user with the role of Supervisor.  Reassigned users receive the Task Information email specified by the designer. So be sure to Setup the Task Notification Emails. When Jack, a user with the role of Supervisor, access his task list he will see a task sent to him by the system and the Audit Trail shown in the image:  Escalation Example 2Let's consider a situation where you might want to skip the task after the deadline has been reached. Imagine a workflow with a requirement that it must be approved by specific users in sequence. To prevent the chain of approvals from being delayed if one user does not perform their approval before the deadline, the designer can check the Skip the Task checkbox on the flow steps and will automatically complete the current step and create a pending task on the Task List of the next user. The Project Approval workflow shown in the image must be approved by Approver 1 and Approver 2 in that order. The escalation set up on the Approver 2 step automatically skips this step and advances the flow to the next next step . Notice that notification and reminder emails are also configured. In this example,
Here's what happens:
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Activity Document Actions
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