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Table of Contents

This page discusses the various types of workflow steps available in in frevvo, as well and as when and how to use them.

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The Add Step wizard allows you to create a new form directly inside the Workflow Designer. It will come with a My Info section that contains several commonly used controls, and a business rule that auto-fills those controls with the logged-in user's information. 

  1. Select Step Type "New Form".
  2. Provide a Step Name (this will also be the Form Name). If you do not add a name, will  frevvo will generate a unique and arbitrary name, i.e. Step 29. You can change the name in the Step Properties: Settings tab.
  3. Choose an Assignment Type.

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  1. Select Step Type "Approval" (comes with approval sections and rules) or "Linked" (does not add any controls or rules).
  2. Give the step a name; if you do not provide a name,  will  frevvo will automatically name it <Parent Step Name> Copy.
  3. Select an Assignment Type.

The new step will appear on your workflow diagram and the Step Properties will open on the page. The Step Name and "Linked from: <Parent Step Name>" are listed above the Step Properties wizard.

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Linked Steps Workflow Example

Approval workflows lend themselves to a Workflow Design pattern that uses Linked Steps. Any changes made to the parent form propagate to the linked steps. The  The frevvo Workflow Design Wizard is ideal for creating workflows with linked steps.

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  1. Select Step Type "HTTP Wait-Notify".
  2. Optionally, add a Step Name. If you do not add a name, will  frevvo will name the step "HTTP".

The new step will appear in your workflow, and the HTTP Step settings wizard will open on the page.

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Now let’s take a look at a simple workflow that will accomplish the scenario described above. This workflow contains the Purchase Request form submitted by the company purchasing manager as the first step. The second step is an HTTP step which step that provides the url URL to the web component that handles collecting the signatures from all the required approvers. The third step is a Summary step. Remember the workflow will be suspended until all the approval signatures have been collected by the web component. The web program will then use the callback url to proceed to the Summary step of the workflow.

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Notice the latter portion of the entry contains the call back callback URL:

This URL is generated by the frevvo server and will point to whatever host/port the frevvo server is accessed on. If the frevvo.forms.server.external.url property is set in the frevvo-config.properties, it will always use the value of that property.

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You cannot reset a workflow to an HTTP step. Look for a the status of WAITING in the Audit Trail to find HTTP steps in a workflow that are in a suspended state. 

Note

If navigation is used to go to the previous step, the HTTP step will be skipped. In this case, if a user who has navigated back, makes some changes in a form and proceeds forward through the workflow, the backend system will not have updated data. If you use the HTTP step, it is important to realize that it will not get called again if the user navigates around. The designer may not want to have the navigation bar visible or prior steps' data should be read-only. The HTTP step will get recalled if you reset to a prior step and the workflow continues through it's its normal steps. 

Configure a History Message on the step before the http HTTP step if you want to see relevant information in the audit trail.  

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The Summary step type will simply display a summary view of the data that has been entered into the various steps of the workflow prior to the Summary step at runtime. Clicking on the Details button navigates to the selected step for viewing/editing. The designer selects the fields to display in the Settings mode Summary Fields tab. Usually, you will choose a sample of the fields that provide a summary of the information entered.

To add a Summary step, click the + icon in the place you want to add the step. This launches the Add Step wizard.

  1. Select Step Type "Summary"
  2. Optionally, add a Step Name. If you do not add a name, will  frevvo will name the step "Summary".

The new step will appear in your workflow, and the Summary Step settings wizard will open on the page.

Previously completed steps in a workflow can be viewed by all users but editing data is only allowed for the user that initiated the workflow. For example, if the Summary step is part of a screenflow performed by the same user, editing is allowed when this user clicks on the Details button. Once the workflow navigates to a different user, previous steps are rendered read-only and cannot be edited. Refer to Navigating Between Steps for more information.

The Print button is available on Summary steps by default. Refer to Printing Workflows for the details. The designer can specify a CSS class, a Button label and a Decorator for the Summary step on the Settings property tab.

Existing Forms 

You can also add a form you have already created and which is listed in your current project's forms home page. Adding an existing form to the workflow creates a copy of that form. If you later edit the standalone form, those changes will not affect the step in the workflow. It remains as it was at the time you copied it into the workflow. If you want to update the workflow to have a new copy of the form, delete the step from the workflow and re-add the updated form.

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There are two design patterns to be considered when designing your workflow. Choosing one design pattern over the other really depends on the purpose of your workflow. The choices are:

  • Use individual form forms as your steps
  • Use Linked or Approval steps

For example, if you were creating a workflow from a fifty-tab Excel spreadsheet, you can create forms for each tab and then drag the individual forms into your workflow for your steps.

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One common design pattern is a workflow with multiple separate forms where you want data entered on one form to be visible on another form. In this case, the  natural the frevvo natural behavior of merging data based on Control Name is very helpful. If you have a control with the same name (and, if applicable, nested section name) on Form A and Form B, data entered on Form A will be visible on Form B. However, if the value is edited on Form B, the new value will overwrite the original value in the final submission. A best practice is to disable the control on Form B making it read-only. Please review the Form Control Names & Schemas section below for additional details.

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  1. Create forms in the Forms Designer and then add the form(s) into the workflow as the steps (Existing Forms).
    1. The designer can edit the standalone in the Forms Designer and then delete and re-add the updated forms as steps in the workflow. This method requires you to reconfigure any properties for that step. (assign users/roles, task information, Pending messages, customized Save and Continue buttons etc).
    2. Alternatively, the designer can edit the form directly in the workflow by going to the Guided Designer: Forms editing mode .  This approach is quicker but the changes that you make to the form from within the workflow designer do not update the original, standalone form.
  2. Create the workflow by adding a New Form step. Then go to the Guided Designer: Forms editing mode  to edit the form within the Workflow Designer.

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When you create a workflow,  creates frevvo creates an XSD schema of the workflow that combines all the fields in all the forms in the workflow.

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When designing the forms you want to use in a workflow, be aware that if controls in different forms have the same name, their data will merge in the XML document that  generates frevvo generates when the workflow runs and is submitted. While the Form Designer automatically prevents you from giving two controls the same name within the same form, it doesn't prevent you from giving controls in different forms the same name.

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