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Tasks Home Page
The version 5.1 Task List has a different look and feel than previous releases. Tasks display in a small area on the left side of the screen. Clicking on an icon to perform a task related function will display any associated screens to the right or below the task list depending on it's state. See images below.
Selected tasks will display with a blue background. Updates to the task list occur automatically every five minutes and a new icon is provided to manually refresh the list.
The improved task list in version 5.1 allows quick and easy approval/rejection/update of a task for the workflow manager. For example, it is very common for workflows to consist of an initial form followed by many approvals. In previous versions, the approver had to perform the task, load the entire form, view the request, check an Approve box, enter a comment, sign a section then send the task to the next step in the flow. The Quick View feature makes it very easy to approve something without viewing the entire form.
The Task List theme overrides all forms/flows themes. If none is specified, it defaults to Nouveau.
You will notice a different look and feel when the Task List runs on an iPhone.
Desktop/Tablet View of the Task List
On This Page:
Tasks appear on the task list for one of three reasons:
- You clicked the save icon on a form or flow which had the saved/load feature enabled.
- A workflow was directed to you to perform the next step in the flow.
- A workflow was directed to a role (ex: Manager) to perform the next step in the flow, and you have that role. See embedding your task list.
You will see your tasks when you login. If your user account has the special frevvo.designer role, you must click on the My Tasks tab below the Applications, Spaces and Themes tabs to view your tasks. The icon expands and contracts the task list . It will show a menu with two selections, My Tasks and Shared Items when it is expanded. A contracted Task list will show the associated screens to the right while an expanded Task List displays the screens below it.
Your tasks will be grouped by flow. For Example, all expense reports waiting for manager approval will be listed under the Expense Report Flow and vacation requests listed under Leave Approval. You can manually expand or contract the tasks for a specific flow by clicking anywhere on the flow title bar.
The Tasks page lists your saved forms and flows and all the flows pending to be performed by you or pending to be performed by someone with one of your assigned roles. You can:
- Click the icon to manually refresh the Task List. The expanded/contracted state of the refreshed task list will not change.
The Live Forms Task List will automatically refresh every 5 minutes displaying any updates. The refresh time interval can not be changed at this time. It may be a configurable option in a future release.
- Click the My Tasks to toggle between an expanded and contracted Task List.
- Click the Inbox icon to display a non-expanded task list.
- Click the Recent icon to see all tasks you acted upon in the past 7 days. The task list is color coded. Forms/Flows with a green background are submitted. Forms/flows with an white background are pending/saved. Forms/flows with a red background have been aborted. The image shows two submitted tasks and two aborted tasks as they would display when you click on the Recent icon.
- Click the Saved icon to view all tasks currently saved by you
- Click the icon to search for tasks you have performed in the past
- Click the icon to see how to embed your task list in another web page
The Tasks page displays a list of all your pending tasks by form/flow name. For each task you can:
- Click the icon to display a Quick View of the task without leaving the task list. Quick View will allow the supervisor to approve, reject or add a comment to a task and pass it to the next user in the flow. Quick View is enabled by the designer per form in the flow. See below for the details.
- Click the icon to perform the task. The task is locked by you so that only you can perform it. No other users with your role can perform this task unless you unlock it.
- Click the icon to modify a task and send it back to a prior step
- Click the icon to see the event history for this specific task. For flows you will see all the users that have participated in the flow thus far. For saved forms & flows you will see each time you clicked save
- Click the icon to lock a task so you can perform it later
- Click the icon to unlock this task and return it to the task pool
Not all tasks have all the action icons listed above. For example saved forms may not have the lock, unlock or modify icons. This is because saved forms usually can only be performed by the user that saved them. Thus in that sense they are already locked by you and cannot be unlocked back to any other user. Also only flows have the modify icon to send the flow back to a prior step. The modify action does not make sense for forms.
When a task step is assigned to a role rather than a specific user, that task will simultaneously appear on the task list of all people with that role. The first person that clicks the perform or lock icon will in effect claim that task. At this point all other users with this role can no longer perform this task. They will see the perform and modify icons change as shown below to a indicate that they cannot be clicked. Hover over these icons to display a tool tip with the username of the person who currently has this task locked.
- Disabled perform icon
- Disabled modify icon
Quick View
Clicking the icon shows a Quick View of the task without leaving the task list. The Quick View feature is particularly suited to forms designed for mobile devices. The Quick View icon will only appear for tasks where it is enabled by the form/flow designer. You will need at least one Approval control in your form to enable the Quick View feature. See Setup Quick View for the details. Quick View provides an easy way to add a comment, approve something in your task list and pass the task to the next person, or reject the task and send it back to the previous step. See Modify a Task below for more information.
Quick View does not lock the task.
Quick View will display the appropriate Approval Control section of the form to the right/below the task list. An Approval Control is any section in the form that contains a text area control directly inside of it. It can be named anything. The section cannot have any other control in it and it can be anywhere in the form with one exception - nesting an approval control inside a repeat or a signed section is not allowed. Regular text digital signatures for the approval section are supported. Let's consider a Leave Approval workflow with two activities: the first activity is a form which collects the pertinent information about the Leave request - employee name, starting date and duration of leave, etc. This step can be filled out by any employee requesting a leave. The second step in the flow is a form that has a section named Manager Approval with a text area control for comments. The designer has setup the Quick View feature for this step in the flow and assigned the role of manager to it. When a manager clicks on the Quick view icon, the approval control in the form will display as shown in the image below.
You will see the following on the Quick View Screen:
- A summary text area that can be used to give a description of the task at the top. This is configurable by the designer and can be templatized via the "control" dropdown. See Setup Quick View for the details.
- A text area in which the person who is viewing the task can enter a comment. Entering a comment on the Quick View screen is the same as typing the comment directly into the form.
- Approve button. Clicking this displays the message "Task successfully approved" and moves the workflow along to the next step. The task will disappear from your task list.
- Reject button. Clicking this rejects the task and sends it back to the immediate previous step. The message "Task successfully rejected" will display.
- Details button. Clicking this will display the form as usual. This action is identical to clicking on the perform this task icon. Clicking on the Details button will lock the task.
Quick View is not available if you are using the Task List within Confluence.
Perform a Task
Click the icon to perform a task in your task list.
A task will appear in your task list when you are the person assigned to perform the next step in a workflow. When you click the perform a pending workflow, that flow will load into your browser at its current step. This workflow step may have been assigned specifically to you to perform or it may have been assigned to a person having one of your roles (ex: Manager).
A task will also appear in your task list if you clicked the save icon/button on a form/flow in order to pause filling in the form/flow to continue it at a later time. When you perform a saved form/flow, the form/flow will load back into your browser with all the form field values as you left them when you last clicked save.
If the task displays the disabled icon, this indicates that the task is currently being performed by another person or that another person has clicked the lock icon to reserve the task. When this is the case, the only person that can complete this task is the person with the lock. You can hover over a locked task to see who holds the lock. You can ask that person to unlock the task if you want to perform it. You can also ask your tenant administrator to unlock a task.
If you see the error in the image below when clicking on the Perform this Task icon on the Task list, it is most likely because the visibility of the flow is set to private instead of public in tenant or public. Refer to Flows Home Page for information.
View Task History
Click the icon to view a task's event history. A new event is added to a task's history each time:
- The form/flow is saved
- The form/flow is submitted
- The form/flow is aborted
- The flow is continued and becomes pending for the next person
- The flow is modified and reset back to an earlier step and becomes pending again for the person that previously performed that step.
Here is the event history for a form that was saved twice and not yet submitted.
Each events contain the following information:
- The state - Pending, Saved, Submitted, or Aborted
- The user name of the person who caused the event (ex: "By: Tom" or "By:Anonymous " if the event was performed by an anonymous user)
- A date stamp when the event occurred
- A time stamp on hover
- And when the last event in the history has state "Pending", the user name or role(s) for whom the task is awaiting the next action (ex: "For Roles Manager", "For User: jerry")
Here is the event history for a form that was saved thrice and then submitted.
The icons displayed at the left of each event indicate:
- - The task can be continued (displayed for saved & pending events, and pending flows)
- - This task was modified and reset to this step
- - This task was finished
- - The task is paused (displayed for saved forms/flows)
- - The task is aborted
- - The task has been reassigned to another user or role by an administrator.
Here is the event history for a workflow that was initiated by an anonymous user ("By: "). Next the task was performed by the user m1. Next user s1 modified the task and reset it back to a step previously performed by user m1. This workflow now resides on the task list of user m1.
Here is the event history for the same workflow as above. After the reset, the task was performed by user m1 and is now on the task list of all users having the role Processing. This task is now potentially on the task list of multiple people in this tenant if multiple users have the role named Processing.
User s1 performed the next step in the workflow. This user must have the role named Processing in order to have performed this step. The user s1 completed the final step in the flow and submitted it.
Here is the event history of a 2nd Mortgage Application workflow. The flow was initiated by an anonymous user and then performed by user m1. The tenant admin then aborted the task. Abort removes the task from everyone's task list. This task can still be found by any user that performed one or more steps or by the tenant admin via Search History.
Lock/Unlock a Task
A task becomes locked when you click the lock or the perform icons. Perform auto-locks the task to prevent multiple people from mistakenly performing the same task at the same time. If you decide that you do not want to perform this task, click the icon to return it to the task pool (ex: Managers).
If a task is loaded from the task list but not submitted, the lock will be released when that users session with expires or the user explicitly logs out. You can set the session timeout in your in-house as explained in this documentation.
Some task do not display lock/unlock icons. Instead you will see only the icon. A workflow step assigned specifically to you, rather than a role, must be performed by only you. In this sense such a workflow is currently locked for only you to perform. The same is true for saved forms. Saved forms must be performed, completed and submitted by the person that started them. They cannot be unlocked back to a pool of users to complete. Saved flows also must be performed by the person that started them. For flows there will be a new feature return-to-role in an upcoming release which allows you to abort your saved edits and return the flow back to its current role.
Once a task is locked, all other users with this role can no longer perform this task. They will see the perform and modify icons for this task on their task list change as shown below to a indicate that they cannot be clicked:
- Disabled perform icon
- Disabled modify icon
The image below shows the Task List of Manager Jill Burns after Manager Jerry Mouse has claimed the Leave Approval submitted by employee Tom Cat. Note that the error message shows the user who has locked the task, in this case, Jerry. You can also hover over these icons to display a tool tip with the username of the person who currently has this task locked. If a task is currently locked, the last entry in the audit trail will show who locked it and when.
You can ask that person to unlock the task if you want to perform it. You can also ask your tenant administrator to unlock a task.
To lock/unlock a task on the iPhone, touch the Edit button on the Task List.
Check the checkbox that appears to the left of the task. Touch Lock to lock the task or Unlock to unlock the task. This checkbox is not available for Saved Forms/Flows.
The icon will display if the task was locked:
Modify A Task
A workflow can be sent back to a person who performed one of the prior step by clicking the icon. The reset action can be done by any user that has the task pending on their list.
Resetting back to a prior step is useful for example when the person performing the current step needs to ask one of the people who completed an earlier step to review or fix a problem. For example, perhaps the loan processing department sees that the property address is incorrect and needs to send the form back to the person who performed the loan approval step. To modify a task, perform the following:
- Click on the Modify Icon for the Task.
- Select the step in the flow that you want to send the task back to from the Reset to Step dropdown.
- Fill in the Task Information, Notification Email Subject and Notification Email Content fields. The Task Information will display on the Task List, the Notification Email Subject and content will show in an email sent to the logged in user's email address specified when their logon id was set up. You will also see the Notification Email Subject text in the Audit Trail for that task.
- Fill in the Reason for the modification. Click submit to send the task back to the person that previously performed it.
When a workflow is reset to a prior step that task will appear on the task list of the person that performed that step. Even if this step was configured to be performed by anyone with a given role (ex: Manager) a reset workflow task will appear only on the task list of the manager that previously performed that step.
In many real world workflows such as a loan or job application, the first one or more steps are often performed by people that do not have a user account in the tenant. You currently cannot send the workflow back to this person. The task can only be sent back to a person with a user account in the tenant. You cannot reset a task to an activity with a precondition. All signatures in activities along the way will be removed - the user will have to sign again. You cannot reset a task to a Summary activity.
By Admin
The tenant admin user has special modify permissions. In addition to reset to step, the tenant admin can:
- Abort a pending task
- Reassign a pending task to a different user
- Reassign a pending task to a different role
This is an admin's modify task form. To access the admin's modify task form, login as the tenant admin then click the Tasks tab. Next locate and click the icon to search for tasks pending and saved on the task lists of all the tenant users.The task list will display. Notice the icon.
This is one of the ways the tenant admin can abort a task. Clicking this icon will display the message shown to confirm the abort action:
The tenant admin can also select a task and click the modify icon for that task.
Non admin users can only modify workflows. Admin users can modify both workflows and saved forms. This gives the admin the ability to move a saved form from one user's task list to another for example if one user has gone on vacation the admin can pass the incomplete form to another user to finish.
Reassigning a workflow to another user or role has the potential undesirable side effect of changing the flow in a way that may have been unintended by the person that designed and created this workflow. This is why only the tenant admin has the permission to reassign to a specific user or role.
Clicking the "Yes" checkbox is another way the tenant admin can abort a task. The task is removed from all task lists. Aborted tasks can never again be performed or submitted so use this action with care.
Assign to User
Imagine that Sally in the mortgage processing department was working on a mortgage application and had saved the loan form. Sally then left for a week vacation. The tenant admin can login and search for all forms saved by Sally. Here we see the loan application task she was working on.
The tenant admin can click the icon to move this saved form to a different user's task list by selecting a user from the "Assign to a different user" dropdown, putting a message in Reason input and clicking submit. In the image below the admin has selected the username 'm1'.
Now when Sally next logs into her account she'll no longer see this saved form on her task list. When the user 'm1' logs into frevvo m1 will see Sally's saved form on their task list and can perform, complete and submit the form.
Assign to Role
The tenant admin can also move a saved form or any saved or pending flow to one or more roles. In the example above imagine that the user 'm1' is also unavailable. The tenant admin can again search for the loan application form saved by Sally and again click modify but this time select a role from the "Assign to a different role" dropdown. Click the green "+" button to select multiple roles. Now the saved form will appear on the task list of all users that have that role(s).
Notice that the task history now shows that the form is pending for any user that has the role Processing. Also notice that unlike typical saved forms this task now displays the lock icon which enables one user to lock the task so they can complete this form later.
Search History
Click the icon to search for a form you have saved and want to continue or that you have submitted in the past, or to search for a workflow you have participated in.
Search history only displays forms and workflows which have the "show in history" property enabled. This property is configured by the form or workflow designer. If you don't see a form appearing in your history, contact your tenant administrator or the form/workflow designer and ask them to enable this feature.
You can narrow your search to specific forms or flows and also to a specific date range when you performed that task, submission status and only tasks that ended with errors.
Workflows only appear in your search results if you performed one or more steps in the flow. Workflows will NOT appear in your search results just because it was at one point in time on your task list but was performed by a user other than you. For example if a workflow is on your task list because you have the role (ex: Managers) to which a particular flow step is assigned, but this step is performed by another user with that role, then this task will not appear in your search list.
When you click the Submit button, the Search Results will display. You may notice the Refresh icon is no longer visible. This is as designed. There is no Refresh capability available for Search results.When you click the Cancel button, you will see the message "Your search was cancelled" and the Task List is accessible.
Search History - By Admin
The tenant admin user is able to search for tasks that were performed by other users. The search history form for the tenant admin has several additional search criteria fields.
One very common function is to search for tasks that are locked by a particular user so that the admin can modify them and reassign them to another user or role -- for example if a person goes on vacation and you need to move a saved or pending form or flow to another user.
Embedding Your Task List
The task list can be made conveniently available in your own web site. By embedding the task list you can access your tasks without having to login to the frevvo web UI directly. This gives the feel that the task list is part of your company portal. To do this click on the Embed icon and copy the task list embed script into your web page.
Here is how the an embedded tasks list looks. Even when embedded, the task list is always protected by a login dialog. So if you have not already authenticated to you will be prompted to enter your username and password. The login then automatically redirects each person to their own personal task list.
For this version, embedding the task list successfully into an HTML page requires setting its width. See URL Parameters for more details.