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Editing Step Properties

Live Forms v8.0 is no longer supported. Please visit Live Forms Latest for our current Cloud Release. Earlier documentation is available too.

Editing Step Properties

When you click on any step in the flow,  a series of action icons displays depending on the step type. Creating a flow step by dragging/dropping an existing form or a New Form from the Palette shows these icons:

  • - Cog icon - Click this icon to edit Step Properties. This icon is displayed when you select the flow step and in the Properties Navigator on the left side of the designer. 
    • Clicking the Edit Step Properties icon on a flow step displays tabs to set up Settings, Assignment, Messages, Rejection, Precondition, Escalations, Emails, Web Hook, Quick Approval and Geo Location  as shown in the image above.
    • Clicking the Edit Step Properties from the Properties Navigator or simply clicking on a section of the Properties Navigator brings you directly to the tab for immediate editing.
  • - Chain link icon - Click this icon to create Linked Steps. Refer to Linked Steps in a Flow for a discussion of this Flow Design pattern and when you should use it.
  • - Download Arrow over bar - Use this icon to download the step of the workflow as a standalone form. You may want to do this if you update the step in the flow designer and you want to keep your Forms and Flow libraries in sync.
  • -  Pencil icon - Click this icon to make changes to a flow step. The form will open in the Forms Designer inside of the Flow Designer. Remember, the form in the Flow Designer is a copy and any form changes will not automatically sync up with the original form in your Forms library.
  • - Minus icon - Use this icon to delete a step in a workflow. You will NOT be asked to confirm the deletion. Once clicked, the deletion is permanent.

If your step is a Summary, HTTP or Linked step, you will only see the Edit Step Properties and Delete icons.

Properties Navigator

When you click on a flow step, a Properties Navigator panel displays in the lower-left portion of the Flow Designer. This panel shows information about important properties setup for this flow step. Not all of the configured properties are shown in this view. Clicking inside a section or clicking on the Edit Step Properties icon in a section of the Properties Navigator immediately displays the property tab for editing.

The Properties Tabs work the same way whether you open them from the Navigator or from the flow step. Here is what you need to know:

  •  If you are working on several tabs at one time, you can navigate to other tabs and make changes there. Use the left and right arrows at the top of the screen to display additional tabs. You must click the Submit button when you are finished configuring Step Properties  to save your changes. Remember to save the workflow.
  • will validate the Property Settings when you click Submit. If a property value is invalid, the tab(s) will not close and a  message will display telling the designer that there are corrections to be made before saving. The screen will stay on the current tab if there is a validation error.  Otherwise, another invalid tab will be auto selected (starting from left to right) if another tab needs attention. Tab labels with invalid entries display in red.


  • Clicking on the Cancel button closes the tab(s). You will be asked to confirm if any changes were made.
  • Hover over any field on the Properties tabs to see a helpful hint providing information about the property. Some fields contain instructions to guide you.
  • Clicking on the down arrow for a property shows an unfiltered list of choices applicable to that property. For some properties, you may see templatized controls from your flow and flow/special templates provided in .
  • In some cases, you can type ahead to narrow down the list. Use the up/down arrows, the Enter key or click an option with your mouse to select an option. Use the Backspace, Delete or click the x on a selected property to delete it.
  • Typing a opening curly brace into some fields, followed by the name of a control, show a list of the fields in your flow that match the entered text and will be added to the field as a control template.
  • On some tabs, you may have to slide the toggle to the right to turn on a feature.

Each step property setting is described below. 

Settings

Specify General Settings for a step in your flow on the Settings screen.

Name

This is the name of the form that you dragged from the flow designer palette and dropped into your flow. If you drag and drop a New Form from the palette, you can change this name to something meaningful. Form names longer than 60 characters will be truncated.

CSS Class

This CSS class name will be added to the XHTML markup generated for this step in the flow. Refer to the CSS class topic for details.

Continue Label

This is the label of the button that is displayed at the bottom of every step in the flow. The default label is Continue for all flow steps except the last step where it defaults to Finish. You can use templates to customize the label on different steps of the workflow. 

Save Label

The Save button label can be customized for each step in your workflow. For example, you can change the button text to Save for Later. This will help users understand what to do if they want to save a partially completed flow. To show the Save button on a flow step, the Save/Load property must be checked on the entire flow and on the flow step.

Decorator

The designer can select a decorator for the steps in a flow by choosing an icon from the Decorator dropdown.  The selected decorator will replace the default number for the step of the flow on the Navigation toolbar. The image shows the navigation bar for a flow that does not have a decorator selected on the Employee Information step and then shows how the navigation bar looks when the pencil icon is selected for this step.

 Click here to see an image of the Navigation Bar with a Decorator selected

Printable

If this is unchecked, then this step will not appear in the printable PDF for the flow. This is commonly used when you add the same form to the flow multiple times or use the linked step feature to duplicate the same form for multiple steps. This is a common design pattern when the same form is passed among multiple people for approval (Approval Workflows). You will only be able to set printable on non-linked steps. The linked steps will not have the Printable property available in the designer. The setting for the non-linked step covers that step and all steps linked to it. The form for these step(s) will only be printed once in the pdf. It is no longer necessary to uncheck the printable property for all but one of the steps in this type of workflow . The designer can have fine grained control over which controls appear in the PDF by editing the step and setting the control's printable property.

Save/Load

If you check this checkbox on the flow level and on the step level, a Save button will be displayed for each step in your flow. If you don’t want users to be able to save partially completed flows and continue them later, uncheck the checkbox so users will not see this button.This feature is useful for flows containing lengthy forms where your users may not have all the information required to complete the form in a single session. By clicking on the Save button, a copy of the flow with all the current values is saved by Live Forms. Live Forms will also generate an entry in the user's task list. Users access the saved flow task from the to continue working on it at a later time.

If you are not authenticated, clicking the Save button will display an authentication dialog that requires you to login. Users can save the flow as many times as they wish.

Saved flows can be monitored in the Submissions Repository. Saved flows can contain invalid data and can also contain required fields with no values yet entered. When such a flow is re-loaded the missing and invalid values are again flagged as such by Live Forms. And the flow cannot be continued/finished until corrections are made to those fields.

This setting overrides the default Save/Load for the flow for this step only. If Save/Load is enabled for the flow as a whole, you can uncheck this property to disable it for specific steps. Click here for an explanation of how the Save/Load feature works.

Save to Role

When you click Save to save a partially completed flow, the saved flow will only appear on your own task list. If you check this box, then the saved flow is assigned to all users in the Role that is specified for the current step. For example, you may have an Issue Tracking workflow where an employee submits an Issue and the Issue can be acted upon by multiple users in the "Admin" role before it is resolved. The first step is filled in by any employee. When the employee clicks Continue, a task is generated for an "Admin" user. Any user with the "Admin" role can perform the task. The user can enter some data and click Save. The flow goes back into a pending state and is placed on the task list for any "Admin" user. A different "Admin" user can pick it up and continue working on the issue. In this manner, you can create a step in a flow that loops several times before continuing. Refer to the Looping between multiple users in a role topic for an example of a flow design pattern that uses Save to Role.

Save to User

When you click Save to save a partially completed flow, the saved flow will only appear on your own task list. If you check this box, then the saved flow is assigned to the user that is specified in the Users property. When you use this feature the User property should contain a template. For example, you may have form that needs to be reviewed and approved in an ad-hoc manner. In this manner, you can create a step in a flow that loops several times and that dynamically routes to different people before continuing. See the flow example Ad-hoc workflow: pass steps between arbitrary users for a deeper understanding of this feature.

Fast Finish

The Fast Finish feature is useful for workflows with many steps. If a user navigates to a previous step to change data, Fast Finish eliminates the need for the user to click the Continue button on the remaining steps of the flow to resubmit it with the changed data. Fast Finish can be selected at the flow level or at the step level. Refer to this feature announcement for more information.

Allow Signature Pad

Check this checkbox if the step in a flow will be using an external signature pad. Leave the property unchecked (default) on the steps that will not be using a signature pad.  See Topaz Electronic Signature Pads topic for the models supported and configuration information.

On This Page:

 

Assignment

Use the Assignment tab to:

  • Assign a workflow step to a to a user, role(s) or an email address.

  • Customize the Task Notification email message that is sent when the generated task for that step is put on the user's Task List. This email informs the recipients that there is a task that requires their attention.

Assign a Workflow Step to a User, Role(s) or Email Address

Users are given the highest priority at runtime followed by roles and then any email address.

  • When you add a user to the Assign to User field, the Assign to Role and Assign to Email(No login required) fields become disabled. You cannot add Role(s) or an Email Address.
  • When you add a role to the Assign to Role(s) field, the Assign to Email(No login required) field becomes disabled but the Assign to User field remains enabled. If you add a User then the Assign to Role(s) field becomes disabled, and will be ignored at runtime.
  • If you only add an Email Address, the Assign to User and Roles(s) fields remain enabled. If you add a User or a Role(s), the Email Address field becomes disabled and will be ignored at runtime.

User

This field allows the designer to assign a workflow step to a specific user. Clicking the shows the first 10 users in your tenant in alphabetical order, followed by the first 10 fields in your flow in curly braces, making it a Control Template.

  • You can enter a user id. Begin typing in the user id and a list of user names matching the text displays. Use the Enter key, the Up/Down arrows or click an option with your mouse to select a user.
  • You can only enter a single username in this field. Ex: nancy. Setting the user property to a comma separated list of usernames, Ex: nancy, prajakta, will not work. This will be treated as a single username.
  • This field can use templatized strings for dynamic content. For example, in a Vacation Request workflow, the first step is to be completed by an employee but the second (approval) step must be performed by the employee's manager. i.e. it can contain "{ManagerId}" where ManagerId is the name of a field in a form from a prior step.  will resolve the ManagerId string using the actual value of the ManagerId control and generate a task targeted at that specific user.
  • To enter a Control Template, type the opening curly brace - {followed by the control name into the Assign to User field. A list of fields from your flow displays surrounded by curly brackets). Selecting an option enters the control name into the field with the closing curly brace.

Do NOT use accented characters in the User property field.

Refer to the workflow topic sending a workflow step to a specific user for an example.

You may want to route a step in a workflow to the user's manager.  provides a built-in template that is available for every transaction. Simply type the template {subject.reports.to} in the User property for that step in your flow. The workflow will then be routed to the user who is specified in the Reports To field on the User's configuration screen

Role

Roles are created by your tenant administrator or automatically imported from your LDAP or Active Directory server.   When a role is selected, the step in question can only be performed by users belonging to that role. For example, if you have a Purchase Request workflow where the first step is to be completed by any employee but the second (approval) step must be performed by someone with the "Manager" role, you can select the Manager role for the second step. When an employee uses the workflow, completes the first step and clicks Continue,  will first check if the logged in user (the employee) belongs to the Manager role. If yes, then the second step is displayed. If not,  will suspend the workflow, generate a task and place it on the task list for use