Editing Workflows

• Editing invokes a separate dedicated diagram editor in which to define/change the worklow logic
• A workflow definition has two diagram states, a draft diagram and a published diagram.
• Edits are always made to the draft which can then be pubished later as a separate operation.
• If there are no current draft edits, the edit command will copy the published as the new draft.
• New or Cloned Workflows always start life with a default draft diagram and no published diagram
• To edit a workflow definition you must first obtain a lock on it
• When you do not have a lock, it is usually possible to view the workflow diagram instead, readonly.

 

The "Edit" Command

The edit command is used to invoke the diagram editor. This is where a workflow designer spends the majority of their time defining the business logic of the workflow. This article describes the mechanics of invoking the editor but does not expand on its use for defining the workflow logic. 

For an introduction to using diagram editor see this article, Diagram Editor

To edit a workflow definition, locate its entry on the "Active" or "Inactive" tab and click the pop up menu at its right hand end 

 

Select the "Edit" option from the resulting popup menu

 

 

 

A busy indicator may appear briefly whilst the diagram is loaded and then the main workflow definition management screen is replaced by the diagram editor :

 

 

1 The toolbar indicates that the draft diagram is being shown for edit

2 The  workflow properties shape confirms the name of the workflow definition that was chosen for edit

3 Workflow logic edits are performed on the main canvas

4 Pressing save commits the latest edits to the draft diagram

5 Pressing Back closes the diagram editor and returns the user to the main workflow management page

 

Valid/Invalid Draft Edits

When a draft edit is saved 4,  the diagram editor performs an automatic validity check. When the user presses "Back" 5 and returns to the management screen a workflow with valid draft edits will be represented by a "Draft Icon "

If the validity check finds errors these will be listed in the diagram editor at save time. But if the user presses "Back" 5, and returns to the management screen, before the errors are resolved the workflow will be represented by an "Invalid Icon"

As you might expect it is not possible to publish a workflow with invalid draft edits

 

Publishing/Discarding the latest Draft Edits

A draft workflow diagram can be edited and saved as many times as you like but agents will not see the changes to the workflow on tickets until it has been published.

Publishing is deliberately designed to be a separate operation so that ongoing updates/edits to the workflow do not necessarily need to be throughly completed before being saved.

Often however, recent saved changes may wish to be published straight away, especially for small edits like renaming an activity.

Publishing Draft Edits

After returning to the Workflow Defintion managment page the latest edits to the current user's locked workflow can be published using the "Publish Draft and Unlock" command from its popup menu

To publish the latest draft edits you must still own the lock. Locate its entry on the "Active" or "Inactive" tab and click the pop up menu at its right hand end

 

 

 Select the "Publish Draft & Unlock" option from the resulting popup menu

 

A warning popup modal dialog will appear, confirming that you wish to continue and overwrite the published workflow with the latest edits :

Clicking "No" will dismiss the dialog and leave the state of the workflow definition and its diagrams unchanged.

Clicking "Yes" will dimiss the dialog. A busy status indicator will appear whilst the edits are published and the lock is removed. Then the list is refreshed with the entry's icons updated to reflect the new state of the workflow definition :

1 The user no longer has a lock on the workflow definition

2 The icon has changed to show there are no longer any draft edits

3 The Last Saved At value is no empty because there are no longer any draft edits

Obtaining a lock and editing again will create a new draft from the latest published copy and the edit cycle can begin again

 

Discarding Draft Edits

Sometimes edits are started in good faith but subsequent events nullify the reason for the change. In this case it is often more convenient to discard any existing edits and revert to the last published definition.

To discard all the latest draft edits, you must still own the lock. Locate its entry on the "Active" or "Inactive" tab and click the pop up menu at its right hand end

 

 

Select the "Discard Draft & Unlock" option from the resulting popup menu :

A warning popup modal dialog will appear, confirming that you wish to continue and discard the edits and revert to the published state :

Clicking "No" will dismiss the dialog and leave the state of the workflow definition and its diagrams unchanged.

Clicking "Yes" will dimiss the dialog. A busy status indicator may appear whilst the edits are discared and the lock is removed. Then the list is refreshed with the entry's icons updated to reflect the new state of the workflow definition :

1 The user no longer has a lock on the workflow definition

2 The icon has changed to show there are no longer any draft edits

3 The Last Saved At value is no empty because there are no longer any draft edits

 

 

A Fuller Testing Lifecycle

The Edit Draft and Publish approach is the simplest form of controlled update offered by Flowset. There is a more sophisticated testing cycle available too. This approach is described fully in a separate article Workflow Change Managment

 

The "View" Command

If the current user does own a lock on the workflow definition they can still view the latest draft edit using a readonly version of the diagram editor. In this way it is also possible to see the workflow diagrams of other designers, even if they currently have a lock on the workflow definition.

The steps to "View" a workflow diagram are very similar to edit "Edit"; locate its entry on the "Active" or "Inactive" tab and click the pop up menu at its right hand end 

 

Select the "View" option from the resulting popup menu

 

A busy indicator may appear briefly whilst the diagram is loaded and then the main management screen is replaced by the diagram editor :

1 The toolbar indicates that the draft diagram is being shown for viewing

2 The workflow properties shape confirms the  workflow definition that was chosen for viewing

3 The stencil sidebar has been removed. Existing shapes can be examined but not changed

4 There is no longer a save or validate button since they are not applicable for readonly diagrams

5 Pressing Back closes the diagram editor and returns the user to the main workflow management page