Creating and managing workflows in Upchain

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In this video, we'll show you how to create a new tenant workflow,

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both from scratch and using a system workflow as a base, and how to add and connect primitives.

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So, let's take a look.

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Remember that system workflows are those provided out of the box and cannot be edited or deleted.

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However, they can be duplicated to a tenant workflow so that you can use it as a base when creating your own workflow.

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If you would like to model your tenant workflows based on the system workflows, you can duplicate them.

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This means that you would not be starting from scratch.

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This can be useful if you know that you only need to make minor changes to the system workflow to suit your needs,

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or if you at least wish to keep what's already there in the system workflow to use as a base.

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To duplicate a system workflow, make sure you're in the System Workflows section.

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Then, click the drop-down menu of workflows, hover your cursor over the desired object, and then click on the workflow that you wish to duplicate.

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This loads the workflow into the viewer.

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Then click on the Duplicate as tenant workflow button.

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Type in a name for your tenant workflow.

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Click the "Duplicate" button.

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The workflow is copied into the tenant workflow section and appears under its relevant object.

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Note that you can change the name here if you made a mistake or a typo or decide on a different name.

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Simply edit the workflow, type in the name, and then save the changes.

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You can now begin editing this duplicated workflow that you just created.

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You can also create your own workflows from scratch if desired.

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You might choose to do this if the workflow you would like to create is completely different from the system workflows available.

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To create a workflow from scratch, make sure you're in the Tenant Workflows section, then click the Create workflow button.

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This opens the Create workflow window.

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Give your new workflow a name.

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The workflow type is already set to tenant, you cannot change this.

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Select the objects.

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This is the object the workflow is for.

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Choose from eight different objects.

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If applicable, select an object type.

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This would be available for objects that have subtypes, including project types, custom task types, or custom business process types.

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Note that these subtypes must already be created before you can create a workflow for it.

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This is because you cannot change the object or object type once the workflow is created.

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If applicable, import an XML file.

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You would only use this if you already had a workflow exported to an XML file.

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This might happen if you saved one as a backup or exported one from another tenant.

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Click the "Save" button.

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Your workflow is created and is loaded into the workflow viewer.

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At this point, the workflow is completely empty, since we started from scratch.

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But you can now begin to build your workflow.

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Now that you have a new tenant workflow created, you have one for the task object with primitives already in it,

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and you have one for the requirements object that we just created from scratch that's empty,

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you can begin adding primitives and configuring the workflow to your liking.

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You can do this for any workflow as long as the version is still in a draft state.

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To begin editing the workflow, click the "Edit" button beside the workflow name.

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This now locks the workflow to you and no one else can edit it.

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You can see your name here.

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Also, notice that a new workflow always begins at version 0.

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Just like many other objects in Upchain, you can create multiple versions of a workflow,

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but note that only one version can be published at any one time.

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But we'll discuss versioning and publishing in another video.

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Now, you can begin performing the following actions.

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You can add a primitive by dragging it from the left menu and dropping it onto the canvas.

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You may wish to begin with the start and stop primitives since all workflows need those.

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There are two types of primitives.

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You have user primitives, which require user input to proceed.

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And there are system primitives that perform their task according to their settings.

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Notice also that as you add new primitives to the canvas, it is assigned a number.

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This is just its ID and does not affect the order in which the primitives are performed.

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This is still controlled by you when you add the connectors between the primitives.

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We're going to add a few more primitives: an update primitive, a task primitive, and a decision primitive.

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And notice the numbers incrementing for each one.

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Now, you can edit a primitive settings.

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Refer to the Upchain help documentation for information on each specific primitive settings.

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Any settings that are mandatory are highlighted with an asterisk.

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We're going to configure the task primitive here.

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It is a user task and this task will be to gather the requirements.

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We will assign it to the workflow assignee.

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The task needs a description to help the assignee know what to do.

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And it's also useful to make sure to send an email notification so that they are notified when they have an assigned task.

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And it's also useful to allow workflow cancellation.

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Let's also configure the update primitive.

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This will update the status of the requirement.

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We'll mark this as in progress.

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And we'll configure this first decision task.

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This will be for the PM approval stage, the project manager approval stage.

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Because it is a decision, they need a button to either approve or reject.

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At this stage, again, we'll insert a description so the project manager knows what to do.

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And we'll assign it to the project manager on the project team.

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You can also clone a primitive by clicking on the primitive and then clicking the clone button.

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This is quite useful if you already have a primitive configured and you wish to reuse it again with very similar settings.

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So, we'll clone a couple additional update primitives as well.

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And we'll clone the decision primitive one more time.

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If you've added primitives by mistake, you can always remove them.

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To do this, you would highlight the primitive by clicking on it and then click the "Delete" button.

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You can also press the delete key on your keyboard.

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This same process is used to delete connectors between the primitives as well.

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Now, let's finish configuring these primitives.

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The second decision task is for the customer to approve.

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Most of the settings are the same.

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This is why we cloned it.

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And we'll assign this decision to the customer manager to approve the requirements on behalf of the customer.

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And, lastly, if the requirement is approved, we'll set it to passed.

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And let's save our work.

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So, so far, we've added all the primitives we've needed, configured their settings, cloned some of them, and we've removed any unnecessary ones.

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Now, let's connect the primitives together to show the order in which the primitives are meant to be performed.

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To do this, you hover your mouse over a connector square,

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click and drag your mouse until your cursor is over the next connector primitive, and then release your mouse button.

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You always configure the happy path first, and then you would configure any exception paths second.

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The decision primitives have two possible outcomes.

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They can either approve or reject.

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We've already connected the happy path if they approve.

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Now we need to decide what to do if they reject.

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So, to do that, again, hover your mouse over a connector, click and drag, and you'll notice the path is red this time.

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If you've done this incorrectly, you can highlight that connector and then press the delete key and try again.

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So, in this case, if either the project manager or customer rejects the requirements,

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we're going to send the workflow back to the beginning, and the task will be reassigned to the work order assignee to try again.

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So, it is entirely up to you how you wish to approach the creation of the workflow.

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You might find it easiest to add all primitives first, configure their settings, and then connect them all together at the end.

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Keep in mind that a workflow is linear.

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You cannot create separate branches to be followed simultaneously.

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So, for instance, if you have multiple decisions, they must be completed one at a time consecutively.

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At frequent intervals, as just demonstrated, you should save the workflow.

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This is so that if you lose Internet connection or something goes wrong with your computer, you have not lost any of your work.

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To continue editing, you would then click the "Edit" button beside the "Workflow Name" once more.

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Now that you know how to create your own workflows, keep going to learn how to manage their versions, how to publish them, and more.