A workflow is a sequence of tasks or activities in a business process. A workflow consists of trigger step and action steps. It may have a single trigger and multiple actions. A workflow is initiated by the trigger event. Every time the trigger event occurs, the various actions that are defined in the workflow plan are executed in a specified manner.
Creating workflows in FlowGat
Creating workflows with FlowGat is very easy. Users can create workflows in FlowGat without any technical or programming knowledge.
A valid workflow must consist of at least two steps. The initial step must be a trigger event and the subsequent steps are actions that are to be executed within an application.
Workflows in FlowGat can be created with templates or you can customize the workflow plans according to your requirements.
Creating workflows from templates
You’ll find template workflows in FlowGat. These are the prebuilt workflows for different kinds of industries that you can modify for use.
Creating customized workflows
FlowGat allows you to create customized workflows according to your requirements. In the FlowGat account, tap workflows on the left-hand side and choose “My Workflows”.
Click on the “+” icon on the right side on the My Workflows dashboard to create a new workflow.
This will display the workflow editor page where you can fill details of the new workflow such as the name, description, timezone, etc.
Workflow Name: You must name your workflow so that it becomes it’s easier to identify the workflow. In the field, you can fill in the name that you want to give to your workflow.
Description: To give more details about your workflow, give it a description.
Timezone: FlowGat provides you the option of selecting the time zone for your workflow. The event shall be based on the time zone you select. On the basis of the time zone, you also get the workflow notifications.
Workflow Notifications: FlowGat also allows you to set email and SMS notification about your workflow. This will provide you alerts about the success, failure, and completion of the workflow steps.
Enable/ Disable the workflow: You also have the option of enabling or disabling the workflow process. By default, all the workflow processes are enabled. Click on “is workflow active” checkbox to disable a workflow. When you disable a workflow, it won’t run unless you enable it.
Save: After you’re done with filling in the details about the workflow, tap the save button on the right-hand side corner.
Now you can begin creating the workflow plan. Tap the “yes” button in the box that appears asking you to add steps.
This will display the workflow plan designer where you can start designing workflow plans. Click on the “+” icon on the top left side. You’ll be asked whether to copy steps from an existing workflow plan. Click “No” if you want to design a new workflow plan.
Choose the trigger application
A list of applications will be displayed. You can choose the application in which the trigger event will take place. The event that takes place in the app, triggers the workflow.
Trigger event
Choose the trigger events that will kick start the workflow plan. A workflow plan will have a single trigger. Every time the trigger event shall occur, the actions defined in the workflow plan will start to execute.
Choose actions
To add further steps to the workflow plan, tap the “+New step” button after the step. Here, you can add the actions that are to be executed in the workflow plan. These are referred to as the things that are to be done within an application. Actions are the tasks that will be performed on the occurrence of a trigger event. A workflow plan may have multiple actions.
Customize your workflow steps
You can also customize your workflow steps with the following:
Conditions: You can use conditions like for each loop, do-while, if-else, and switch statements to create advanced logic paths. Adding conditions would stop the workflow from running until the conditions are met.
Parallel branches: You can also add parallel branches to the workflow. This allows the running of various workflow steps simultaneously, instead of a particular sequence. To add a parallel branch, click on the “+” icon that appears between two workflow steps, and choose “Add a parallel branch.” Choose the action you want the workflow to do.
Validate the workflow steps
Check the workflow steps for any error. The errors can be easily identified with a red border on the fields that contain errors. Rectify the errors and save the workflow plan.
Collapse or expand the workflow steps
Collapse or expand the steps of the workflow by tapping the “collapse or expand all steps” option on the left side. This will give a hierarchical view of the steps & help you to easily navigate the workflow steps.
Save the workflow plan
After, you are done with adding the steps to the workflow, save the workflow plan. To save the workflow plan, tap the save icon on the left side.
Workflow run
A workflow will run when the trigger event occurs. However, a workflow will run only when the trigger condition is valid. All the actions defined in the workflow plan will start executing once the workflow starts running. FlowGat also has an auto-retry feature that allows a failed workflow step to be reprocessed again so that the workflow run can be executed successfully. You can view the workflow runs on the “My Workflows” dashboard.
