Workflow Administration

This page describes how to administer workflows.

Data-Driven Workflows, available in Semarchy xDM 2023.1 and later, are subject to specific licensing requirements; please confirm your eligibility to use such new functionality by consulting your license agreement or by contacting your Semarchy account representative prior to use.
All customers can still use the workflow feature available in previous versions (now known as legacy workflows). Refer to Workflows (Legacy) for more information.

Authentication & Privileges

Applications or users administrating workflows in Semarchy xDM using the API and the UI must be authenticated and fulfill one of the following conditions:

  • Have one role having Grant full access to the model selected in Model Privileges.

  • Have the role defined as Workflow Administrator Role in the workflow definition.

  • (Applies to Workflow Administration REST API) For read-only endpoints only (list or get workflow instances, list or get user task instances): Be either the initiator of the workflow instance or a candidate or an assignee of any user task of the workflow instance.

Workflow Administration UI

Access Workflow Administration View

The workflow administration view is available from My Tasks, by clicking the Administration item at the bottom of the editor navigation panel.

This view displays the list of workflow instances. The list can be filtered based on the workflow instance ID and the workflow instance status.

workflow admin list

You can also access the administration view using the following URLs:

View URL

Administration view with no filter

http://<hostName>/semarchy/mdm-app/<modelName>/<applicationName>/mytasks/admin

Specific search results

http://<hostName>/semarchy/mdm-app/<modelName>/<applicationName>/mytasks/admin?search=encoded search criteria

Specific workflow instance view

http://<hostName>/semarchy/mdm-app/<modelName>/<applicationName>/mytasks/admin/<workflowInstanceId>

Specific workflow instance editor with a step

http://<hostName>/semarchy/mdm-app/<modelName>/<applicationName>/mytasks/admin/<workflowInstanceId>/<stepInstanceId>

Workflow Instance List

The workflow administration view displays the list of workflow instances in a tabular format with the following columns:

Column Description

Workflow

Workflow instance label and identifier.

Description

Description of the workflow instance.

Status

Status of the workflow instance. Possible values are:

  • Completed: All the steps in the workflow instance have been completed.

  • In progress: The workflow instance is not complete.

  • In progress with errors: The workflow instance is not complete and its current root step has an error.

  • Killed: The workflow instance has been killed.

  • Killed with errors: The workflow instance has been killed and its current root step has an error.

Initiator

Initiator of the workflow instance.

Current Root Step

Step in progress in the given workflow instance.

Assigned To

Assignee of the step in progress. If the current root step is part of a parallel block, then this column is empty.

Start Date

Start date of the workflow instance.

End Date

End date of the workflow instance.

Due Date

Due date to complete the workflow instance.

Priority

Priority assigned to the workflow instance. Possible values are:

  • Low

  • Normal

  • High

  • Critical

Workflow ID

Identifier of the workflow instance.

Actions

workflow admin ui action menu

You can perform the following actions on the workflow instances from the workflow administrator view:

  • View workflow instance details: Click any workflow in the list to open its details, or select a workflow and click Details in the action menu. This opens the Workflow Details View.

  • Kill a workflow instance: Select the workflow that you want to kill and click Kill in the action menu.

  • Sort rows: Click Sort rows in the action menu. In the Sort Record dialog, select the columns used to sort, as well as their sort order.

Workflow Details View

workflow instance editor

The workflow details view contains the Workflow History and Step Details panels.

Workflow History

This graphical view displays the completed and ongoing step(s) of the workflow instance as a diagram. Click a step to view its details. The selected step appears with a scaled-up icon.

In the diagram, you can perform the following actions:

  • arrow up: Unselect a selected step and return to the workflow instance.

  • zoom out: Zoom out of the diagram.

  • zoom in: Zoom in on the diagram.

  • fit to page: Fit the diagram into the page.

Step Details

This section displays the details of the selected workflow step. When no step is selected, it is empty.

The following details are displayed for all steps:

Property Description

Step Type

Type of step as defined in the workflow. Refer to Design Workflows for more information.

Step ID

Identifier of the step in the workflow.

Status

Status of the step. The status can be Initializing, Completed, In Progress, Killed, or In Error.

Error

Only available if the status of the step is In Error. The error message of the step.

Start Date

Date and time when the user started working on the step.

End Date

Date and time when the step was completed.

The following details are displayed for start events:

Property Description

Initiator

Name of the user who initiated the workflow.

Description

Description added by the initiator when starting the workflow.

The following details are displayed for user tasks:

Property Description

Creation Date

Date and time when the step was created.

Assignee

Name of the user to whom the step is currently assigned.

Candidate Assignee(s)

Name of the users who can claim this user task.

Transition

Empty if the user task is in progress. Name of the transition that followed this task.

The following detail is displayed for routes:

Property Description

Selected Route

Name of the route into which the workflow progressed.

The following details are displayed for parallel blocks:

Property Description

Parallel Block

Name of the parallel block.

Branches

Names of the branches in the parallel block.

Depending on the selected step, the following actions may be available:

Action Description

workflow admin ui action retry Retry

This action is available for a step in error, in the workflow that was not killed. The administrator can restart the workflow on the failed step.

workflow admin ui action refresh Refresh Candidates

This action is available for a user task that is not assigned. The administrator can refresh the list of candidates for this task.

workflow admin ui action release Release

This action is available for a user task assigned to a user. The administrator can release this task, in order to assign it to another user.

workflow admin ui action assign Assign

This action is available for a user task that is released (not assigned to a user). The administrator can assign the task to another user from the list of candidates.

You can kill the workflow instance by clicking the KILL button in the editor toolbar. The step at which the workflow instance was killed is represented with the workflow admin ui action kill icon.

Workflow Administration REST API

The following API endpoints are available to administer workflows:

  • Workflow Instances:

    • List and get workflow instances.

    • Kill a workflow instance.

    • Retry a specific failed step of a workflow instance.

  • User Task Instances:

    • List and get user task instances.

    • Assign a user task.

    • Release a user task.

    • Refresh the list of candidates for a given user task.

For a complete description of each API endpoint, refer to the REST API Documentation.