Configuring Business Rules

Conditional Workflows

Conditional Workflows enable dynamic assignment of Workflow Tasks to a set of users based upon certain predefined conditions. This is especially helpful when working with documents that need to be routed to certain users or forms that need to pass through certain approval steps before it can be used. Conditional Workflows are based upon Document Metadata or Form Fields. When configuring a Conditional Workflow there are several terms that you need to be familiar with to understand how the conditional workflow is being configured.

Assignments - An assignment is an instance where a user or group will be assigned a task sequence if the conditions are true.
Conditions - The conditions that are evaluated to determine if an assignment will be added into the workflow.

Conditional Workflows can be configured for any type of task contained in a Workflow.

When you are configuring a workflow, you need to either assign users on the General tab of the task sequence and/or configure the assignments in the conditional tab. To configure a conditional workflow you will complete the following steps:

Navigate to the Workflow designer for a document or form.
Select or insert a task sequence where you want the assignments configured.
Select the Conditions Tab

Key in the main description next to the Task type. Note that this description applies to the main task (which is the task that is primarily configured using the "General" tab) and has nothing to do with the conditional task, but still needs to be filled out in order for the task to be saved and the workflow initiated.
Enter in the task description in the assignments area that the user(s) should receive for this task if the conditions are met and the users are assigned the conditional task.
Enter in the number of additional days beyond the main task's due date that this conditional task will be due (if assigned).
Assign a user, group, or other to the condition. (The "Other" selection is described in more detail further below).
(optional) Select the Add Condition button if you need more than one condition to evaluate this assignment.
Now configure the conditions that are required to make this condition true.
Select the Save Changes at the top left hand corner of the page to save the changes.

When working with conditional workflows there are several rules that a user needs to remember. They are:

When there is an AND after a condition, that line and the next line need to evaluate to True for the task assignment to be completed.
When conditions are separated with ORs, one of the previous line(s) or next line(s) need to evaluate to true. Conditions can be aggregated together with "ANDs".
The string of characters that you place in the Compare To field is case sensitive when using equal to as the condition.
When using the condition of contains, the sting of characters does not need to be case sensitive.
User can add multiple assignments going to different users or groups based on the conditions.
The description that users see in their task list will be the description contained in the last assignment that is assigned.
Assignments can be added or removed.
Conditions can be added or removed
When a task sequence in the workflow does not evaluate to be true, the task sequence is skipped.
If all the tasks in a workflow are conditional and do not evaluate to true, all the steps will be skipped and the document will be released if the workflow is a document release type workflow.
If all the tasks are skipped, the percent complete will still be 100%
If the rejection path brings the workflow through an additional cycle or pass, the conditions will be re-evaluated.
When working with Signature Stamps on a form, you can test for information in the stamp. You can also test to see if the stamp is checked or unchecked by testing for "true" or "false", respectively.

There are advanced features for conditional workflows as a mechanism to give more flexibility and capability to the conditional workflows. This topic will review advanced concepts that can be accomplished as advanced features are added into Conditional Workflows.

Form Workflows

Other Assignments

When configuring a conditional workflow in forms, you will notice that besides selecting Users or Groups, you can also select others. Others gives you the following capabilities:

Ability to conditionally assign a task to the originator's supervisor.
Ability to conditionally assign a task to the originator.
Ability to assign tasks to a user or group of users depending on what user or group is selected from a drop down list.

The first two bullet items are fairly straight forward. If you want to conditionally assign a task to the originator or their supervisor, you would select one of the two from the other list and move them to the Assigned Members side. The last bullet point requires a little more explanation to help you understand what this feature accomplishes. Within VisualVault there are various ways to assign a workflow task on the fly. You can configure a workflow task to have a Quick Route Link, or you can configure the form to have a Quick Route Link as well. These both allow you to add tasks to the workflow quickly. However you may want to make a form more usable for your general user population, or you may have a fixed type of task but you don't know who will be assigned until the last minute. In order to help you more closely meet the challenges of usability with little training for your general population as well as give you flexibility to determine who will be assigned the task we allow you to look to drop down lists on the form that are populated with Users or Groups. These drop down lists are shown in the Other list as assignable entities to the Conditional Workflow. As an example let's say that you have a project request form. On this form you have a drop down list called peer reviewers. When you configure the conditional workflow you would add an assignment, then from Member Selection list you would select Other, then assign the peer reviewers field to the Assigned members column. Finally you would configure a condition that needs to be true to assign this task and save your work. This configuration will allow you to select a user from the peer reviewers field when you fillin in the form. When the workflow comes to the conditional task sequence in the workflow, if it evaluates to true, it will assign the user you selected in the peer reviewers list to the task.

One item to consider about this drop down list concept is, once the control of the workflow has moved past the conditional task sequence, when someone changes the peer reviewer, it will not force the workflow to go back and assign it to them unless an approval returns the workflow to be reevaluated. You need to design the form in a way that the right peer reviewer is selected before the workflow arrives at that task sequence.

Conditional Workflow View