Workflows are a set of repeatable steps in SmartSimple used to automate and streamline business processes, such as creating review forms and notifying reviewers via email. Workflows are created through Global Settings and can be associated with any entity in the system, including UTA objects, folders, organizations, and users.
Who: System administrators
When to Use Workflows
Use workflows when:
- Automatically routing review forms to the right people and notifying them by email when a review is needed.
- Sending scheduled reminders for recurring deadlines (such as staggered reminders leading up to a grant report due date).
Workflow Terminology
Workflows use several related terms. The definitions below clarify how each term is used in SmartSimple.
- Workflow — A workflow is a set of repeatable steps used to automate and streamline a business process.
- Workflow Type — A Workflow Type is selected once for the whole workflow, when the workflow is created. It determines which objects the workflow can be associated with and what triggers are available for the entire workflow.
- Task — A Task is a single step within a workflow. Specific roles or users are associated with each task and are automatically alerted when they need to perform the action it defines.
- Task Type — A Task Type is selected separately for each task within a workflow. It determines how that individual task is processed, for example, whether it sends a message, changes a status, or updates a field.
- Connector — A Connector links tasks together and provides branching logic based on user responses or pre-set conditions.
Workflow Types
When creating a workflow, a Workflow Type is selected that determines which objects the workflow can be associated with and what triggers are available. See the Workflow Types section of Workflow Types, Settings, and Syntax Reference for the full list of available workflow types, the objects they are enabled on, and their trigger and termination trigger options.
Task Types
Each workflow task represents a single step in a business process. When a task is created within a workflow, a Task Type is selected that determines how the task is processed. The task types available for a given workflow depend on the selected Workflow Type. See the Task Type Settings section of Workflow Types, Settings, and Syntax Reference for the full list of task type configuration fields.
How Workflows Process Tasks
Workflows are constructed using two basic elements: tasks and connectors.
- Tasks — Tasks define the actions required in the workflow. Each task represents a single step in the process. Specific roles or specific users are associated with each task, and these people are automatically alerted when they need to perform the action defined by that task. These actions are generally used to accept, reject, or request a revision on the associated object, file, user, or some application-specific information.
- Connectors — Connectors link tasks together and provide for branching logic based on user responses to the task or pre-set conditions. Every task must be connected to other tasks, or to the Start and Complete stages, before it will execute.
A workflow always has a Start and a Complete stage. Tasks sit between these two stages and are linked by connectors that control the order of execution and any branching logic.
When a workflow is triggered, the system processes each task in the order defined by the connectors. If a connector has a delay configured, the task is added to the Pending Queue and executed when the trigger date and delay conditions are met.
Resources
For more information about workflows, see: