What are workflow instances?
A workflow instance is a specific execution of a workflow. It is a unique instance of a workflow that is associated with a specific set of data. A workflow instance can be started manually or automatically. When a workflow instance is started, it will follow the steps that are defined in the workflow definition. The workflow instance will continue to execute until it reaches a terminal state.
Here are some of the key properties of a workflow instance:
Tracking No.: Each workflow instance has a unique identifier (which is called Tracking No. in Yeeflow) that is used to track its progress.
Variables: A workflow instance is associated with a specific set of variables. The variables can be used to determine the steps that are executed in the workflow.
Status: A workflow instance can be in one of several states, such as "New," "In process," "Rejected," "Completed," or "Cancelled."
History: A workflow instance maintains a history of its execution. The history can be used to track the steps that were executed and the decisions that were made.
View workflow instances
To view and manage active tasks, firstly login to Yeeflow with the system admin account, then go to the Admin center. From the left navigation panel click to expand the "Workflow settings", and click "Workflow instances":
Or login to Yeeflow with the application admin account, then click the " Gear" icon to enter the App Settings page. From the left navigation panel click to expand the "Workflow settings", and click "Workflow instances":
You can see all the workflow instances here.
Below please find the description about each column in this workflow instance list:
Tracking No: theunique identifier of each workflow instance.
Workflow: the workflow name of the associated workflow definition.
Workflow ID: the unique identifier of the associated workflow definition.
Version: the version number that this workflow instance is running on the workflow definition. For example, the latest published workflow is version 6, the workflow instance might was executed on a previous version, like version 4.
Submitter: the user who submitted and triggered this workflow.
Submission Time: the time when this workflow was triggered.
Status: the current status of this workflow instance. This can be"In process," "Rejected," "Completed," or "Cancelled."
You can filter the list based on application by clicking the "All applications" dropdown list. and select applications under each workspace.
You can also filter workflow instances with status, tracking No. and submitted by etc.
Change the submitter and applicant
This 'Change Submitter' function is particularly handy for system administrators when they need to re-assign a submitted form to a new user. This typically occurs when the original Submitter or Applicant has left the company or changed roles.
Locate the workflow instance that needs to be updated and click on the 'More settings' button, which is located after the 'Tracking No.' column. A pop-up menu will appear, click on 'Change Submitter'.
A new window will pop up with checkboxes for 'Submitter' and 'Applicant'. You can choose to change only the Submitter, or the Applicant, or both. Make your selection as per your need.
Select the user who you want to assign as the new Submitter or Applicant from the following user picker control. Once you've selected the new user, click the "OK" button to make the settings effective.
Delete workflow instances
System admins can delete workflow instances from the admin center.
Warning:
When a workflow instance is deleted, this workflow instance itself, and all the associated workflow tasks and related data will be deleted permanently.
To delete a workflow instance, find the instance from workflow instance list, and click the More operations button from Tracking No. column. From the pop-up menu list, click the "Delete" option.
Then, from the pop-up window, type in "delete" in the text box to confirm the deletion operation.
You can select multiple workflow instances from the list, can click the "Delete" button from top-right of this page to execute bulk deletion operation.
Terminate or Recall workflow instances
Yeeflow system admins can terminate or recall a workflow instance when it's running. You can find those 2 options from the operation menu when it's status is "In process".
Terminate: execute this operation will cancel this workflow instance forever. The terminated workflow cannot be restarted anymore.
Recall: execute this operation will cancel this workflow instance, however, the submitter can resubmit to trigger this workflow again.
If the workflow instance status is NOT "In process", you cannot see those 2 options, but only the "Delete" option is available.
To terminate a workflow instance. find the instance from workflow instance list, and click the More operations button from Tracking No. column. From the pop-up menu list, click the "Terminate" option.
To recall a workflow instance. find the instance from workflow instance list, and click the More operations button from Tracking No. column. From the pop-up menu list, click the "Recall" option.
After a workflow instance is terminated or recalled, this workflow instance's status will be changed to cancelled.
View detail information of workflow instances
Clicking the tracking No. will open this detail page of each workflow instance.
1. Operation buttons: show the available operations for this workflow instance. The options you see here are the same as you see in the list more settings pop-up menu.
2. The properties of this workflow instance: Besides those properties you've saw in the list page, you can also see other properties depends on the type of this workflow.
Approval workflow: For workflows that were triggered from the approval form, you can see check variables of this workflow instance.
List workflow: For workflows that were triggered from a data list, besides the variables, you can also see the related data list, and the associated data item which this workflow was triggered by, along with the trigger condition.
3. Change the settings of this instance: There are 3 options here which are used to make changes of this workflow instance.
4. Approval history: Display all the workflow task history and the related status.
5. Workflow logs: Show the logs of changes users made for this workflow instance.
6. Variable change logs: Show the change history of the workflow variables. This is helpful for admins to track the changes of each variable.
View and update workflow variables
You can view the latest values of workflow variables by clicking the "View details" hyperlink under "Variables" property.
This will open a pop-up window, which will list all the workflow variables, and their current values. If you want to change the value of any variable, just click the "Edit" button from the end of the variable. This will make the value column become editable.
Click the "save" button to save.
Upgrade or downgrade the version of workflow instances
You can upgrade or downgrade the existing workflow instances from the this workflow instance detail page.
To change the version of a workflow instance, click the "Change to another version" button in the settings area. This will open a pop-up window where you can change the version of the workflow instance.
In the "Change Version" window, you will see the current version of the workflow instance displayed on the left. On the right, you will find a drop-down list of available versions. Select the version you want to change to from this list.
Once you've selected the desired version, click the "Submit" button to implement the change. The workflow instance will now run on the new version.
Re-running this workflow
This function allows system administrators to change the current running step of a workflow instance and trigger the workflow to re-execute based on the changed step. Here's how you can utilize this powerful function.
On the workflow instance detail page, locate the "Re-running this workflow" button. This button triggers the system to allow changes to the current workflow instance.
Once you've clicked the "Re-running this workflow" button, the system will launch the workflow designer page. This page gives you an overview of the workflow structure and allows you to change the current running step.
From here, you can choose the desired workflow action that you wish to change to. Simply click on the workflow action, and it will be selected as the new running step.
After selecting your desired workflow action, confirm the changes by clicking the "OK" button, located at the bottom-left of the page. The workflow will then re-execute from the selected step, thus modifying the flow according to your needs.
The "Re-running this workflow" function offers a level of flexibility that ensures your workflows can be modified and managed with ease, catering to the evolving needs of your business processes.