Signavio Workflow Accelerator User

Guide
Release 3.15

T. Baeyens, P. Giese, P. Hilton, J.-F. Schwarz, C. Wiggert

August 30, 2017

 Contents

1 Introduction 3
1.1 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 When to use Workflow Accelerator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 How it works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.5 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2 License types 5
2.1 Enterprise Cloud Free Trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Enterprise Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3 Academic Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 Tasks 7
3.1 Viewing all tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2 Assigning tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.3 Completing tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.4 Creating case tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.5 Viewing task details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.6 Setting due dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.7 Task filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.8 Viewing your tasks in the Inbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.9 Reopening tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.10 Skipping intermediate timer events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.11 Skipping failed tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.12 Retrying failed tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

4 Cases 15
4.1 Starting an ad-hoc case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.2 Starting a new process case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.3 Browsing cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.4 Viewing case details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.5 Other open activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.6 Configuring case view table columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.7 Commenting on a case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.8 Attaching documents to a case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.9 Closing a case manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.10 Deleting a case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.11 Exporting cases data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

5 Processes 27
5.1 Browsing processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.2 Creating a process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.3 Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

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 5.4 Triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.5 Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.6 Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.7 Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.8 Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.9 Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.10 Process locking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.11 BPMN import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
5.12 BPMN export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
5.13 Copying & deleting processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

6 Analytics (reporting) 47
6.1 Creating a new report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.2 Viewing and exporting results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.3 Selecting cases to include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.4 Excluding cases with filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.5 Grouping and charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.6 Sharing a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.7 Deleting a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

7 Action Types 51
7.1 User task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.2 Multi-user task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
7.3 Send email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
7.4 Create document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.5 Google Drive - Upload file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.6 Google Drive - Print file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
7.7 Google Drive - Add row to sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
7.8 Google Drive - Add calendar event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
7.9 Box Upload file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
7.10 JavaScript action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
7.11 Sub-process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
7.12 DMN Rule Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
7.13 Signavio - Set model state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
7.14 Map variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
7.15 Document template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

8 Forms 79
8.1 Form triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.2 User task forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.3 Viewing form data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.4 Using the form builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
8.5 Configuring form fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

9 Control flow 87
9.1 Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
9.2 Exclusive gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
9.3 Parallel Gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
9.4 Start event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
9.5 End event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
9.6 Intermediate timer event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
9.7 Milestone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

10 Access control 97
10.1 Restricting access to processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
10.2 Restricting access to user tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

11 My profile 101
11.1 Me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

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 11.2 Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
11.3 Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
11.4 Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

12 Organization settings 105

12.1 Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
12.2 Replacements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
12.3 Invitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
12.4 Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
12.5 Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
12.6 Process creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
12.7 Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
12.8 Billing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
12.9 Single Sign-On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
12.10 Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

13 Notifications reference 113

13.1 Case due . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
13.2 Case task due . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
13.3 Task created . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
13.4 Task assigned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
13.5 Mentioned in a comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
13.6 Reminder scheduled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
13.7 Task escalated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
13.8 New user registered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
13.9 Invited to join organisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
13.10 Invitation cancelled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
13.11 Invitation resent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
13.12 Password reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
13.13 Service account access expired . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
13.14 License about to expire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

14 Variables reference 117

14.1 Case variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
14.2 Trigger email variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
14.3 Data types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

15 Search 121

16 Keyboard shortcuts 123

16.1 Process builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
16.2 Case details view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

17 JavaScript integration 125

17.1 JavaScript action configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
17.2 JavaScript libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
17.3 Testing scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
17.4 Using process variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
17.5 Reading file contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
17.6 Updating case information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
17.7 Loading user information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
17.8 Calling an external web service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

18 Custom data connectors 135

18.1 Using a connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
18.2 Implementing a connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
18.3 Data types and formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
18.4 Configuring a connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
18.5 Deleting a connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

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 18.6 Authentication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
18.7 Connector examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

19 Salesforce Integration 147

19.1 Workflow Accelerator configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
19.2 Salesforce configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
19.3 Finish Workflow Accelerator configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

20 Technical notes 151

21 Tutorials 153
21.1 Using an ad hoc case for a document approval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
21.2 Your first document approval process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
21.3 Adding a decision to an approval process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
21.4 More tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

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 Signavio Workflow Accelerator User Guide, Release 3.15

Skip to the Tutorials if you don’t want to read a manual.

Contents 1
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2 Contents
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Signavio Workflow Accelerator is a web-based workflow modelling and execution platform. Although its heritage
includes classical Business Process Management Systems (BPMS), Workflow Accelerator dramatically simplifies
workflow automation.

Examples

Browse the Workflow examples to see different ways to apply workflow automation. You can use workflow
automation for a variety of business processes - both for industry-specific processes, and for central functions
such as human resources.
In the application itself, you can select Examples from the drop-down menu (top-right). On the Examples page,
select Copy to your organization to create a copy of the example that you can edit to see how it works, and adapt
to your own business process.

When to use Workflow Accelerator

You will find Workflow Accelerator useful for describing and collaborating on routine work. Use Workflow
Accelerator for:
• coordinating tasks and handovers
• approvals
• routing documents
• fully-fledged business processes.

Benefits

You’ll get:

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Signavio Workflow Accelerator User Guide, Release 3.15

• control where you need it

• flexibility
• fewer delays (with automatic triggers, actions and timers)
• no more miscommunications during handovers
• traceability - data on who did what
• clarity - visibility of who has to do what
• agility - because you can change Workflow Accelerator process models more easily than custom software.

How it works

A process - strictly a process model - defines a template for repetitive work. The people who manage work
typically create processes and specify the tasks and actions that you must complete to reach a certain goal. For
example: for every Hire employee case, someone must complete the Plan interview, Interview candidate and Send
job offer tasks.
After you publish a process, you can start many individual cases. Workflow Accelerator keeps track of which
tasks and actions you have to perform for each case. Cases bring people together with relevant information that
provides context for completing the tasks. You can also use cases as collaboration spaces for people to discuss
and create new tasks for individual cases on the fly.

Acknowledgements

Signavio uses open source software. We thank everyone involved in the open source community. Please download
the list of open source components that Workflow Accelerator uses (PDF).

4 Chapter 1. Introduction
 CHAPTER 2

License types

To log in to Signavio Workflow Accelerator, your user account must have a user license that has not expired. You
can choose between several license types:
• Enterprise Cloud Free Trial
• Enterprise Cloud
• Academic Cloud
The Feature Overview section on the Workflow Accelerator product page shows the main differences between
these versions. These differences affect:
• the license expiry period - typically one or twelve months
• which software features you can use
• the amount of user file storage
• the support level.
The Billing page in the application shows details of the current license type.

Enterprise Cloud Free Trial

The free trial license lets you try the full version of the software for a limited period without purchasing a license.
To create a trial license, use the registration page (Europe server, US server). When the trial expires, Workflow
Accelerator will send you an email inviting you to purchase licenses.

Enterprise Cloud

A Enterprise Cloud license gives you full access to all features with minimum limitations. To purchase Enterprise
Cloud licenses, contact [email protected].

Academic Cloud

A free Academic Cloud license allows university students to use Workflow Accelerator to learn about workflow
management. You may only use this license if you have a valid university email address. You may only use this
license for educational purposes and not for administrative processes in an educational institution.
To register for an academic license, first register for the free trial. Then use the academic version link at the bottom
of the purchasing page (Europe server, US server) to extend the license period for one year. Alternatively, use the
Student? Click here link at the bottom of the Billing page in the application.

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6 Chapter 2. License types

 CHAPTER 3

Tasks

A task represents work that someone will presumably complete. Cases typically include multiple tasks, usually
those that the process defines. You can also add ad-hoc tasks to a case.
In Signavio Workflow Accelerator, you can assign a task to a specific user, set a due date and add subtasks.

Viewing all tasks

The All tasks view shows tasks for all assignees.

Fig. 3.1: The list of all tasks

Tasks with due dates have a clock indicator to the right of the task name. Signavio Workflow Accelerator shows
this indicator in red when a task’s due date has arrived.
You can use the controls on the right to filter the tasks list, which you will find useful when the workload increases.

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Assigning tasks

You can assign a task to yourself, or someone else, to indicate who you expect to work on the task. The assignee’s
tasks inbox lists assigned tasks, and the assignee receives task notifications and reminders.
You can assign a task from anywhere a task appears in a task list. First, click the assignee button immediately to
the left of the task name, to open the list of candidates.

Fig. 3.2: Assigning a task

To assign the task, select a candidate from the list, or type a name or email address to filter it first.

Completing tasks

Use the highlighted Done button (the square on the green background) to complete a task.
When tasks have a form, the task page displays the form in the same position and includes the button(s) to complete
the task at the bottom of the form. The task page normally only includes a Done button, but will display multiple
buttons when you use a decision. Each of those buttons will register the decision and complete the task in one go.

Creating case tasks

To create tasks, open a case, and use the tasks list to add a new task. Enter the task title in the text box to create
the task.

Fig. 3.3: Type the title of the new task and type Enter

After you have added a task, it appears in the list:

When a process starts, Signavio Workflow Accelerator creates a case and starts all elements that do not have
incoming transitions.

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Viewing task details

Selecting a task opens the task details view, which you can use to edit the task name, assign the task, or set a due
date. Use this view to complete a task’s form, if it has one. You can also add ad hoc subtasks.

Fig. 3.4: Details of a task within a case

Setting due dates

You can set a task’s due date, so that the assignee’s tasks inbox highlights overdue tasks. To set a task’s due date,
open the task, and select the clock icon to open the date selector.
As well as setting the due date manually, in an open case, you can also set a user task’s default due date in the
process editor, on the user task’s reminders tab.

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Fig. 3.5: Setting a task’s due date

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Task filters

The All tasks view includes several kinds of task filters, that you can use to manage a long list of tasks.
• Involvement filter - shows tasks according to how they relate to you, such as tasks you started.
• Process filter - shows tasks for a specific process.
• Due date filter - shows tasks according to their due dates, such as only overdue tasks.
• Completed filter - shows complete tasks, which the task list normally excludes.
• Assignee filter - shows tasks that have a specific assignee, or tasks that have a specific candidate.

Viewing your tasks in the Inbox

The Inbox shows an overview of your assigned tasks: a list of tasks for you to work on. To open the Inbox, select
Tasks from the main menu and select the Inbox tab.

Fig. 3.6: The tasks Inbox

Each task shows the assignee - you for all Inbox tasks - and a link to the task itself.
The left-hand side of the inbox has sections for tasks that have due dates, so you can prioritise your work. The
right-hand side lists tasks that don’t have a due date.

Reopening tasks

When the task page shows a Reopen button, it means that someone completed the task but you can reopen it. You
cannot reopen a task that has a form, because completing the task finalises the form data. You may want to reopen

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a task that you closed a task by accident, or when you learn about additional work that belongs to this task. If you
just forgot to attach a document or make a comment, you can still do that without reopening the task.
Reopening a task instead of creating a new task has the advantage that the existing task retains its context.

Skipping intermediate timer events

When a process includes an Intermediate timer event, case execution waits for the timer to complete before
continuing. Sometimes, you want to continue immediately without waiting for the timer.
You can manually skip a timer, without waiting for its configured delay. The case details view shows open timers
under the Other open activities heading.

Fig. 3.7: A pending intermediate timer event in the other activities list

To skip the intermediate timer event, use the Skip timer button to the right of the timer name.

Skipping failed tasks

During case execution, an automatic task might fail to execute because it has an invalid configuration. A Google
Drive - Upload file task will fail if you don’t configure a Google account, for example. You can manually skip
some kinds of failed task, so that case execution continues.

Fig. 3.8: An option to skip a task that failed to execute

To skip a failed task, use the Skip task button to the right of the task name in the case’s task list.
On the Skip action dialogue that opens, enter a reason to explain the decision for skipping the task. The event
stream will show the reason with the task completion event, so other people will know why you skipped the task.

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Retrying failed tasks

An automatic task might also fail for an external reason that you can resolve. A Google Drive - Upload file task
will fail if the configured Google account doesn’t have permission to write to the selected Google Drive folder,
for example. You can manually retry some failed tasks, after resolving the external issue, so that task completes
successfully and case execution continues.

Fig. 3.9: An option to retry a task that could succeed on the next try

To retry a failed task, use the Retry task button to the right of the task name in the case’s task list.

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 CHAPTER 4

Cases

You can use a case as a small collaboration space for a particular goal. For example, ‘Hire employee’ or ‘Sign
contract’. Cases typically represent more work than a simple task for a single person, but less than a whole project.
A case breaks the goal down into concrete action items (or tasks) so you can collaborate with other people. The
case brings together a set of tasks, a discussion and documents, and allows participants to share any relevant
context information for the tasks.

Starting an ad-hoc case

Signavio Workflow Accelerator supports two types of cases: cases that relate to a process and ad-hoc cases. An
ad-hoc case does not have a predefined process. It creates a collaboration space that you can use to reach a one-off
goal.
To create a new ad-hoc case, navigate to Cases; on the Cases of menu, select Cases without a process, then click
Start new case.

Fig. 4.1: Start a new task

Then the case header appears.

Fig. 4.2: Enter case name

Next, type the case title and hit Enter. Workflow Accelerator now creates the new case.

Starting a new process case

A process case uses the latest version of the workflow defined by a published process. It creates a collaboration
space for working towards a predefined goal.

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Fig. 4.3: New case

You can create a new process case by selecting the Start new case button in one of three places:
1. in the process builder, on the Versions page, next to the latest published version
2. on the Processes page, next to the name of each published process
3. on the cases overview page, for the selected process.
If the process does not define a trigger, then you enter a case name as when Starting an ad-hoc case. Other trigger
types generate their own case names, or use a case name template.

Browsing cases

The Cases view shows an overview of cases for a single process. To open the Cases view, select Cases from the
main menu.
The table shows cases for the Hire employee process. You can use the menu above the table to select a different
process, ad hoc cases that don’t have a process, or cases of a deleted process. Each case in the table show the case
name, grey and green task status bars, and additional columns that show the values of workflow variables.
The grey and green status bars show information about completed and open tasks when you hover the mouse
cursor over them.
These status bars appear to the left of the workflow data columns, which you can customize.
Use the linked case name to open the case’s details page.

Viewing case details

The case details view shows the case name, with case participants’ avatar pictures underneath, and the case’s task
list.

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Fig. 4.4: The Cases view - cases of the ‘Hire employee’ process

Fig. 4.5: Hover over the grey bar to see a case’s completed tasks.

Fig. 4.6: Hover over the open bar to see a case’s open tasks.

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Fig. 4.7: Case details view, showing one task and the event stream

Each case has an event stream that acts as an audit log and includes the information that case participants share
during collaboration, such as comments, documents and links.

Other open activities

The Tasks list shows the case’s open and closed tasks. In most cases, completing the last task will close the case.
However a case must sometimes wait for a sub-process, or some other activity that doesn’t correspond to a task in
the Tasks list.
The case view lists the following types of open activity under the Other open activities heading, underneath the
Tasks list:
• Intermediate timer event - which you can skip manually
• Sub-process
For example, consider a customer invoice process that includes a payment recovery sub-process.
This Invoice customer example shows the following event stream, in chronological order.
1. The case started by sending an invoice by email.
2. The case created a Check payment task.
3. Someone completed the Check payment task, with the result Unpaid.
4. The case sent a payment reminder email to the customer.
5. The case started a Payment recovery sub-process.
At this stage, the case will wait for the Payment recovery sub-process before it creates the next task in the invoice
process. Until then, the Tasks list will continue to only show the completed task, and the Other open activities list
shows a link to the sub-process case.

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Fig. 4.8: The case details view, showing a link to a sub-process under ‘Other open activities’

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Configuring case view table columns

The Cases view’s table includes columns for workflow variables, which usually correspond to form fields on a
trigger form or in a user task. You can select which fields the Cases view shows as table columns, so you can have
a clear overview of the process’ cases.
To customize the table columns, open the Cases view and click the top-right Configure columns button.

Fig. 4.9: Configuring table columns

Use the drag icon on the far left of the list of columns to change the column order, and click the delete icon on the
far right to remove a column. You can also use the text box to edit the column’s heading.
Below the list of columns, you’ll find a menu for selecting additional column to add to the table.

Fig. 4.10: Adding a column to the table

The menu lists all of the workflow variables that the table does not currently include. In this example, the Inter-
viewer variable has the type User, which means that you can access additional fields for the user’s email address,
first name, ID and last name.

Commenting on a case

Working on a case often includes collaboration with other people. You can use the case view to discuss the case
with other people, which results in a discussion in the event stream.
By using case comments instead of email, participants ensure that discussions retain the full context for everyone
involved.
In the event stream, reply to existing comments to keep the discussion structured. Hover over the user avatar to
see the user’s full name:
Hover over the relative time to see the comment’s full time stamp:

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Fig. 4.11: Comments on a case - discussion with context

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To add a comment, type in the text box above the event stream. Everyone who has access to the case can follow
the discussion. Keeping the discussion ‘inside’ the case preserves the context, which makes it easier to follow
than an email conversation.
Sometimes, you want to direct a comment to a specific person. While entering a comment, you can ‘mention’
someone by typing a @ and choosing their name from the list. When you mention someone in a comment,
Workflow Accelerator sends them an email notification to bring them into the discussion.

Fig. 4.12: Mentioning someone in a comment

You can also mention two specific groups, corresponding to people working on the case. Enter @all to mention
all participants in the case. Enter @open to mention the assignees of open tasks within the case.
You can also use Markdown formatting in comments, for things like text styles, headings and lists.

Fig. 4.13: Using Markdown formatting in a case comment

You may find Markdown most useful for adding links to external information that relates to the case.

Attaching documents to a case

As well as commenting on a case, to share information with the case’s participants, you can attach documents. For
example, cases in a job vacancy process might require candidate CVs. Anyone can access the case can download
a case’s documents, which makes them more useful than email attachments.

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Fig. 4.14: A hyperlink in a case comment

To attach a document to a case, select the the Upload a document option next to where you add comments.

Fig. 4.15: A document attached to a case

The case’s event stream shows the document, with its file name and size. Click the icon on the right to open the
document.
If cases regularly require the same document as part of the process, you can make this clearer to people who work
on cases by adding a file upload form field to a user task form.

Closing a case manually

You normally close a case by completing all of its tasks. However, sometimes you want to abandon a case and
stop working on a it. To do this you can manually close a case.
To close a case, select the ellipsis menu at the top-right of the case view, select Close this case, and click again to
confirm.

Deleting a case

You do not normally delete cases in Workflow Accelerator: you close cases that you have finished working on.
However, you sometimes do need to delete cases, such as the test cases that you create while developing the initial
versions of a process model.
To delete a case, open the case and use its right-hand actions menu to select Delete case.

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Fig. 4.16: Closing a case

Exporting cases data

You can export the information about a process’ cases to a CSV file that you can open in a spreadsheet. To export
case data, open the Cases overview, select a process, and then select Export as CSV. You may find this useful for
reporting or auditing, for example.

Fig. 4.17: CSV export options

Use the CSV export options to specify the ordering of exported cases, whether to filter by status (open or closed),
and the output format. Try a different output format option if you have problems loading the exported CSV file
into another application, such as Microsoft Excel. The output format options determine which characters the CSV
output uses to quote and separate characters and lines:
• Standard - conventional CSV format

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• Excel - Microsoft Excel compatibility mode

• Excel (Northern Europe) - better Excel compatibility for some European countries
• Tabs - separate values with tabs instead of commas.
The CSV export uses UTF-8 text encoding. Select UTF-8 when opening the CSV in Microsoft Excel, for example,
to preserve characters such as letters with accents.

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Processes

A process defines a template for automating repetitive work, like a recipe that describes the actions that you
perform to achieve a goal. For example, consider a Hire employee process. Each time an organization hires
someone, the recruitment team has to complete a number of tasks, including ‘Evaluate CV’, ‘Plan interview’ and
‘Interview candidate’. Each time someone starts the process, Workflow Accelerator creates a new case.
Use the process builder to create and configure executable processes. You can think of an executable process as
a kind of software, but you will find it easier to build automation using processes. With Workflow Accelerator,
non-technical people can create useful processes.

Browsing processes

Select Processes in the main menu to browse your organization’s processes. Each process has an icon that indicates
what kind of trigger it has, the process owner’s avatar and the process name. You can also add labels to categorize
processes. If you have published a process, you can use the button to start a new case.

Filtering the processes list

To make it easier to browse a long processes list, you can filter the list so it only includes the processes you want.
You can use a combination of several filters, to limit the list to processes that match the selection.
• Labels - select one or more labels
• Owner - select a user
• Trigger - select a trigger type: Email, Form, Manual, Salesforce or Signavio Approval Workflow
• More Filters - select a publication status: Published or Unpublished
To remove a filter, select it again.

Creating a process

To create a process, select Processes in the main menu, then the Create new process button. In the text input field,
enter a process name.

Choosing a good process name

Use the following guidelines to choose a good process name, to make the list of processes easier to read and talk
about.
1. Describe the process goal.

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2. Use an imperative verb phrase that completes a sentence like For your next job, you have to. . .
3. Use more than one word, to get a descriptive name.
4. Avoid using more than three or four words.
5. Avoid vague words like ‘manage’, ‘do’, ‘process’ or ‘handle’.
Hire employee, for example, summarises a process better than Recruitment.
If you group or annotate process names by adding prefixes or suffixes, consider using Labels instead.

Next steps for a new process

Once you have created a process, continue to build the process model using the following process builder sections.
• Triggers determine how you start new cases for the process
• Actions define the flow for tasks and other steps in the process
• Details include process metadata and access control.

Labels

When several departments in your organization create processes, the processes list becomes full of other people’s
processes. Labels categorize processes so you can filter the list by label.
After creating a process, select Click to add labels to choose one or more labels from a list. The list starts with a
set of default labels that administrators can configure. Select a label’s delete icon to remove it from a process.

Triggers

A trigger in a process specifies how the process starts. Triggers do not have any relation to start events.

Manual trigger

A manual trigger gives you the simplest way to start a process. With a manual trigger, you start processes manually
in Signavio Workflow Accelerator, by selecting Start new case and then selecting the process to start.

Form trigger

With a form trigger, you use a form to start a process. After selecting the form trigger, use the form builder to
specify form fields.
For some processes, such as an HR request from an employee, the person who starts the case doesn’t have access
to view the case. This means that after using a form trigger to start a case, they don’t see the case details view, and
might not know that the case started successfully. For these processes, you can now use the Confirmation Message
template to show a message to the case creator.
In the template, you can use placeholders to insert trigger form field values. If you do not define a confirmation
message, then you won’t see a confirmation page when the case starts.

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Fig. 5.1: Form trigger configuration - using the form builder to define a trigger form

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Fig. 5.2: Form trigger confirmation - shown to the case creator after starting a case

Fig. 5.3: Mail trigger configuration

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Email trigger

An email trigger starts a new case for each email that you send to the trigger’s Workflow Accelerator email address.
Note this differs from reading an existing email account, such as your own. After selecting the email trigger, you
can see its email address:
The email trigger creates a Trigger email variable.
You can use an email trigger by adding the trigger email address to a mailing list, such as [email protected]
‘or ‘[email protected]. You’ll have to ask the administrator of the mailing list to add the process trigger’s email
address to the list. Once you have done this, the process trigger address will also receive any email sent to the
mailing list, starting the process in Workflow Accelerator. You will then see the email in the event stream:

Fig. 5.4: Trigger mail in stream

Salesforce trigger

A Salesforce trigger starts a new case in response to Salesforce sending an outbound message as part of a Sales-
force workflow. Before you can use a Salesforce trigger, configure Salesforce Integration.
When you have configured a Salesforce service, you can select it as a process trigger, so that messages from
Salesforce will now trigger new cases.
In the process definition, you can use the Salesforce object fields from the Salesforce message just like normal
variables.

Actions

Actions represent the steps in a process - things to do. Action include things like user tasks in Workflow Acceler-
ator, operations on a file in a document management system or any other actions that represent work that someone
will perform as part of a process. When starting a process, Workflow Accelerator will ‘execute’ the actions in a

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Fig. 5.5: Example of a Salesforce trigger

process in the proper order. The process control flow determines this ordering, using transitions, gateways and
events.
A process can include different Action Types. A user task will create a task in a case. A ‘Send Email’ action will
send an email. A ‘Google file upload’ action will upload a file to a Google Drive folder.

Fig. 5.6: The Process builder’s actions palette

The BPMN diagram editor shows actions and control flow elements, such as events and gateways. Use the diagram
editor to add sequential flows between actions, decisions and other control flow behaviour.

Adding a transition

You can create a transition in the Advanced flows view. A transition specifies sequential flow, which means the
next action only starts when someone has completed the previous one.
To add a transition, click to select the first action. Several symbols appear to the right of the selected element:

Click the transition symbol and drag it to the destination element. When you drag the symbol over the
destination element, it indicates that you can drop to create the transition:
Release the mouse button over the destination to create the transition.

Creating the next user task

You can easily create the next User Task in a process in the same way you created transitions, above. Start by
selecting the previous action:

Click the rounded rectangle symbol and drag it to an empty place on the canvas.

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Fig. 5.7: Start creating a transition by dragging the transition symbol to the destination

Fig. 5.8: Creating a transition hovering over destination

Fig. 5.9: Start creating the next user task by dragging the action symbol

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Fig. 5.10: Drag the rounded rectangle symbol to an empty place

Drop the symbol where you want to create the next user task. Release the mouse button to create new user task
where you dropped it, with a transition from the previous action.

Fig. 5.11: Adding the next user task and its transition at the same time

Alternatively, just click the user task icon to create a new user task in the default location, with a transition.

Changing the action type

Sometimes, modifying a process means changing an action from one type to another. In the recruitment process,
you might change the action to reject the candidate from a manual task to an automatic email task.
To make this change, first select the action in the process editor to open the configuration panel, then click the
action type icon at the top-left corner of the configuration panel to open the list of action types. Next, select Send
Email from the list to change the action type.

Warning: Changing the action type discards the previous action type’s configuration, such as a user task form
or an email template. If you change the action type back, the editor will not restore the original configuration.

Control flow elements

The diagram also includes control flow elements, such as events and gateways. Unlike actions, control flow
elements don’t represent something that should happen. Instead, you use events and gateways to specify the flow

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Fig. 5.12: Changing a User task to a Send email task.

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between the actions.

Details

In the process builder, select the Details tab to further configure the process.

Fig. 5.13: Configuring process details

On the General tab, configure the following process properties.

• Process owner - shown on the Processes page to indicate who has responsibility for a process model, and
used as the default recipient of some notifications.
• Process description - documents a process, usually by describing the process goal.
• Case name template - the name for new cases of this process, usually containing trigger variables so that
each case has a different name.
Use the Access control tab to restrict access to this process and its cases.
Use the Field overview tab to view and rename this process’ variables.

Versions

When you use the process editor to edit your process model, Workflow Accelerator saves all of your changes
immediately. You can go back and edit the process again later, and it will not have changed. However, to execute
a process by starting a new case you need a published version.

Publishing a process version

The process editor’s Versions tab shows a list of published versions. Until you publish the first version, this page
shows a message that there the process has ‘no published versions’.
You can only start a new case for a process that has a published version, hence the light green button displays
‘Publish to run this process’. After you publish the first version, the list shows version #1 and you can start a new
case using that version.
Version #1 always has the description Initial version. For later versions, you can add your own description.

Adding version comments

After the first published version, you can add a comment to describe the changes when you publish a new version
of a process.

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Fig. 5.14: The process editor’s Versions tab with no published versions

Fig. 5.15: The Versions list after publishing the first version

Fig. 5.16: The Publish changes prompt, where you can add an optional version comment

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You can omit the version comment, but it helps collaboration between team members by making process modelling
more transparent.

Fig. 5.17: Published versions with descriptive version comments

In this example, each version has a short comment that describes the changes.

Writing good version comments

When you write version comments, use the following tips to make them more consistent and useful.
• Make the comment an imperative phrase that starts with a word like ‘Add’ or ‘Fix’.
• Capitalise the first word and don’t include a full-stop at the end, for consistency.
• Describe specifics, instead of vaguely referring to ‘changes’.
• Keep it short; 3-10 words usually suffice.
• Consider making the comment longer to explain why you made this change.
You may find it easier to publish a series of small changes, creating a number of intermediate versions instead of
one big change. Fine-grained versions make the version history more useful.

Variables

Variables contain the workflow data that the process defines. You can use variables in a case name template and
when configuring the output of some action types. For example, you can use variables to repeat workflow data on
a user task form, or include a variable value in an email task subject line or body text.
These variables contain all of the information from forms as well as information required by the process actions.
Each case stores its own values for each workflow variable.
You will usually add a variable to your workflow by adding a form field. You can also create variables in a
JavaScript action, to capture data that the script retrieves or calculates.
In addition to your own workflow variables, Workflow Accelerator automatically creates variables that give you
access to additional data in each case. The Case variable contains data from when Workflow Accelerator creates
the case. An Email trigger adds an Email variable that contains the trigger email.
Variables can have different Data types that determine which kind of data the variable stores, such as text or a
date, and whether the data has a single value or contains multiple fields.

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Fig. 5.18: A trigger form that populates Name and Date of birth variables for use in a workflow

Roles

Creating a role gives a process-specific name to whoever performs one or more process tasks. You can optionally
configure a role with a list of candidates. Roles have the same function as swimlanes in BPMN.
Process roles differ from organizational roles. A process role only lasts for the duration of a case, while organi-
zational roles last longer and relate to the job you perform at the organization. For example, when you have a
meeting, one person sometimes takes the role of chairperson. That person doesn’t have the job title Meeting chair
- they’ve just adopted that role for the duration of the meeting.
A process in Workflow Accelerator can define roles, in the same way that a business meeting ‘process’ has roles
for whoever chairs the meeting (the ‘Chair’) and whoever takes minutes (the ‘Secretary’). The following meeting
process model assigns the tasks on the top row to the Chair and the tasks on the bottom row to the Secretary.

Fig. 5.19: A Meeting process, with tasks for Chair (top row) and Secretary (bottom row) roles

In each meeting (each case in Workflow Accelerator), one person takes the role of chair, and one the role of
secretary. These assignments generally don’t change during a meeting. Similarly, Workflow Accelerator role
assignments don’t change during a case. Workflow Accelerator automatically assigns each new task with a role
assignment to the person who already has the role.
In Workflow Accelerator, a process role works like a workflow variable that you use to assigning tasks. A role
variable has the User type and stores a single user.
These process roles differ from organization roles. For example, you can have the Team lead role in your orga-
nization, an assignment that does not necessarily have an end date. A process role, such as Meeting chair, has a
different scope and only applies for the duration of a single case.

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To assign a role to a user task, open the task’s configuration panel, select the Assignment tab, and use the Assign
using a role menu on the right-hand side.

Fig. 5.20: To assign a role, use the menu to create a new role or select an existing role

You can also use the edit icon next to the role name to rename the role.

Role candidates

You can use a role to assign multiple tasks a person from a group of candidates. For example, you might have a
support process that includes three user tasks that you assign to a support engineer.

Fig. 5.21: Assigning a task to a Support engineer role with candidates Alice and Ben

Instead, assign the three tasks to a new role called ‘Support engineer’, and add the relevant people as candidates
for the role.
Creating the first task that has a role will notify all of the candidates for the role. When one of the candidates takes
the task, Workflow Accelerator will assign the subsequent tasks with the same role to the same person. That helps
this person work more efficiently because they have the context knowledge about that case.
If you reassign a task that has a role assignment, Workflow Accelerator will update the role variable, and assign
all subsequent tasks with the same role to the new assignee.

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Using a form field to assign a role

When you execute a process, you normally assign a specific person to a role by using the assignee button to select
someone. Sometimes, you want this assignment to an explicit part of the process, to make sure the assignment
happens at the right time. For example, you may find it important to assign the Support engineer before completing
an Initial investigation task.
You can do this by adding the role assignment to a form, because you can use task assignment roles as process
variables, just like any other User form field.

Fig. 5.22: Adding the Support engineer role assignment to a form

To add a role assignment to a form, first define the process role, such as the Support engineer role created above,
then on the form, under the Reuse field heading, select the role variable to add it to the form.
Alternatively, you can first define the Support engineer role by adding a field with type User to the Initial investi-
gation task’s form, and then select the Support engineer role on another user task’s General configuration.

Process locking

In the process builder, only one person can edit a process at a time. While someone continues to edit a process,
the Processes list shows a message.

Fig. 5.23: The Processes list message while someone else edits the process

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You can still open the process, but you will see a warning message explaining that you cannot make changes:

Fig. 5.24: Warning that you cannot edit a process at the same time as someone else

You can edit the process and make changes after the other person leaves the process editor, by opening the Tasks
list, for example.

BPMN import

You can import a Workflow Accelerator process model from a BPMN 2.0 XML file. You can use this to import a
model that you created in another tool, or to load a file that you saved using the BPMN export option.
To import a process model, on the Processes page, click the Import BPMN button and select the BPMN XML file.

Fig. 5.25: The Import BPMN button on the Processes page

Workflow Accelerator does not support all BPMN 2.0 elements, so the process may appear differently in Workflow
Accelerator. The following table lists supported BPMN elements, and the corresponding action type.

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Table 5.1: Supported BPMN elements

BPMN element Action type
Business rule task DMN Rule Task
Call activity Sub-process
End event End event
Exclusive gateway Exclusive gateway
Intermediate timer event Intermediate timer event
Manual task User task
Parallel gateway Parallel Gateway
Script task JavaScript integration
Send task (type=email) Send email
Service task (type=changeState) Signavio Process Manager state change
Service task (type=boxFileUpload) Box Upload file
Service task (type=googleAddCalendarEvent) Google Drive - Add calendar event
Service task (type=googleCloudPrint) Google Drive - Print file
Service task (type=googleDriveAddRow) Google Drive - Add row to sheet
Service task (type=googleDriveFileUpload) Google Drive - Upload file
Start event Start event
Sub-process (embedded) Sub-process
Swim lanes Roles
Task User task
User task User task
Workflow Accelerator removes unsupported elements, such as message events.

BPMN export

You can export a Workflow Accelerator process model as a BPMN 2.0 XML file. You may find this useful for
opening the model in another tool that supports BPMN, or to make a backup that you can load using the BPMN
import option.
To export a process model, first open it in the Workflow Accelerator process editor. Select the menu next to the
Publish changes button, then select Export BPMN 2.0 XML.

Fig. 5.26: Using the Export BPMN 2.0 XML option to save a process model in a file

This results in a file download that describes your process model in BPMN format. Workflow Accelerator only
exports one kind of BPMN file, so it doesn’t give you any options to configure.

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Copying & deleting processes

You can create a copy of a process or delete it using the process menu shown in the previous section.
The Create a copy option duplicates the process in the same organisation. You may find it useful to duplicate a
process if you want to experiment with changes without publishing changes to a live process. You may also want
to duplicate a process to model a special case of the process, instead of adding a conditional flow to the standard
process.
The Delete process option permanently deletes a process and all of its cases. You cannot undo this operation, so
you must enter a confirmation. You might want to delete a process that you created by duplicating another process
in order to experiment with changes in the model.
In Workflow Accelerator, you cannot currently delete cases, which you might want to do if you have created test
cases while developing the process. However, you can use Create a copy and Delete process to duplicate a process
and then delete the original. This deletes all of the cases with the original process, and leaves a copy with no cases.

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Analytics (reporting)

When you work in or manage a team, you sometimes have questions about the work in progress or completed
work. For example, management decisions about team resources might depend on what work the team completed
last month and what work remains incomplete. While day-to-day case work focuses on completing one task at a
time, managing a team of case workers demands an aggregated overview of the team’s work.
The Analytics menu makes it possible to create and share reports that provide these overviews. Each report runs
on demand and aggregates a process’ cases in tabular and graphical form in the web user interface.

Creating a new report

To create a new report, select Analytics in the menu, and then Create new report. Enter a name for your report
that describes the data, such as First quarter sales. The finish setting up a basic report, use the list labelled Select
a process to choose one of your organization’s published reports.
When you create a report and select a process, the report shows a table of all of the process’ cases. This report
now appears in the list of reports that you see when you select Analytics. By default, only you can see the report
in the list.

Viewing and exporting results

The report page’s table shows cases, with one case per row. The table header indicates the number of cases
included in the report. Select Configure columns to choose which columns the table includes. This works the
same way as Configuring case view table columns.
If you have special presentation requirements, you may want to use the same data to produce your own report using
different software. To do this, you can download the same data as a CSV file that you can open in spreadsheet
software.

Selecting cases to include

For most reports, you won’t want to include all of a process’ cases. After all, the Cases view already shows an
overview of all cases. Instead, you can restrict which cases the report includes, by status or by the values of the
process’ Variables.
In this example, the Evaluate training course process collects ratings for training courses. To create a report that
uses these evaluations, select closed cases, which correspond to completed evaluations.

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Fig. 6.1: Selecting a process and whether to include open or closed cases

Excluding cases with filters

Filtering by status lets you create separate reports for completed work, such as a monthly productivity report, and
outstanding work. To filter cases by status, use the first pick-list to select between all cases, open cases and closed
cases.
To filter cases by variables’ values, first select Add a filter condition. This adds a field condition, which works the
same way as an Automatic decision condition. Select a field, such as Case / End date, a condition, such as is after,
and a value, such as the last day of the previous month.

Fig. 6.2: Using a filter to exclude evaluations for courses other than Time management

You can add multiple conditions to further restrict which cases the report includes. A monthly case report would
have two conditions for the Case / End date field, using the is after and is before conditions to define a date range.

Grouping and charts

As well as listing cases in a table, you can also group cases by one of the process variables, so that cases with the
same value appear together in the table. Grouping cases can also add a visualisation to the report.
To show a pie chart of the different values for a variable, such as the course evaluation ratings, select the Rating
variable from the Group by list. Then select the Count of Case values to count the evaluations with each distinct
rating value.
Reports can also calculate average values for a numeric field, as well as counting cases. To show a bar chart of
the average rating for each course, group by the Course (title) and show the Average of Rating values.
As well as Average, you can also show the Minimum or Maximum for each rating.

Sharing a report

You can share a report so that other people in your organisation can run the report, without the ability to edit the
report’s configuration.
To share a report, select the Share with others option in the menu, under the report title. On the dialogue box that
opens, select people from the list.

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Fig. 6.3: Grouping evaluations by rating, and counting the number of evaluations with rating 3, 4 or 5

Fig. 6.4: Grouping evaluations by course title, and calculating each course’s averge rating

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Deleting a report

To delete a report, select the Delete report option from the top-right menu, under the report title.

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Action Types

The process builder displays actions as rounded rectangles. Actions typically have a configuration panel that
opens when you select the action.

User task

Fig. 7.1: A user task in the process editor

A user task indicates that someone will perform a task. In the configuration form, you can specify the following
optional details.
• General - assign a task to a user or a process role.
• Form - add a form to a task; submit the form to complete the task.
• Reminders - task deadline notifications.
• Escalations - automatic task reassignment.
• Access Rights - task permissions for users and groups.

General

Use the General tab to specify the task’s default assignee or candidates. You can select either individual users or
organisation groups as candidates.
You an also specify a role for the task’s assignment, like a BPMN swim lane, so that Signavio Workflow Acceler-
ator automatically assigns related tasks to the same person.

Task name template

You can use task name templates to create dynamic task names from variables. Enter the task name template on
the user task’s configuration panel’s General tab. In the text field, type a # to select a variable.
Use task name templates to avoid a Tasks view that fills up with identically-named tasks.

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Fig. 7.2: Configuring user task assignment in the process editor

Fig. 7.3: Using a task name template to configure dynamic task names

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Form

Use the form builder to create a user task form for entering and updating data as part of the user task.

Reminders

Use the user task’s Reminders configuration panel tab to set up task deadline notifications. If you configure a Due
date or Reminder period, then Workflow Accelerator will send email when the deadline expires.

Fig. 7.4: Configuring user task reminders in the process editor

The three settings work as follows.

• Due date specifies an automatic task due date relative to the task’s creation date, which results in a Case
task due notification, and changes how the task appears in the Inbox
• Reminder works separately from the due date and only sends a reminder notification, which you can use to
remind task assignees and candidates earlier than the task deadline
• Continue reminding further configures the Reminder by repeating the reminder notification up to 25 times
Workflow Accelerator sends these notifications to the task’s assignee if the task has an assignee, or to all of the
task’s candidates if the task it not assigned. If the task remains unassigned and does not have any candidates,
Workflow Accelerator sends the notification to the process’ owner.

Escalations

You can also use the Reminders configuration panel tab to configure escalations. Use escalations to automatically
reassign a user task when a deadline expires.
1. On the Reminders configuration panel, select Escalations.
2. In the After field, set a period to wait after the task creation date, at which point Workflow Accelerator will
automatically reassign the task.
3. In the Escalate to field, select a user or candidate group to escalate to, who will receive a task escalation
notification.
Sometimes, you don’t know who will take over a task that has passed its escalation deadline, so you choose one
person in the process model. Instead, you can escalate task assignment to multiple people, or select a group.

Access Rights

Use the Access Rights tab to set permissions for viewing, assigning and completing the task. See Restricting
access to user tasks for details.

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Fig. 7.5: Configuring user task escalation in the process editor

Multi-user task

New in version 3.28.

Fig. 7.6: A multi-user task in the process editor

A multi-user task indicates that a group of people will each perform the same User task. You can use this to model
multiple approvals, where several people in a group must approve a proposal.
In the configuration panel, you can set the same configuration as for a user task, plus the following additional
configuration.
• General - assign tasks to users and groups
• Results - specify how form fields map to lists of values

General

Use the General tab to specify the users to create tasks for. The multi-user task creates a task for each user or
group member.
You can also specify parallel or sequential Execution type. If you select Parallel, the multi-user task will create all
of the tasks at the same time, for their assignees to complete in any order. If you select Sequential, the multi-user
task will create one task at a time, and wait for its assignee to complete it before creating another.

Results

Use the Results tab to map each form field to a list of values. This list collects the values entered by the people
who complete the tasks that this multi-user task generates.
In this example, the multi-user task’s form includes a single Yes/No checkbox field with the label Approved. The
mapping to Approvals creates a variable with the same type as the Approved form field, but which allows multiple
values. Completing the tasks that the multi-user task generated adds the Approved values (Yes or No) to the
Approvals list.

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Fig. 7.7: User and group configuration for a multi-user task

Fig. 7.8: Form field result mapping for a multi-user task

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To use the results of a multiple approval, use a JavaScript action to implement whatever logic consolidates the list
of results in the list into a single decision.

Manual decision (Exclusive gateway)

The multi-user task supports manual decisions. If an exclusive gateway follows a multi-user task, you can con-
figure the buttons that reflect the possible decisions to this gateway. The buttons are displayed in the form of the
multi-user task.

Fig. 7.9: Configuring decision options for a multi-user task

Select the decision type ‘Manual’ for the exclusive gateway. Then choose the decision option from the drop-down
menu:
• All users have chosen this option
• At least one user has chosen this option

Send email

Fig. 7.10: A send email task in the process editor

The send email action sends an email to the specified user. In the configuration you can specify the following.
Sender name By default, Workflow Accelerator sends the email with the From field set to Workflow Accelerator.
You can set this field to set the From field to your company or department name.
To The people who Workflow Accelerator sends the email to. You can enter one or more plain email addresses,
or select email variables or users in the organization. Note that if you enter a plain email address, you must
then select it from the pick list.

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Reply to Workflow Accelerator sends emails from the address [email protected] (Europe
server), respectively [email protected] (US server) , which you cannot reply to. If
you set this field to an alternative email address, you override the address for replies to the email.
Subject The email subject line. To use variables in the subject, type a # and select a field from the list. If the
list contains too many variables, you can just keep typing after the # to filter the list. You can use the arrow
keys to move the section, and Enter to select a field. To remove a variable, just delete it the same way you
delete normal text.
Attachments To add attachments, click the Attachments field and select a file field from the list. The list includes
trigger email attachments and file upload form fields.
Body text You can use variables in the main email body by typing a #, just like in the Subject. You can use
Markdown to format the email body by formatting text or including hyperlinks, headings or lists. Select the
Preview tab to see how Workflow Accelerator will format your email.

Create document

Fig. 7.11: A create document action in the process editor

The Create document action allows you to create a file that contains case information.
When you use the Send email action or Upload file to save information from a case, you use a file variable for
email attachments or the file to save. You normally provide these files via a form. You can also use the Create
document action to create a new file using data from other variables.
Consider a shipping process whose trigger form includes details of a ‘recipient’ to ship a product to and a shipping
address. This process can use a Create document action to prepare a shipping label for printing:
Select a Create document action in the process editor to configure the following options.
Document name Defines the name of the file variable that will store the created document.
File name Defines the document’s filename. Type # to include placeholders for variables.
File format Choose between Microsoft Word, plain text, and comma-separated values (CSV) file types.
Body text Use the text area to enter a template for the new document. Type # to include placeholders for variables,
as you would in a Send email action’s template.
Note that the Create document action does not currently support formatting text.

Google Drive - Upload file

The Google Drive Upload file action sends one or more files to an account of your choice.

Configuration

After creating a Google Drive Upload file action, the configuration panel shows a button to start configuring the
account.

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Fig. 7.12: Configuring a create document action in the process editor

Fig. 7.13: A Google Drive Upload file task in the process editor

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When you click on the button Configure a Google Drive account, a pop-up window will appear that helps you
integrate Workflow Accelerator with your Google Drive account.
Google will check that you have already logged in to Google. This check has three possible outcomes:
1. If you have already authenticated with a single user to Google, the set-up process skips the log in page and
you go straight to the permission screen below.
2. If you haven’t authenticated with Google, you will see a log in window:
3. If you have authenticated with multiple Google accounts, select the account you want to use.
After you have completed authentication, you’ll see the following page that allows you to give Workflow Accel-
erator access to your Google account.
After accepting the permissions, the pop up will disappear and Workflow Accelerator will have completed con-
necting to your account.

Upload file action

Once you have configured your Google Drive account, the Upload file action configuration panel displays the
account and also shows the folders in My Drive in your Google Drive account.
Other people in your organization can see that you have configured an account, but they cannot see your email
address or browse your account folders.
In the Target folder section you can now browse and select the folder you want to upload the file(s) to.
Next to Folder name template, you can optionally specify a subfolder name to create inside the target folder. This
name template can include process variables, so you can create new subfolders dynamically to organise your files.
For example, if your process variables include a unique customer ID, then you can use that to save each customer’s
files in a separate folder. Use a forward slash (/) to separate nested subfolder levels.
Next to Files to upload, you can select the variable field containing one or more files to upload. If the process
did not already include a file variable, Workflow Accelerator automatically creates a variable called ‘File’. If the
process variables did include a file or list of files, Workflow Accelerator preselects it.

Google Drive - Print file

The Google Drive Print File action uses Google Cloud Print to print a file that a case participant has uploaded to
a case.

Configuration

After creating a Google Drive Print file action, the configuration panel shows a button to start configuring the
account. This configuration has the same steps as in the Upload file configuration (above).
When you have authenticated with a Google account and granted permission, you can configure the Print file
action.

Print file action

Once you have configured your Google Drive account, the Print file action configuration panel displays the ac-
count, the printer settings, and the selected file to print.
In the section Files to upload you can select the file variable that holds the file you want to print.

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Fig. 7.14: Google Drive login

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Fig. 7.15: Google Drive permission grant

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Fig. 7.16: Google Drive Upload file authenticated configuration

Fig. 7.17: A Google Drive Print file task in the process editor

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Fig. 7.18: Google Drive Print file authenticated configuration

Fig. 7.19: A Google Drive Add row to sheet task in the process editor

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Google Drive - Add row to sheet

The Google Drive Add row to sheet action adds a row to a Google Sheets spreadsheet. You can use this to save
the values of process variables at process milestones, and build a custom overview of cases.

Configuration

After creating a Google Drive Add row to sheet action, the configuration panel shows a button to start configuring
the account. This configuration has the same steps as in the Upload file configuration (above).
When you have authenticated with a Google account and granted permission, you can configure the Add row to
sheet action.

Add row to sheet action

Once you have configured your Google Drive account, the Add row to sheet action configuration panel displays
the account, the spreadsheet, the worksheet within the spreadsheet, and the worksheet columns.
Each column name, such as Customer name in this example, comes from a column heading in the spreadsheet.
For each column, select one of the variables from the list.

Google Drive - Add calendar event

The Google Drive Add calendar event action adds an event to a Google Calendar. You can use this to schedule
meetings or time to work on a task, based on the values of process variables.

Configuration

After creating a Google Drive Add calendar event action, the configuration panel shows a button to start configur-
ing the account. This configuration has the same steps as in the Upload file configuration (above).
When you have authenticated with a Google account and granted permission, you can configure the Add calendar
event action.

Add calendar event action

Once you have configured your Google Drive account, the Add calendar event action configuration panel shows
the calendar event fields.
In the configuration you can specify the following.
Calendar The calendar within the selected Google account.
Event summary (optional) A text variable to use as the name of the new calendar event. If you don’t select a
text variable, the event will have a blank name.
Start date A date variable for the event’s start date and time.
End date A date variable for the event’s end date and time.
Attendees (optional) Email address variables for people to invite to the calendar event.

Box Upload file

The Box Upload file action saves one or more files to a Box account that you select.

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Fig. 7.20: Google Drive Add row to sheet authenticated configuration

Fig. 7.21: A Google Drive Add calendar event task in the process editor

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Fig. 7.22: Google Drive Add calendar event authenticated configuration

Fig. 7.23: A box upload file task in the process editor

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Configuration

After creating a Box Upload file action, the configuration panel shows a button to start configuring the account.
When you click the Configure a Box account button, a pop-up window will open for you to authorise Workflow
Accelerator to use your Box account. After logging in to your Box account, if you have not already logged in,
Box shows an authorization page.

Fig. 7.24: Box permission grant, after logging in to Box

After granting access, the pop up will close and Workflow Accelerator will have connected to your Box account.

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Upload file action

Once you have configured your Box account, the Upload file action configuration panel displays the account and
also shows the folders in All Files in your Box account.

Fig. 7.25: Box authenticated configuration

Other people in your organization can see that you have configured an account, but they cannot see your email
address or browse your account folders.
On the configuration panel, next to Target folder, you can now browse and select the folder you want to upload
the file(s) to.
Next to Folder name template, you can optionally specify a subfolder name to create inside the target folder. This
name template can include process variables, so you can create new subfolders dynamically to organise your files.
For example, if your process variables include a unique customer ID, then you can use that to save each customer’s
files in a separate folder. Use a forward slash (/) to separate nested subfolder levels.
Next to Files to upload, you can select the variable field containing one or more files to upload. If the process

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did not already include a file variable, Workflow Accelerator automatically creates a variable called ‘File’. If the
process variables did include a file or list of files, Workflow Accelerator preselects it.

JavaScript action

The JavaScript action, called a Script Task in BPMN, allows developers to add JavaScript code to process execu-
tion.

Fig. 7.26: A JavaScript action in the process editor

See JavaScript integration for a developer guide to using JavaScript actions.

Sub-process

Fig. 7.27: A sub-process in the process editor

A sub-process action represents an entire process as a single task. You can use sub-processes to simplify complex
process models, by collapsing each sub-process into a single action. Then you can open the sub-process to see the
next level of detail. You can also use a sub-process to delegate responsibility for the process model to a different
process owner.
When Workflow Accelerator creates a sub-process, it starts a new case in the selected sub-process. After complet-
ing the sub-process case, Workflow Accelerator continues executing the parent case.
Configure the sub-process action in the process builder by selecting it, and choosing a process from the list. You
cannot select the same process as the parent process, which would cause a loop, or an unpublished process.
If you select a sub-process with a trigger form, you can also select ‘input variables’ that Workflow Accelerator
will use to auto-fill the trigger form fields when starting the sub-process case. In the example above, Workflow
Accelerator will populate the sub-process’ Unpaid invoice trigger form field with the file stored in the parent
process’ Invoice variable.
If you want to capture the result of running a sub-process, you can use the Outputs tab to add ‘outputs’. Adding
an output creates a variable that gets its value from a field in the sub-process when the sub-process completes.
In this example, the Recover late payment process has an Amount recovered variable. You can capture the value
of this variable when the sub-process completes and use it later, in the parent process’ Check amount recovered
task.

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Fig. 7.28: Configuring a sub-process and mapping an Invoice variable to a trigger form field

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Fig. 7.29: Adding an output variable that gets its value from a sub-process field

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DMN Rule Task

Fig. 7.30: A DMN Rule task in the Workflow Accelerator process builder

DMN Rule Tasks execute Decision Model & Notation (DMN) business rules as part of a process. You can use
rule tasks to embed complex business logic in a workflow, without adding complexity to the process model.

Note: To use DMN Rule Tasks, you need to have access to Signavio Process Manager.

Adding a DMN Rule Task to a process model requires the following steps.
1. Use Signavio Process Manager to create a DMN model.
2. Use Signavio Process Manager to create a BPMN process model.
3. In Signavio Process Manager, link a rule task to the DMN model.
4. In Signavio Explorer, transfer the BPMN model to Workflow Accelerator.
5. Use Workflow Accelerator to configure the rule task’s inputs and outputs.
A simple price calculation example illustrates how to use DMN with Workflow Accelerator. Suppose you have
a price quotation process that involves and order line price calculation, and that the price depends on a discount
based on the number of items. Model this calculation in Signavio Process Manager by creating the following
Calculate price model.

Fig. 7.31: A DMN model in Signavio Process Manager

This decision model has two numeric inputs, Unit price and Number of units. The Discount rule uses the Number
of units to calculate a discount. The model has one output, Total price, which it calculates from the two inputs and
the discount.

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Next, model the price quotation process in Signavio Process Manager, by creating the following model. Link the
Calculate price rule task to the Calculate price DMN model that you created earlier.

Fig. 7.32: A BPMN process model, with a Calculate price rule task, in Signavio Process Manager

This process model starts with a Calculate price rule task, which calculates a total price, followed by a user task
to check the result and an send task to send the quotation. Now save the model, so you can transfer it to Workflow
Accelerator.
Next, select the BPMN model in the Signavio Explorer, and on the Workflow Accelerator menu, select Execute
in Workflow Accelerator. On the dialogue box that opens, select Transfer, followed by Open the workflow in
Workflow Accelerator.
In Workflow Accelerator, you now need to edit the process to make it ready for execution. In the process builder,
select Trigger and add a trigger form. On the trigger form, add two Number fields and name them Unit price and
Number of units.
Select Actions and then select the Calculate price rule task to open its configuration panel. The Inputs shows the
DMN model’s two inputs. For each input, select the process variable of the same name, that you added to the
trigger form.
Select the Outputs tab to configure the output variable the rule task creates. The output variable has the default
name Total price from the DMN model.
You can now use the calculated Total price variable else where in the process. Add the existing Total price field
as a read-only field to the Check total price user task. Finally, add the Total price field to the Send quotation email
task’s template, to send the quotation.

Signavio - Set model state

When you use Signavio Process Manager for process modelling, you can use Workflow Accelerator to manage
process diagram approvals. Signavio Process Manager triggers these process diagram approval workflows, which
run in Workflow Accelerator and in turn update the process model in Signavio Process Manager.

Note: To use the Set model state task, you need to have access to Signavio Process Manager. This task only
works in a process that has the Signavio approval trigger.

The Set model state action automatically updates the ‘diagram state’ in Signavio Process Manager, e.g. to mark
the diagram as approved or in progress. You typically use this as part of a process that performs a management
approval that marks the diagram as accepted or rejected.
A process diagram approval workflow that uses Set model state actions
Select a Set model state action to configure which process Model state the Set model state action will set.
Configuring a Set model state action to set a Signavio Process Manager diagram’s status
Signavio Process Manager defines these Model state options. See Managing approval workflows for instructions
on how to set this up.

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Fig. 7.33: Configuring a rule task’s inputs in Workflow Accelerator

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Fig. 7.34: Configuring a rule task’s outputs in Workflow Accelerator

Fig. 7.35: A Set model state action in the Workflow Accelerator process builder

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Map variables

Fig. 7.36: A Map variables task in the process editor

The Map variables action copies the value of one variable to another. You can use this to set the value of a process
variable automatically, instead of manually using a form.
In some processes, the person who started the case should participate in the process by adopting one of the process’
roles. Consider an application process, where the person who starts the case must then complete a task to provide
additional information.
In this example, the Provide additional information action assigns the task using an Applicant role. When the
applicant starts a case, the Map variables task automatically sets this role to the value of the Case creator. This
automatically assigns the Provide additional information task, and any other tasks that use the same role, to the
person who started the case.

Document template

New in version 3.32.

If you are modelling a workflow, there is often the need to collect the information input entered by users of the
workflow tasks. Workflow Accelerator can add these data dynamically to a Microsoft Word document, which is
then used as a basis for a later audit, for example for further decisions. Because data are collected in a Word file,
the content can be modified subsequently. To do this, add the action type ‘Document template’ in your workflow.
With this action, a task is assigned to users including the request to specify the necessary information in a custom

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Fig. 7.37: Configuring a Map variables task in the process editor

task form. Workflow Accelerator applies the information that is retrieved from this task form to the uploaded
template.
Suppose your company has set up a workflow for contracts or quotations, in which several roles define the relevant
document data in different Workflow Accelerator tasks. The contract or quotation is created based on a standard
template, so that required data from the workflow are assigned accordingly in an output form. At the end of the
process, the output document containing all relevant information is made available to a sales person, who has then
the ability to make any personal additions before the contract or quotation will be sent to the customer.

Content controls

A prerequisite for the implementation of this feature is that the applied template is a Microsoft Word document
that contains the required content controls. You will find a detailed description on how to implement content
controls in a Word document here: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Create-forms-that-users-complete-or-
print-in-Word-040c5cc1-e309-445b-94ac-542f732c8c8b

Hint: Please note that currently only text and plain text are supported as types of content controls.

Content controls, which have been created in the document template, each represent a form field. To map and
display form fields correctly in Workflow Accelerator, it is mandatory to specify a title to each content control.
The title is set as a property of the control.

Hint: Rich text fields don’t support line breaks. If you need fields that support line breaks, use plain text fields
and activate the check-box ‘Allow carriage returns (multiple paragraphs)’.

Select a Document template action in the process editor to configure the following options.
Document template Upload the template. This action creates a new file from a document template.
Inputs tab Specify the desired data and link either with static values or existing fields of the workflow.

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Fig. 7.38: Configuring a Document template action in the process editor.

Outputs tab Select the output value “Document” and enter the desired name.

Fig. 7.39: Each field in the subprocess can be used in this process once you added it as an output.

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Forms

In Signavio Workflow Accelerator, you can use forms to enter information when you run a process. You can use
forms in two places: form triggers and user tasks.

Form triggers

You use a form trigger to set the values of workflow variables when you start a new case for a process.

Fig. 8.1: Starting a new case with a form trigger

This form has a description (Enter personal details) and two fields. The icon next to the Name field label indicates
that the field has an additional description.
To add a form trigger to a process, use the process builder’s Triggers page to select When a form is submitted.

User task forms

You use a user task form to view and edit the values of workflow variables.
To add a user task form to a process, use the process builder’s Actions page to add a user task, and on the user
task’s configuration panel, select the Form tab.

Viewing form data

When you enter data in a form, it appears on the case view’s event stream:
You can use the forms link at the top of event stream to only show form data.

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Fig. 8.2: Viewing and editing values on a user task form

Fig. 8.3: Form data in a case event stream

Using the form builder

To create a form in the process editor, for a form trigger or user task, you use the form builder.
Use the Description text area to provide initial instructions to people who complete the form. You can use Mark-
down to format the description, which makes it convenient to link to additional information, for example.
The Add a field second contains a field types palette. Click one of the field types to add a field of that type to the
form.
The Reuse a field section lists variables that the process has already defined on other forms, such as a trigger form:

Adding an existing field to a form makes it possible to view or update existing information, such as a user task
form that you use to complete information the person who started the case did not enter on the trigger form.

Configuring form fields

The Fields section shows the fields you add to a form:

Select a field in the Fields section to open its configuration panel. The top row of the field configuration panel
shows the field type label, the editable field name.
To delete a field, click the delete button in the top-right corner, and click the confirmation tick mark button to
confirm:
You can also configure the following properties.
• Description - an optional field description, shown via context-sensitive help icon

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Fig. 8.4: The process editor’s form builder for a new empty form

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Fig. 8.5: Adding an existing workflow variable to a form

Fig. 8.6: Configuring a form field in the process editor’s form builder

Fig. 8.7: Deleting a form field

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• Initial value - an optional default value that pre-populates the form field
• Read-only - specifies that you cannot edit the value, used to display previously-entered information
• Mandatory - specifies that you must enter a field value, so that you cannot complete the form without a
value for this field
• Allow entering multiple values - specifies that the field has a list of values that you add and remove inde-
pendently
Text fields also have an additional Multi-line option that configures Workflow Accelerator to display the form field
as a multi-line text input area, for longer text values.
When you enable the Allow entering multiple values option, the field appears differently on forms. Entering a
value adds it to the list. Use the × icon to remove a value.

Fig. 8.8: Entering multiple field values in two text fields

Choice fields have a Options - the list of values to choose between:

Date fields have a Date/time option for choosing between a date and time, just a date without a time of day, or just
a time:
User fields also have a Candidates option that you can use to choose which users you can assign:

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Fig. 8.9: Choice field configuration

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Fig. 8.10: Date field configuration

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Fig. 8.11: User field configuration

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Control flow

You use transitions, gateways and events to specify the processing order of the actions in a process.

Transition

The process builder displays a transition an arrow from a source element to a destination element. The transition
specifies that the workflow engine only ‘executes’ the destination element after completing the source element.
BPMN calls a transition a ‘sequence flow’.

Exclusive gateway

Fig. 9.1: An exclusive gateway in the process editor

Use an exclusive gateway to make a choice between multiple execution paths. The exclusive gateway selects
one of the outgoing transitions, and only continues execution on that transition. You can configure an exclusive
gateway with a manual decision or an automatic decision.

Manual decision

Use a manual decision for an exclusive gateway when a person must make a decision. A user task must precede
the gateway; this task includes making the decision. The user interface presents the decision to the user as buttons
on the user task form.
Suppose you have a user task called ‘Review contract’, an exclusive gateway and the two user tasks ‘Print contract’
and ‘Update contract’:
Select the exclusive gateway. Its type defaults to manual decision. After creating the elements and connecting
them, as above, you have configured the exclusive gateway:
In order to use the decision you need to name the buttons which will represent the decision. For each button, the
label on the right indicates the next action in the process, which Signavio Workflow Accelerator will perform when
someone clicks the button. In this example, when the user clicks the decision button Print contract, Workflow
Accelerator executes the Print contract task, but not the Update contract task.
You can easily change the text on the buttons, and order they appear in. For example, change them to Approve and
Reject, and drag the Approve button configuration to the top so that Approve appears first on the form:
After starting a new case for this process, the Review contract task will have decision buttons:

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Fig. 9.2: An exclusive gateway must have at least one incoming and two outgoing transitions

Fig. 9.3: Default manual decision configuration

Fig. 9.4: Customized decision buttons

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Fig. 9.5: Task decision buttons

When the task before the exclusive gateway - Review contract in this example - has a form, the form includes the
decision buttons.

Manual decision variable

Adding a manual decision to a process also creates a workflow variable. You can use this to re-use the result of a
decision later in the process, either to display the entered value on another form, or to use the value in an automatic
decision’s condition.
During workflow execution, selecting a decision sets the variable’s value to the selected decision - the text on the
decision button. In this example, the decision variable has the value ‘Approve’ or ‘Reject’.

Fig. 9.6: Decision variable values - ‘Approve’ or ‘Reject’

The variable has the name ‘Decision’, by default, or the name of the gateway if it has one. You can change the
variable name on the process editor’s Details tab, in the Field overview.

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Automatic decision

An exclusive gateway that selects an outgoing transition based on conditions that you choose models an automatic
decision. For each transition, you can formulate a condition using workflow data. The workflow engine evaluates
transition conditions in order, from top to bottom. The workflow engine will take the transition with the first
condition that evaluates to true, using the current case’s field values.

Fig. 9.7: Automatic decision condition editor

To specify a condition, start by selecting a field and a comparison operator. Enter either a static value in the input

field on the right, or click the button to select another field.

A condition can include multiple field value comparisons. To add more sub-conditions, click the button at the
bottom of the list. You can also use the select field at the top to specify that either all conditions in the list must
evaluate to true, or that at least one of them must evaluate to true.
If you do not completely specify a sub-condition, evaluating the whole condition will fail and the workflow engine

will not follow the transition. The symbol indicates an incomplete sub-condition, while the symbol
indicates a valid sub-condition. Click either of these symbols to remove the sub-condition from the list.

Default transition

An automatic decision usually has a default transition. You use a default transition as a fallback mechanism: if
none of the conditions evaluate to true, the workflow engine follows the default transition.

Fig. 9.8: The default transition

To make a transition the default, select the ‘per default’ item in the selection field at the top.

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Parallel Gateway

Fig. 9.9: A parallel gateway in the process editor

Use parallel gateways to model tasks that people will complete at the same time as each other, or one at a time but
not in a particular order. To do this, you fork and join the sequence flow.

Forking

With a parallel gateway, you can fork execution into multiple, concurrent flows. When process execution arrives in
a parallel gateway, the workflow engine creates a new individual execution flow for each of the gateway’s outgoing
transitions. Let’s look at the following purchase order example:

Fig. 9.10: A parallel gateway example

In this example, completing the Enter purchase order user task activates the parallel gateway. The parallel gateway
will create two individual paths of execution. One will take the transition to Receive payment and create that user
task. Meanwhile, the other will create the Send goods user task.
You can have as many outgoing transitions as you want. The workflow engine will create all destination tasks for
those transitions at once.

Joining

You also use a parallel gateway to join concurrent paths back together. In this case, the joining parallel gateway
has more then one incoming transition. Workflow execution will wait at the gateway until as many execution

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flows arrive as it has incoming transitions. When the last concurrent flow arrives, the joining parallel gateway will
activate and the workflow engine will create one execution flow on the outgoing transition.
To continue the previous example, extend the purchase order process to look:

Fig. 9.11: A parallel gateway example with join

In this example, Archive purchase order will only start after people complete both the Receive payment and Send
goods tasks.

Default forking

By default, the workflow engine interprets multiple outgoing transitions from an action as parallel tasks. This
means that if you have multiple transitions from a user task, the workflow engine will create concurrent tasks for
all of the transitions’ destination actions. Let’s look at a simple example.

Fig. 9.12: Default forking

After Send goods completes, the workflow engine will create the tasks Receive payment and Send goods immedi-
ately.

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You can combine default forking with a parallel gateway for joining.

Default merging

When multiple transitions lead to a user task, the workflow engine will start the user task once for each execution
flow that arrives. This means that the workflow engine does not perform implicit joining for parallel flows.

Parallel gateway issues

You will end up with problems if you loop back over parallel gateways. To avoid situations:

Fig. 9.13: Undesirable loopback

and this:

Fig. 9.14: Undesirable loopback

To avoid these issues, think of all actions between forking and joining as a self-contained part of the process, such
that no transitions should cross that scope.

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Start event

Fig. 9.15: A start event in the process editor

A start event marks the start of a process. All process elements that do not have incoming transitions act as start
elements. Start events don’t have a direct connection to triggers. You can usually leave out start events if you want
to create more concise diagrams.

End event

Fig. 9.16: An end event in the process editor

Like start events, you can also omit end events. End events mark the end of an execution flow:

Fig. 9.17: End event

Equivalently:

Intermediate timer event

An intermediate timer event indicates that process execution waits for a timer. You can use this to prevent Work-
flow Accelerator creating the next task in a process until it becomes relevant.
Configure how long the timer waits by selecting the timer in the process editor. In an open case, you can skip a
timer manually.

Milestone

A milestone is an intermediate event which allows you to mark an important event or a turning point within a
process. By setting milestones, process owners obtain an overview of the workflow progress.
You can set a milestone either by using the intermediate event or via a script task.
Script task sample:

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Fig. 9.18: No end event

Fig. 9.19: An intermediate timer event in the process editor

Fig. 9.20: Using an intermediate timer event to model an evaluation period

Fig. 9.21: A milestone in the process editor

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_case.milestone = 'Document archived'

When using the intermediate event, you can reuse any variables from the workflow to create the milestone text by
typing #.
To show the current milestone, add the field ‘Case/Milestone’ as a column in the case list.

Fig. 9.22: Milestone overview

Note: Please keep in mind that only the latest milestone is displayed.

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Access control

You can use access control in Signavio Workflow Accelerator to restrict who can access a process, or specific tasks
within a process. Processes and tasks default to public accessibility, which means that all users in the organization
have access. When you configure access controls, you restrict access to specific users or groups.

Restricting access to processes

When you make a process private, you can grant six different permissions to users and groups.
1. Edit process - make changes to a process and publish new versions
2. Start process - start new cases for the process
3. View process - see the process in the list of processes
4. Edit cases - work on the process’ cases, by editing or completing tasks
5. View cases - see the cases for the process
6. Create reports - create reports of the process.
You can use these access controls in several ways, to restrict how people work on processes. For example, use the
permission:
• Edit process, granted to a group, to restrict process editing to experienced process modellers
• View process, granted only to your own user, to hide incomplete or draft processes from other people while
you create a first version
• Start process, granted only to your own user, so that people with View process and Edit process permission
can collaborate on process modelling but cannot start cases until you publish it
• Edit cases, assigned to one group but not another, to allow the first group to work on cases, while the second
group has visibility of work on cases that they cannot themselves collaborate on.
• View cases, assigned to a group, to restrict access to cases that contain sensitive information,
• Create reports, granted to a business user group to allow them to analyse process metrics.
To apply process restrictions, open a process and select Details.
On the Process details page, the Options tab has an Access rights section.
Click the Make this process private button to configure access control.
You can now use the checkboxes to grant permissions to users and groups. Use the text box to search for additional
users and groups, to add them to the table, so you can then grant access to them.
Click the Make this process public to remove all access restrictions on the process.

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Fig. 10.1: Process details - access rights

Fig. 10.2: Configuring process access control

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Restricting access to user tasks

In the same way that you can restrict access to a whole process, you can also restrict access to individual user tasks
in the process.
When you make a user task private, you can grant two different permissions to users and groups.
1. View task - review the task and participate in discussion by adding comments
2. Edit task - change the task’s title, assignment and due date, and create subtasks.
Suppose you have a process that includes an approval, where someone from a Managers group must approve or
reject a request from someone in the Employees group. You need to use the Edit task permission to restrict access
to the approval user task, so that only managers can provide the approval.
To apply user task restrictions, open a process and select the user task. In the user task configuration panel, select
the Access Rights tab. Click the Define specific access button to configure access control.

Fig. 10.3: Configuring user task access control

You can now use the text box to search for users and groups, and use the checkboxes to grant permissions.

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My profile

On the top-right drop-down menu, select My Profile to view and edit your own Signavio Workflow Accelerator
user settings. The profile page has four sections:
• Me
• Preferences
• Organizations
• Services

Me

Use the Me section to update your user profile, including contact details and avatar image, or change your pass-
word.

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Preferences

Use the Preferences section to configure the Workflow Accelerator user interface and notifications.

Uncheck the checkboxes to disable all email notifications.

Organizations

The Organizations section lists organizations that you belong to, and indicates whether you have the organization
administrator role.

You can use the leave icon to leave an organisation. When you leave an organisation, Workflow Accelerator will:
• remove you from the organisation’s groups
• remove you from process models (process owner, access controls, action candidates)
• unassign you from tasks in the organisation’s processes
• remove your participation in cases of the organisation’s processes
• free up one of the organisation’s Workflow Accelerator licenses.

Services

The Services section shows your personal configurations for third-party services, such as a linked Google Account.

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Organization settings

In Signavio Workflow Accelerator, your organization represents a collection of Workflow Accelerator users -
typically a company - together with all their data in Workflow Accelerator. People outside your organization
cannot see your organization’s data. After you log into Workflow Accelerator, you see all the data inside one
particular organization. If you belong to multiple organizations, you can switch between organizations by selecting
a different organization under your name in the top right corner.
Use the Organization settings page to set-up users and groups, manage invitations, and configure external services
such as Salesforce Integration.
At the top of the page, in the masthead, you can edit the organization name.

Users

The users list shows users who belong to your organization. You can expand each user’s entry to see their email
address, license type, and membership type - indicating whether the user has the administrator role.

Administrators can promote other users to administrator: on an expanded user panel, click the Promote to admin-
istrator button.

Replacements

Administrators can also delete users, using the delete button next to the user name.

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If you want to delete a user account, for example, because the user is leaving your organization, unfinished tasks
to this account may still exist. In this case, specify a replacement who will take over open task assignments. The
substitute will then have exactly all access rights to complete open tasks and cases, but not automatically inherits
group memberships of the deleted user. Please also be aware that the assignment for closed tasks is not changed
for audit reasons.
The substitute takes over
• in workflows: owner, assignments, candidates, default values for form fields, transition conditions,
JavaScript test values, access rights
• in reports: owner, access rights
• in open tasks: assignments, candidates, access rights
• in cases: access rights

Hint: Please note that deleted users are removed from all groups he was a member of and no replacement is set.

Whenever you delete a user, a dialogue where you can define a replacement appears.
Deleted users with task assignments and without replacement set, are listed as Former users and administrators
are weekly reminded to specify a substitute.

Invitations

The invitations list shows who you have invited to use Workflow Accelerator.
To invite someone to use Workflow Accelerator, select the license they will use, enter their email address in the
text field and click the Invite button. They will receive an email with a link to the registration page, where they
can create a Workflow Accelerator user that will become a member of the organization.

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Groups

The groups list shows the organization’s user groups. You can use these groups to define candidates for tasks in
the process builder.

To create a new group, in the text field below the group list, enter a group name and click the Create button.

Click a group’s name to expand its list of members, so you can edit the name and add or remove members,

Preferences

The Preferences include additional options that apply to the whole organization.

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Time zone affects how Workflow Accelerator displays times.

Email signature replaces the default Workflow Accelerator team signature at the bottom of notification emails.

Process creation

New in version 3.34.

You can activate the Process creation option to restrict the right to create processes to a specific user group.
Only users of this group can
• create new processes,
• copy processes,
• import processes.
Users who are not member of the defined group, but have editing rights for specific processes are still able to
modify these processes.

Note: The transfer of processes between Process Manager and Workflow Accelerator is not affected by this
restriction. Any modeller can transfer a process from Process Manager to Workflow Accelerator.

Services

Use the Services tab to configure integration with cloud services for members of the organization to use. See
Salesforce Integration.

Billing

Use the Billing tab to manage your organization’s licenses for Workflow Accelerator. This page shows:

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• the number of remaining user licenses - how many more people you can add to the organization
• the license expiry date, after which you must renew your licenses to continue using Workflow Accelerator.
The left-hand sidebar summarises your current license type. Click the Upgrade your license button to upgrade to
another license type.

Single Sign-On

Single sign-on (SSO) makes it possible to access Workflow Accelerator using an existing corporate user account,
so you do not have to log in to Workflow Accelerator separately. To request SSO for your organization, send a
request using the Send feedback option in the application, including your SAML 2.0 Identity Provider Metadata.
Workflow Accelerator currently only supports the G Suite (formerly Google Apps) SSO provider.
Workflow Accelerator supports Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 2.0 Identity Provider-initiated SSO
using the HTTP POST binding. Please contact us if you want to use a SAML 2.0 Identity Provider other than
those listed above.

Labels

Most organizations soon have enough processes to make it inconvenient to browse the processes list. To keep your
processes tidy, you can define and use labels, to categorize processes by department, status or however you like.
Use the Labels tab to define labels for your organization. You start with a set of default labels, but you can
customize the list.
To add a new label, enter a name in the text input field and select Create. Select a label or its edit icon to change
its name or color. To delete a label, select the delete icon on the far right.

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Fig. 12.1: Configuring labels - used to categorize processes

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 CHAPTER 13

Notifications reference

Signavio Workflow Accelerator sends a variety of email notifications, to keep process participants up-to-date with
cases they work on and to avoid task handover delays, when someone assigns a task.
To avoid unnecessary notifications, Workflow Accelerator waits a short time before sending notifications and omits
notifications that have become obsolete.

Case due

This notification indicates that a case has reached its due date.
Workflow Accelerator sends this notification to the case’s process owner.

Case task due

This notification indicates that a case has reached its due date and has open tasks.
Workflow Accelerator sends this notification to the assignees of open tasks in the case.

Task created

This notification indicates that the process has created a new task within a case.
Workflow Accelerator sends this notification to the task’s default assignee, if the task has one. Workflow Ac-
celerator also sends this notification to each of the task candidates, or every member of each candidate group, if
defined.
Workflow Accelerator does not send this notification if you disable Receive notifications via email in Preferences.

Task assigned

This notification indicates that someone has assigned an existing task within a case.
Workflow Accelerator sends this notification to the task’s new assignee.
Workflow Accelerator does not send this notification if you disable Receive notifications via email in Preferences.

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Mentioned in a comment

This notification indicates that a comment on a case has mentioned someone.

Workflow Accelerator sends this notification to each user mentioned in the comment.
Workflow Accelerator does not send this notification if you disable Receive notifications via email in Preferences.

Reminder scheduled

This notification reminds case participants that a task remains open.

Workflow Accelerator sends this notification to the task’s assignee when someone assigns the task, or to all of
the task’s candidates if the task does not have an assignee. If the task does not have an assignee or candidates,
Workflow Accelerator sends the notification to the process’ owner.

Task escalated

This notification indicates that an open task has reached its escalation deadline.
Workflow Accelerator sends this notification to the task’s new assignee, as configured in the user task, or every
member of each candidate group, if defined.
Workflow Accelerator always sends this notification, even if recipients have disabled Receive notifications via
email.

New user registered

Workflow Accelerator sends a registration notification when someone registers a Workflow Accelerator trial ac-
count.
Workflow Accelerator sends this notification to the email address entered on the registration form.

Invited to join organisation

This notification indicates that an organisation administrator has invited someone to join an organisation. Work-
flow Accelerator also sends a reminder for this notification when an administrator selects the option to resend the
invitation.
Workflow Accelerator sends this notification to the person the administrator invited, who may or may not already
have a Workflow Accelerator account.

Invitation cancelled

This notification informs someone that an organisation administrator has cancelled an open invitation to join an
organisation.
Workflow Accelerator sends this notification to the person the administrator invited.

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Invitation resent

This notification reminds someone that organisation administrator has invited them to join an organisation. Work-
flow Accelerator support staff trigger this notification manually.
Workflow Accelerator sends this notification to the person the administrator invited.

Password reset

Workflow Accelerator sends a password reset notification when someone uses the Reset your password option.
Workflow Accelerator sends this notification to the email address entered on the password reset form.

Service account access expired

This notification indicates that access to an external service, such as Google Drive, has expired.
Workflow Accelerator sends this notification to the Workflow Accelerator user who configured their external
service account.

License about to expire

This notification indicates that a Workflow Accelerator license will soon expire.
Workflow Accelerator sends this notification to the administrators of the the Workflow Accelerator organisation
whose license will expire.

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 CHAPTER 14

Variables reference

See Variables for an introduction.

Case variable

The Case variable contains the data that starting a case creates. This variable has several fields. You cannot change
most of this data, except for the case name and due date.
An email has a composite type, with the following properties.
Property JavaScript Type Description
Case ID id ID Unique identifier
Name name Text Entered or generated editable name
Case number caseNumber Number Sequential case number
Creator creatorId User User who created the case
Start date createTime Date Date and time the Creator started the case
Due date dueDate Date Optional editable due date
Priority priority Text Case priority - values ’0’ (high) to ’3’ (low)
Case link link Text URL of the case page in Signavio Workflow Accelerator
Cycle time duration Duration The duration the case has been open
Milestone milestone Text The last milestone the case has passed

Case ID

The case variable’s ID uniquely identifies this case among cases for all processes.

Name

The Name field stores the name that either the Creator entered manually, or that Workflow Accelerator generated.
Case participants can edit this name. You might use the case name variable in a Send email action configuration,
to send emails that clearly identify their context by prefixing the subject line with the case name.
You can update the case name in a JavaScript action by assigning a value to _case.name.

Case number

The Number field stores a sequential case number. Each process uses a separate case number sequence for its
cases. In a Handle customer order process, you could use the case number as a generated order reference, for
example.

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Creator

The Creator field records the Workflow Accelerator user who started the case. The User type includes name and
email address fields, so you can use the case creator to configure a Send email action that automatically notifies
the requestor of an approval process’ result.

Start date

The Start date records when the Creator started the case. In an order process, for example, you could use this as
the order date.

Due date

The Due date field stores the due date that case participants can set on the case view. Unlike the other case
variables, the due date does not always have a value.
You can update the case due date in a JavaScript action by assigning a value to _case.dueDate.

Case link

The Link field stores the URL of the case page in Workflow Accelerator. You can include this link in the body
of email you send using a Send email action, so that the recipient can immediately open the case in Workflow
Accelerator. Workflow Accelerator includes this link its own built-in email notifications.

Trigger email variable

The Trigger email variable contains the email that started the case, for processes that have an Email trigger. You
can use this variable to use information from the email that started the case during the process, and to send email
to the sender.
This variable has the fields that the Email type defines. You cannot change their values.

Data types

Variables store workflow information. Each variable has a user-defined name and a type. A type can represent a
single value, like text or an email address. ‘Composite’ types such as user, file or email consist of several values.
Composite types have a list of fields, each with its own (possibly composite) type. The table of fields includes the
JavaScript name that you use to access a field in JavaScript code.
When using expressions or configuring some action, you refer to workflow data. This can use references to
variables, or to fields inside composite variables. The user interface guides you and shows the options you have.

Choice

The Choice type stores a text value from a fixed list of configured options.

Date

The Date type stores a date, or a date and a time of day.

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Duration

The Duration type stores the length of a period of time, such as 2 weeks. In the user interface, you can select from
different time units. In JavaScript actions, Duration values store a number of seconds.

Email

The email type stores an email, which the email trigger uses. A variable stores the email that triggers the process.
You can use the email’s data fields, such as from address or the attachments, later in the process.
An email has a composite type, with the follow properties.
Property JavaScript Type Description
ID id ID The unique identifier for this email
From from Email address The sender email address
From name fromName Text The sender’s display name (optional)
To to List of Email The email addresses of the recipients
address
Reply to replyTo Email address The email address to send replies to (optional)
CC cc List of Email Email addresses that receive a copy of the message
address (optional)
Subject subject Text The subject of the email (optional)
Body text bodyText Text The plain text message (optional)
Body bodyHtml Text The HTML code for an HTML email (optional)
HTML
Attach- attachmentIds List of File The files to attach to the email (optional)
ments

Email address

The email address type stores an email address.

File

The file type stores a reference to a file. JavaScript actions can use an API for reading file contents.
Property JavaScript Type Description
ID id ID The unique identifier for this email
Content type contentType Text The file’s media type
File name name Text The file’s name
Owner ownerId User The user who uploaded the file

ID

An ID has special kind of string type. Workflow Accelerator creates these IDs to identify objects; they have no
other meaning. An ID string looks like 53fae958036471cea136ea83.

Link

The Link type stores an Internet address (URL), such as a web site address.

List

A list simply represents a collection of values. The list has an order and all elements have a single specified type.

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Money

The Money type stores a currency amount for a particular currency.

Number

The Number type stores a number.

Object types

Objects have a composite type, with a list of named fields. For example: a user has an object type, with fields such
as firstName, lastName, mailAddress.

Text

The Text type stores plain text.

User

A variable of type user refers to a user in your organization. A user has an object type, with the following
properties.
Property JavaScript Type Description
ID id ID The unique identifier for this user
Email address emailAddress Email address The user’s email address
First name firstName Text The user’s first name
Last name lastName Text The user’s last name

Yes/No Checkbox

The Yes/No Checkbox type stores a single value that represents either Yes or No.

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 CHAPTER 15

Search

The search function in Workflow Accelerator helps you find specific tasks, cases, processes and reports. Search
terms are searched in names and description of the respective category. With the exception of the search for cases:
here, only the name is taken into account.
How to search in Workflow Accelerator:
• Wildcards are not supported.
• With search terms in quotation marks, you can search for a coherent string.
• Exclude search terms by a - (minus) before the search term.
• Upper/lower case is not taken into account.
• You must enter at least three characters for the search term.
You can open the search page via the search option in the main menu bar.

Fig. 15.1: Main menu search icon

Enter a search term.

Fig. 15.2: Search page input field

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The search results show a list with the first ten entries per category. If you do not find the required search result
in the list, you need to refine your search by adding or excluding keywords, for example. Hover an entry to show
details on the right.

Fig. 15.3: Search results with one entry highlighted.

Note: The case icon next to the case name indicates the case status - open or closed.

Select the case name to open the case.

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 CHAPTER 16

Keyboard shortcuts

In some parts of the software, you can use the keyboard as well as the mouse for specific operations.

Process builder

arrow keys Move the selected diagram element

Delete Delete the selected diagram element

Case details view

R Refresh case

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 CHAPTER 17

JavaScript integration

You can integrate with external systems by writing JavaScript code in a JavaScript action. Signavio Workflow
Accelerator runs the code on the server, using Node.js. As well as Node.js’ JavaScript API, scripts can use
additional libraries.

JavaScript action configuration

After creating or selecting a JavaScript action, the configuration panel looks like this:
The top section of the panel contains the JavaScript text editor. By default, it already contains
console.log(’Hello World!’);. Use the console API for log output when testing scripts.

JavaScript libraries

JavaScript actions support a number of popular JavaScript libraries. To import a package, use the require
function:
var moment = require('moment');

You can also choose another name for the imported library:
var stringValidator = require('validator');

Table 17.1: Supported JavaScript libraries

Li- Import Description
brary
CSV csv CSV generation, parsing, transformation and serialization
Files files Built-in API for File variable data
Lo- lodash Convenience functions for working with collections and values
dash
mo- moment Parse, validate, manipulate, and display dates; with Twix date range, and
ment moment-business-days support
request request Simplified HTTP request client
Users users Built-in API for User variable data
valida- validator String validation and sanitization
tor
The JavaScript action always imports the _ (Lodash) and request packages, for backwards compatibility.

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Fig. 17.1: JavaScript configuration panel

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Testing scripts

Use the Test Runner tab to test the script. Click Start new test to execute the JavaScript code. The test runner
displays the results underneath:

Fig. 17.2: JavaScript test output

At the top, you see the test execution date and time. After running multiple tests, you can use this menu to select
earlier test runs. The Variable updates section shows a table of process variables, with their test values and any
updates. The Logs section shows console output and any errors.

Using process variables

Next, we’ll show how to work with data. Suppose that the process includes a form that has each type of field and
looks like this:
On the JavaScript configuration panel, the Add existing variable pick list now shows the form field variables.
Select the variables you want to access in the script. The script can access the variables using the JavaScript
variable name from the Variables table. To access object variables’ fields, use the field names specified for the
corresponding data type: Case, Email, File or User.
In this example (below), you have selected all variables. For each variable that you select, you get an input field
to specify a test value. Here you see all fields with a test value.
Clicking Start new test again to see the JSON structure of the variable data for the different variable types.
The contract and salesRepresentative variables have complex types, File and User, so the table only shows an ID.
The Updated value column shows the result of assigning new values to these variables in the script.

Note: You can use JavaScript actions to update process variables. Then, you need to make sure you re-assign

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Fig. 17.3: Form fields that declare process variables

Fig. 17.4: Process variable selection

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Fig. 17.5: JavaScript test values

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Fig. 17.6: JavaScript JSON values

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a new value to the variable instead of mutating the variable itself. Otherwise, the system will ignore the up-
date. For example, the system ignores contactEmails.push(’[email protected]’), but cor-
rectly processes contactEmails = [].concat([], ’[email protected]’). This restriction
doesn’t apply to variables you only use in the context of the JavaScript action.

Reading file contents

A JavaScript action may need to read the contents of a file, in order to publish the file to an external web service.
To access file content, you need to require the files API.
const files = require('files')
const fileContent = files.getContent(contract)

In this example, contract is a file variable that references the file contents that the script reads.
The getContent function returns a Node.js File object, whose buffer property provides access to the file
content bytes. The following example loads a CSV file, converts the content bytes to a UTF-8 string, and parses
the string:
const files = require('files')
const csv = require('csv')

// Read the reportCsv file variable

const csvFile = files.getContent(reportCsv.id)

csv.parse(csvFile.buffer.toString('utf-8'), {
auto_parse: true,
columns: true,
}, (error, data) => {
console.log(data)
})

Updating case information

The process variables always include the built-in Case variable, which contains information about the current case.
Sometimes, you want to update this case information using data from process variables. You can update some of
the this case variable’s fields, as follows.
// Set the case name using a template.
_case.name = `Case ${_case.caseNumber}`;

// Set the case’s due date using a date variable set on a form.
_case.dueDate = releaseDate;

// Set the case’s priority, using text values '0' (high) to '3' (low)
// priorities defines constant values high, medium, normal, and low
const priorities = require('priorities')
_case.priority = priorities.low

A case name template can only use Form trigger fields to set the case name when the process starts. However,
when you can set the case name directly in a JavaScript action, you don’t have this restriction.

Loading user information

In a JavaScript action, you might need to select a Workflow Accelerator user based on external data, to assign a
role. To do this, you can use the built-in users API to find a user by their email address.

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const users = require('users');

reviewer = users.findByEmail(reviewerEmailAddress);

This example uses the value of a previously-supplied reviewerEmailAddress Email address variable to set
a reviewer User variable.

Calling an external web service

You can use variables to send process data to an external web service, using the request module. For example,
the following script sends the value of the startDate variable in an HTTP POST request to an external web
service.

This example uses a test endpoint configured using Mocky to return an HTTP response. This has the following
result in the Workflow Accelerator test console:

Fig. 17.7: Updating a variable via an external web service

The two log statements, starting with HTTP 200, show the HTTP response from the web service. The response
body (as set-up in Mocky) contains JSON data that includes an updated value for the startDate variable,

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changing the date from 2017-08-01 to 2017-08-02.

The script then parses this JSON response using JSON.parse and updates the startDate variable in Work-
flow Accelerator, as shown in the Updated value column in the test console’s variables table.

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 CHAPTER 18

Custom data connectors

When you define a process in Signavio Workflow Accelerator, you often include your own data in the process
definition, such as the list of options for a form field. This works well for small lists that don’t change often or that
belong to the process, such as a list of document statuses in a document approval process. However, fixed lists in
the process definition become difficult to maintain when the data changes frequently or includes a large number
of items, such as a list of products or customers.
With Workflow Accelerator, you can also integrate dynamic structured data from other IT systems into your
workflows. The workflow system fetches data from a third-party system using a connector, which a customer or a
partner implements and hosts.
A connector provides a web service that translates between the external system and Workflow Accelerator. The
connector implements a defined interface, which Workflow Accelerator uses to access data in a format it can
use. Workflow Accelerator and the connector communicate over HTTP or HTTPS, which makes it possible to
implement connectors in any programming language.

Using a connector

A connector can provide data to User task form fields. For example, you can create a connector that provides a
list of customers, which adds a Customer type in the form builder:

Fig. 18.1: A Customer connector type in the form builder, at the bottom of the list of field types

A connector reference field:

• makes it possible to select from a dynamic list of records
• supports auto-complete so you can work with a large number of records
• can include structured data for each record.

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Implementing a connector

To implement a connector, you publish three different kinds of resource.

1. Connector descriptor - defines one or more record types, each of which defines a list of fields.
2. Record type options - a list of records for each record type the connector defines.
3. Record type option (single option) - a single record from the Record type options list.
4. Record details (optional) - all fields for one record from the list of records.
Workflow Accelerator accesses the connector on the web, via the public Internet, or via a private intranet for an
on-premise installation. Workflow Accelerator calls the connector’s URL the endpoint URL.
For example, consider a connector that accesses a fictional customer database, that you publish at the endpoint
URL https://example.org/connector. In this example, each customer record has the following fields.

Table 18.1: Example - customer record fields

Property Description
id Unique identifier
fullName Full name
email Email address
subscriptionType Type of subscription - bronze, silver or gold
discount Default customer discount
since Registration date
A complete example customer record, formatted as JSON, would then look like this:
{
"id" : "7g8h9i",
"fullName" : "Charlie Chester",
"email" : "[email protected]",
"subscriptionType" : "silver",
"discount" : 15,
"since" : "2012-02-14T09:20:00.000Z"
}

This example now includes enough information to implement a complete connector.

Connector descriptor

A connector needs a descriptor to provide basic information, such as its name and description, as well as detailed
information about the structure of the data the connector provides. When you implement a connector, you must
make the descriptor available as the following HTTP resource.
URL / - the connector’s endpoint URL
Request methods GET - fetches the connector descriptor
Response content type application/json
Response body A JSON object with the following fields.

Table 18.2: Connector descriptor properties

Property Description
key Unique alphanumeric key (characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9) that identifies the connector
name The connector name shown in the user interface
description Detailed connector description
typeDescriptors List of one or more descriptors for record types
version The connector version, which should increase if the provided data structure changes
protocolVersion The connector protocol version, currently 1.

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For example, the JSON response body for a connector descriptor without any type descriptors would look like
this:
{
"key" : "customers",
"name" : "Customers",
"description" : "A database with all customers.",
"typeDescriptors" : [ ],
"version" : 1,
"protocolVersion" : 1
}

In our example, you would retrieve the connector descriptor by sending the HTTP request GET
https://example.org/connector/. A record type descriptor describes the format of the data the
connector provides, such as the format of a customer record. In the JSON response, the typeDescriptors
property’s value contains an array of record type descriptor JSON objects.

Table 18.3: Record type descriptor properties

Property Description
key Unique alphanumeric key (characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9) that identifies the record type within the
connector descriptor, used in Record type options and Record details URLs
name The type name shown in the form builder user interface
fields An array of record field descriptors
Boolean value - true indicates that the connector provides a list of record options, used to
optionsAvailable
provide a list in the user interface for user selection
Boolean value - true indicates that Workflow Accelerator can fetch single records by the
fetchOneAvailable
ID used in the options list
For example, the JSON object for a customer record type descriptor, without any fields, would look like this:
{
"key" : "customer",
"name" : "Customer",
"fields" : [ ],
"optionsAvailable" : true,
"fetchOneAvailable" : true
}

A record field descriptor specifies one field of a record type. A record type has a complex structure that includes
one or more fields, such as a customer’s full name. Each field has a key, a name and a data type.

Table 18.4: Record field descriptor properties

Property Description
key Unique alphanumeric key (characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9) that identifies the field type within the record
type
name The field name shown in the user interface
type A JSON object that describes field’s data type - see Data types and formats

Hint: Every record type automatically includes an id field with type text, so you don’t have to define it
explicitly.

An example for the fullName of our customer record type looks like this
{
"key" : "fullName",
"name" : "Name",
"type" : {
"name" : "text"
}
}

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A complete example of our connector descriptor would look like this:

{
"key" : "customers",
"name" : "Customers",
"description" : "A database with all customers.",
"typeDescriptors" : [ {
"key" : "customer",
"name" : "Customer",
"fields" : [ {
"key" : "fullName",
"name" : "Name",
"type" : {
"name" : "text"
}
}, {
"key" : "email",
"name" : "Email",
"type" : {
"name" : "emailAddress"
}
}, {
"key" : "subscriptionType",
"name" : "Type of the subscription",
"type" : {
"name" : "choice",
"options" : [
{
"id" : "bronze",
"name" : "Bronze"
}, {
"id" : "silver",
"name" : "Silver"
}, {
"id" : "gold",
"name" : "Gold"
}
]
}
}, {
"key" : "discount",
"name" : "Discount",
"type" : {
"name" : "number"
}
}, {
"key" : "since",
"name" : "Registration date",
"type" : {
"name" : "date",
"kind" : "datetime"
}
} ],
"optionsAvailable" : true,
"fetchOneAvailable" : true
} ],
"version" : 1,
"protocolVersion" : 1
}

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Record type options

When you use a record type on a form, you will see a form field where you can enter a search query and select
one of the options shown. Each result represents a record provided by the connector. In order to show a selection
of different records to the user, a connector can provide a list of options for a record type.
To make a list of options available to forms, in the Connector descriptor, set the optionsAvailable flag to
true. The connector must also make the options available as the following HTTP resource.
URL (relative to the endpoint URL) /:type/options - with path parameter :type (a record type key)
Query string (optional) filter=:query - added when the user enters a search; :query encodes the search
string
Request methods GET - fetches the list of record type options
Response content type application/json
Response body An array of JSON objects, which should have a limited maximum length. Each object in the
array must have the following fields.

Table 18.5: Record type options object properties

Prop- Description
erty
id Unique string record ID
name The text label shown in the user interface, which could aggregate multiple record fields like
fullName (email)
For example, a list of customer options, with URL https://example.org/connector/customer/options,
would look like this:
[ {
"id" : "1a2b3c",
"name" : "Alice Allgood"
}, {
"id" : "4d5e6f",
"name" : "Ben Brown"
}, {
"id" : "7g8h9i",
"name" : "Charlie Chester"
} ]

Record type option (single option)

After someone selects an option, the case user interface may later display the selected option in other contexts.
Connectors that set the optionsAvailable flag to true must also make it possible to look up a single option
by its ID, in order to display the option name.
URL (relative to the endpoint URL) /:type/options/:id - with path parameters :type (a record type
key) and :id (the option ID)
Request methods GET - fetches a single record type option
Response content type application/json
Response body A single JSON object, with the same fields as the objects in the Record type options response.
For example, a single customer option, with URL https://example.org/connector/customer/options/1a2b3c,
would look like this:
{
"id" : "1a2b3c",
"name" : "Alice Allgood"
}

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Record details

When you use a connector form field to select a record, you can use the record’s data in the workflow. Workflow
Accelerator only stores the record’s ID as a reference, and fetches the entire record when needed, when accessing
the nested data.
To make a record’s fields available, in the Connector descriptor, set the fetchOneAvailable flag to true.
The connector must also make the records available as the following HTTP resource.
URL (relative to the endpoint URL) /:type/:id - with path parameters :type - a record type key, and :id
- a record ID
Request methods GET - fetches details for a single record
Response content type application/json
Response body A JSON object containing all fields of the record with the requested ID.
For example, a customer record, with URL https://example.org/connector/customer/7g8h9i,
would look like this:
{
"id" : "7g8h9i",
"fullName" : "Charlie Chester",
"email" : "[email protected]",
"subscriptionType" : "silver",
"discount" : 15,
"since" : "2012-02-14T09:20:00.000Z"
}

Selecting this customer record from the customer options list would give the workflow access to all of this cus-
tomer’s fields.

Data types and formats

A data type defines which kind of value and format a field in a record can have. A type descriptor represents a
data type as a JSON object, whose name property contains the data type name.
Data types may use additional properties for type-specific configuration. Furthermore, the expected format of a
record value depends on the data type.

Choice type

A choice type represents a value from a fixed list of configured options.

Property Values
name choice
options A JSON array of choice option objects, each with id and name properties
The id property stores a unique alphanumeric key (characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9) that identifies the option within the
choice type; no two options may have the same id. The user interface shows the name property’s value to the
user.
The data type JSON object for a choice type with three options looks like this:
"type" : {
"name" : "choice",
"options" : [
{
"id" : "b",
"name" : "Bronze"
},

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{
"id" : "s",
"name" : "Silver"
},
{
"id" : "g",
"name" : "Gold"
}
]
}

A field value stores the id property’s value:

"value" : "g"

Date type

A date represents either a date and time (such as 2012-02-14 09:20), just a date (2012-02-14), or just a time
(09:20).
Property Values
name date
kind date, time, datetime; specifies whether the value describes a date, a time of day or both
(required)
"type" : {
"name" : "date",
"kind" : "datetime"
}

Date values must always use the YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.SSSZ ISO 8601 date format and the UTC time
zone. For example:
"value" : "2012-02-14T09:20:00.000Z"

All date types use this format - datetime, date and time. For date and time values, execution only uses
the first and last parts of the values, respectively.

Email address type

An email address type represents an email address.

"type" : {
"name" : "emailAddress"
}

An email address value stores a plain string:

"value" : "[email protected]"

Link type

A link type represents an Internet address (a URL), such as a web site address.
"type" : {
"name" : "link"
}

A link value stores a plain string:

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"value" : "http://www.example.org/"

Money type

A money type represents the combination of an amount and a currency.

"type" : {
"name" : "money"
}

A money value stores a JSON object with the fields amount and currency. The amount property stores a
number. The currency property stores an ISO 4217 currency code.
"value" : {
"amount" : 12.40
"currency" : "EUR"
}

Number type

A number type represents either an integer or decimal number.

"type" : {
"name" : "number"
}

A number value stores a plain number, using a single . as decimal separator.

{
"integerValue" : 42,
"decimalValue" : 42.42
}

Text type

A text type represents a string - either a single line of text or multiple lines. Optionally, to indicate that text may
contain multiple lines, add the flag multiLine to the data type.
Property Values
name text
multiLine (optional) if set to true the text field will allow multiple lines of input
"type" : {
"name" : "text"
}

"type" : {
"name" : "text",
"multiLine" : true
}

A text value stores a plain string:

"value" : "Example"

Yes/No Checkbox type

A yes/no checkbox type represents a choice between the values ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

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"type" : {
"name" : "boolean"
}

A yes/no checkbox value stores a Boolean value - true or false.

"value" : true

Configuring a connector

To configure connectors, on the top-right menu, select Services & Connectors, then select the Connectors tab.
When you have published your connector, you can add it here.
Select Add new connector and enter the connector’s endpoint URL.

Fig. 18.2: Adding a new connector with the endpoint URL https://example.org/connector

When you add a connector, Workflow Accelerator fetches the connector descriptor and shows a summary:
If you make changes to your connector, such as adding or renaming a field, you need to reload the configuration.
On the connector’s top-right menu, select Reload connector to fetch the latest version of the descriptor.

Deleting a connector

You can delete a connector if you no longer wish to use it. On the connector’s top-right menu, select Delete
connector to remove its configuration from Workflow Accelerator. If you delete a connector by mistake, select
Add new connector and enter the endpoint URL again.

Authentication

Publishing a connector makes it publicly accessible, as well as any data that the connector provides. To prevent
unauthorized access, the connector can implement authentication, so that only Workflow Accelerator can access
the data. Connectors may use one of two authentication mechanisms.

HTTP Basic authentication

Connectors can use HTTP basic authentication to restrict access using a user name and password that you specify
when configuring the connector. To implement HTTP Basic authentication, your connector endpoints must:
1. send an HTTP 401 Unauthorized response, with an empty response body, for any request that does not
include valid credentials
2. check the credentials in the Authorization HTTP header field, when provided, by decoding the Base64-
encoded user name and password and verifying their values.

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Fig. 18.3: Connector summary, including an overview of record and field types

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Warning: HTTP Basic authentication sends an unencrypted password over the network, so you should only
allow access to private connectors via HTTPS.

To use basic authentication, use the Authentication field to select HTTP Basic authentication, and enter a user
name and password:

Fig. 18.4: Configuring basic authentication

When you configure a connector to use Basic authentication, Workflow Accelerator will pre-emptively include an
Authorization header when sending requests to the connector endpoints. In Basic authentication, the header
value consists of the authentication scheme name Basic followed by a space and the Base64-encoded user name
and password, separated by a colon (signavio:8n4f-Rm3V-Xz0r-Igew-L1fK). This results in a request
header that looks like:
Authorization: Basic c2lnbmF2aW86OG40Zi1SbTNWLVh6MHItSWdldy1MMWZL

Sending this header with every request avoids an additional 401 Unauthorized response and a new request for the
authentication challenge.

Token authentication

Similar to an API key, you can choose a password (token) that Workflow Accelerator will include in a request
header field or URL query string, for every request it sends to the connector endpoints. In the connector configu-
ration, you can choose between a request header field or a URL query string parameter, and specify the header or
parameter name.

Warning: Token authentication sends an unencrypted password over the network, so you should only allow
access to private connectors via HTTPS.

The connector endpoints can then authenticate requests by checking the respective header field or query string
parameter value.
To use a token in the request header, use the Authentication field to select HTTP request header, and enter a header
name and header value.

Fig. 18.5: Configuring request header authentication

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HTTP headers only allow a restricted subset of ASCII characters in header names, which typically only use letters
and dashes, such as Auth-Token. Header values only support ‘visible ASCII characters’, so to allow arbitrary
authentication tokens, use a Base64-encoded value. Configuring token authentication results in a request header
like:
Auth-Token: OG40Zi1SbTNWLVh6MHItSWdldy1MMWZL

For testing, developers may find it more convenient to retrieve the authentication from the URL query string. To
use this option, select URL query parameter and enter a parameter name and value:

Fig. 18.6: Configuring URL query string parameter authentication

This results in HTTP requests with a URL query string, like this:
GET /?token=OG40Zi1SbTNWLVh6MHItSWdldy1MMWZL HTTP/1.1
Host: example.org

Warning: HTTP does not encrypt query string parameters, which typically appear in log files, so only use
query string token authentication for testing a connector on a trusted network with the on-premise edition of
Workflow Accelerator, and switch to a header field token for production use.

Connector examples

To help you develop your own connectors, Signavio has published several example connectors that show you what
a connector implementation looks like. These examples use several different programming languages, including
Java, Python, JavaScript, Scala and Go:
https://github.com/signavio/connector-examples
These examples have an open-source Apache License.

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Salesforce Integration

Signavio Workflow Accelerator integrates with Salesforce workflows. You can configure this so that changes in
Salesforce will automatically trigger Workflow Accelerator processes.

Workflow Accelerator configuration

Before you can set-up Salesforce integration, you need to create an endpoint in Workflow Accelerator that Sales-
force can send information to. Set this up in Workflow Accelerator as follows.
In the top-right user menu, select Services & Connectors.

Under the Salesforce heading, enter a new trigger type name and select Create.
Copy the generated Endpoint URL, or leave this window open for later.

Salesforce configuration

Before you can enable Salesforce triggers, you need to configure Outbound messages - a kind of Salesforce
workflow action. Set this up in Salesforce as follows.
Select the Setup menu item, and select Build → Create → Workflow & Approvals → Workflow Rules.
Create or edit a new or existing workflow rule, and in the Workflow Actions section, select Edit.
On the Specify Workflow Actions page, select Add Workflow Action and then New Outbound Message.

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On the Configure Outbound Message page, configure the new Outbound Message, to define which object fields to
send to Workflow Accelerator.
In the Endpoint URL field, paste the Endpoint URL from the Workflow Accelerator configuration you created
earlier.

Select Save. Do not forget to activate the workflow rule as soon as you have finished the configuration. To do this,
click the Activate button at the top of the Workflow Rule Detail page.
On the Outbound message page, next to Endpoint WSDL, select the Click for WSDL link, which opens a web
service definition file.
Save the workflowOutboundMessage.wsdl file, which you will use to configure Workflow Accelerator,
next.

Finish Workflow Accelerator configuration

For the final configuration step, use the web service definition file to configure the Salesforce service in Workflow
Accelerator.
In the top-right user menu, select Services & Connectors, and then select the Salesforce trigger type you created
earlier.
Select Upload document, and select the workflowOutboundMessage.wsdl file you saved earlier.
Now you can use the new Salesforce trigger in Workflow Accelerator.

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Technical notes

Signavio Workflow Accelerator supports all popular browsers. At https://www.signavio.com/browser-

compatibility you find a detailed description of the supported browsers. The site also automatically checks whether
you browser supports the Signavio products.

Note: Since Microsoft stopped supporting Internet Explorer 9 and 10 for most platforms on January 12, 2016,
it is getting increasingly difficult for Signavio to provide a state-of-the-art user experience while supporting these
browsers. As we want to continue innovating and provide the best features and user experience possible, we will
stop supporting Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 and 10 on December 31, 2017. If you use Internet Explorer 9 or 10,
we recommend switching to one of the following browsers as soon as possible:
• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Mozilla Firefox
• Internet Explorer 11 (only if none of the above is viable)

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 CHAPTER 21

Tutorials

Use these tutorials to learn how to get started with Signavio Workflow Accelerator.

Using an ad hoc case for a document approval

This tutorial introduces the simplest way to get started with Workflow Accelerator. You can start without first
defining a process by Starting an ad-hoc case.
People often use workflows for document approvals, so this tutorial uses the example of approving a report, called
June report.
In the main menu, select Cases and then select Cases without a process from the bottom of the drop-down list.
This shows the Cases view, which you can use to create and view ad hoc cases.

Fig. 21.1: The Cases view, where you can start a new case

Note: Ad hoc cases do not use a pre-defined process model. You can also create an approval process model.

Select Start new case to start creating a new ad hoc case. This opens the case name prompt.
Enter the name June report to create the new case. The case details view shows the initial case, with an empty
task list on the left.

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Fig. 21.2: Entering a case name

Fig. 21.3: A new ad hoc case

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Now add a document: on the right, select Upload a document and select the report to review, June report.pdf.
On the left, in the Add a new task text input, enter the task name Approve report to create a task.
The event stream now shows the corresponding events, labelled added a document and created Approve report.

Fig. 21.4: Adding a document to the event stream and a task to the task list

Note: You can add as many tasks to the case as you like. Use separate tasks for work that different people will
do, or work that will they will complete at different times.
You can also use the text box above the event stream to add comments to the case, to add information and collab-
orate with other people.

Select the Approve report task in the list to open the task details view. Under the task name, use the assignee
selector to assign the task to someone, who will receive a notification. Use the date selector to choose a due date,
which will result in reminders if the case’s assignee does not complete it in time.
Select the Done button to complete the task. As the case does not contain any other open tasks, this closes the case
as well. You can recognise the case’s closed status by the grey case name background, and from the most recent
event in the event stream.

Note: You can use a similar case for any other kind of approval. Use event stream comments to add any required
information, and add approval tasks the same way. Next steps:
• use an ad hoc case for another kind of collaboration task
• use the process builder to define a template for a repeatable process.

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Fig. 21.5: Details of a task within a case

Fig. 21.6: A closed case, after completing its last task

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Your first document approval process

People often use workflows for document approval, a kind of management approval. This tutorial uses the example
of a recurring process for approving some kind of report, which has two parts:
1. defining the ‘process’ that forms a template of tasks for approving reports
2. running the process - starting a new ‘case’ that groups the tasks for approving one particular report.
To get started, in the main menu, select Processes. This shows the Processes view, which you can use to create
and view Processes.

Fig. 21.7: The Processes view, where you can create a new process

Note: You can also use an ad hoc case for a document approval without a pre-defined process.

Select Create new process to start creating a new process model. This opens the process name prompt.
Enter the name Approve report, which describes the process’ goal. This creates the new process and opens the
process builder’s Trigger tab, which you use to define how the process starts.
On the Trigger tab, select When a form is submitted to add a form trigger, so you can start running the process by
filling in a form. The document approval process requires a report to approve, which corresponds to a trigger form
field called Report that you will use to upload a file.
In the form builder palette, select File to add the field to the form. Then select the field to open its configuration
panel on the right, enter the field label Report and select the Mandatory option so the form requires a file upload.
After choosing how the process starts, next define the ‘actions’ that you will perform when running the process.
Select the Actions to load the graphical process editor. In the actions palette, select Start to add a start event to
the diagram. Then, with the start event selected use the actions palette or the mini palette that appears when you
select a diagram element to add a user task and end event.
Next select the start event, user task and end event in turn, and use the configuration panel to set their names to
draft for review, Approve report and report approved, respectively.
This simple process model only contains a single task, to approve the report. Models don’t have to contain start
and end events, but their names help clarify the start and end statuses. Later, you can improve the workflow in
various ways, but first you should run the process that you have defined so far, so you can see how it works.

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Fig. 21.8: Entering a process name, to create a new process

Fig. 21.9: The Trigger tab, after defining a form trigger to start a case by uploading a file

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Fig. 21.10: Adding a start event (1), clicking the start event mini-palette’s rectangle icon to add a user task (2),
and clicking the user task mini-palette’s circle icon to add an end event (3)

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Fig. 21.11: The Actions tab, after adding a single Approve report action to a process

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Select Publish to run this process. This creates a published version of the process, and shows the Versions tab,
with this initial version.

Fig. 21.12: The Versions tab, after publishing the first version of a process

Now that you have published the process, you can use it as a template to create the first ‘case’ for approving a
document.
Select Start new case to start a new case. This shows the trigger form you set-up earlier, which consists of a file
upload field and a submit button. Select the file field, and choose a June report.pdf file to attach to the case.

Fig. 21.13: Running the process - using the trigger form to start a new case

Select Start new case to finish starting the new case. This creates the case, and shows the case details view where
you already see the process’ Approve report task in the task list on the left. The first entry in the event stream, on
the bottom-right, shows the the trigger form data, including the uploaded file, which you can select to open.
Now you have created an run your process for the first time, you can repeat the same steps to develop your process
further: select Processes, select the process from the list, make changes to the process model in the process editor,

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Fig. 21.14: The case details view, after starting a new case

publish a new version and then start a new case to try out the updated process.

Note: After creating and running a simple approval process, you can enhance it in several ways. Next steps
include the following.
• Adding an explicit approval decision using an exclusive gateway
• Adding a result notification using the send email action
• Using organisation groups to define task candidates
• Using process roles to automatically assign tasks
• Using access control to restrict process actions

Adding a decision to an approval process

An approval process such as a document approval requires a clear decision, such as whether to Approve or Reject
a document. This tutorial continues the document approval process example from the previous tutorial and shows
you how to add a manual decision to a user task form.
To start, create a basic approval process with a single user task, as in the first document process tutorial:
This basic process already includes the task for making an approval decision, but it doesn’t give any guidance
for making the decision. You can improve this process so that the approval task’s form has Approve and Reject
buttons, like this:
In the process model, an Exclusive gateway after the user task will represent the decision. To add the gateway to
the model, select the Exclusive gateway button in the tool palette. This adds the diamond shape with an X to the

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Fig. 21.15: A basic approval process with a single task

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Fig. 21.16: The result of adding a decision - a task form with Approve and Reject buttons

diagram.
Next, drag the end event to the right, to make room for the gateway, and drag the gateway symbol onto the
transition from the user task to the end event as shown:
For the next step, add a new path to the process that represents the decision to reject the document. This means
adding a second transition from the exclusive gateway to a new end event. To do this, select the exclusive gateway,
and drag the end event (circle) icon to where you want to new end event, as shown:
Name the new end event to describe the alternate end status, to make the diagram easier to understand. Select the
event and enter the name report rejected.
Now you can configure the gateway with the decision. To use an exclusive gateway for a manual decision, it must
have an incoming transition from a user task and more than one outgoing transition. Select the exclusive gateway
to open its configuration pane, and enter the decision options Approve and Reject, using the end event names to
get them the right way around.
You can see the result of configuring the manual decision on the user task form. Select the user task, which opens
its configuration pane’s Form tab. At the bottom, underneath where any fields would appear, you now see the
decision options as Approve and Reject buttons. In the form description field, enter instructions for making the
decision: Approve or reject the attached draft report.
Now you can see the result of adding the decision to the process. Select the Publish changes button (top-right)
to publish a new version of the process, then select Start case next to the latest version in the list. Start the case,
completing the trigger form if you added one, and open the Approve report task. The task page shows the task
form with the description you entered, and the decision buttons.
Select Approve to record the decision and complete the user task. The case view event stream (right) now shows
the Approve decision.
Decisions like these don’t only occur in document approval processes. In practice, many kinds of business pro-
cesses use one or manual decisions that you can add in the same way.

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Fig. 21.17: Adding an exclusive gateway to the process model

More tutorials

Signavio’s Applied BPM and BDM Blog includes Workflow Accelerator tutorials. The following tutorials intro-
duce features based on concrete examples.
• DocuSign workflow integration - adding electronic signatures to documents
• Multi-instance user tasks - creating user tasks for members of a group
• Business days calculation - using external public holiday data in JavaScript action
• Vacation handovers - reassigning tasks and configuration task escalation
• Integrating a workflow with external web services - fetching external data
• Integrating a spreadsheet with a workflow - reading CSV data in a JavaScript action
• ‘Four-eye’ approvals - adding permissions and parallel tasks to approval workflows
• Automatically triggering a workflow with form data - reading from a trigger email
• Business rules execution from DMN - executing decision models
• Custom activity types using sub-processes - managing process complexity
• Decision gateway variables - re-using decision results
• Form fields with multiple values - entering lists
• Box.com integration - uploading files to the cloud
• Google Cloud Print Integration - printing files via the cloud
• Case name templates that identify orders - organising cases
• Role-based assignment - configuring sticky task assignment

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Fig. 21.18: Moving the gateway to an existing transition

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Fig. 21.19: Adding a transition from the gateway to a new end event

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Fig. 21.20: Naming the alternate end event with a different end status

Fig. 21.21: Configuring Approve and Reject decisions on an exclusive gateway

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Fig. 21.22: Adding a description to a task form that now shows Approve and Reject buttons

Fig. 21.23: Running the process - the form for a manual decision with Approve and Reject buttons

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Fig. 21.24: After completing the form, the event stream shows the Approve decision

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