Design a process

A process describes the path a request follows in Portail ZAPP: approvals, tasks handed to teams, notifications, calls to other systems. You draw it as a diagram, then publish it; a catalog service then designates the process that handles its requests.

The Processes screen (menu Administration › Catalog and workflow › Processes) is open to Administrators and Scoop administrators. The menu entry is visible to both groups.

The process list

For each process, the list shows its Name, its Code, the Published version (for example v3, or none), whether there is a Draft, and for that draft Modified by and Modified at. When the Data grids module is installed, the list is a grid.

Open opens the draft in the designer;
New version creates a draft from the published version, configuration included;
clicking the published version number opens it read-only;
the copy icon (Clone) creates a new, independent process with the same diagram and configuration, as a draft; the source process is not modified. Give it a Name and a Code;
the bin icon (Delete draft) permanently deletes the draft, with its nodes and transitions. The published version is not affected. This action is reserved for Administrators: only they see the icon.

Create a process

New process asks for:

Name;
Code: the stable identifier of the process, the one catalog services will refer to. It must be unique;
Name of the start node.

The process is created as a draft and opens in the designer. A code already in use makes the creation fail.

The designer

The designer shows the process name, the version number and, for a published or archived version, the read-only badge. On the left, the Elements palette groups node types by family: Flow, People, Messages and data, Integration and CMDB (the latter only when the CMDB module is installed). The Search elements field filters the palette.

Add a node: drag an element from the palette onto the canvas. It first gets the name of its type.
Link two nodes: draw a wire from an exit of the first node to the next node. Named exits (for example approved, rejected, true, false, timeout, failure) give their label to the transition.
Configure: double-click a node to open its configuration window, or a transition to change its Transition label. The settings of each node type are described in "Configure the elements of a process".
Tidy up rearranges the diagram; the zoom buttons and Fit to screen adjust the view.

Moves and additions on the canvas are not saved right away: the designer shows Unsaved changes until you click Save.

Check and publish

Check saves the draft, then lists what still prevents publishing, and highlights the nodes involved. Warnings (deactivated status, display group without a label…) do not prevent publishing. Copy copies the report. The most common defects:

no start node, or several; no end node;
a node that no path reaches, or a node (other than an end) with no outgoing transition;
an expected exit that is not wired: true or false on a Branch, an extra decision option on an Approval, or timeout on a step that has an overdue delay;
a step with no recipient, or open to everyone;
a Fork without a matching Join;
a service carrying this process that has no owner.

Publish saves, checks, then publishes: the version published until then is archived. A published version can no longer be changed. Requests already started continue on the version they started with; only new requests follow the new version.

Business statuses

Statuses opens the Business statuses of the request: what the requester reads on their request (for example "Waiting for supplier"). They belong to the catalog service that launches the process: as long as no service launches it, the screen says so and nothing can be entered. Each status has a Code, a label per language, an Order, and the Final and Active boxes. A status cannot be deleted: deactivating it removes it from future choices without touching the requests that carry it.

A node applies a status as it passes with the Status applied on pass setting (see "Configure the elements of a process").

Good to know

A node with a scheduled start or a deadline only fires if the scheduled job "SweepWorkflowSteps" is active; otherwise the designer shows a warning banner. It is set in the Scheduler.
The messages of the Check and the reasons for a refused save are written in French, whatever the interface language.
Every design action is recorded in the audit log (creation, cloning, new version, save, publication, draft deletion), with its author, the process code and name and the version number: a deleted draft can still be identified. Filter the log on the ProcessGraph or ProcessGraphVersion type.