You can use the Workflow Instances dialog box to Review, Stop, Archive, Remove and Report the workflow instances.
The Workflow Instances dialog box appears displaying all of the workflow instances without any filters by default. You can filter out the workflow instances by using the Search area present on top of the page. Furthermore, you can use the Reset Button to reset the entire search criterion and display all of the Workflow instances again.
Search Criterion
Use the fields at the top of the dialog box to enter search criterion and then click the Search button to display workflow instances that match the search criterion. To use the search fields, select one or more as follows:
Note: You can select one or more fields to filter the search results. Please understand that the AND operator is used as the search operator for the combination of all the criterion, so the search results will show only those workflow instances that match the search criteria in all fields used.
Status
To search for workflow instances with a particular status: In the Status field, select the status of the workflows for which you want to search. These are the possible workflow instances statuses:
- All
- Active
- Completed
- Pending
- Stopped
- Faulted
Archived
There are 3 options to search workflow instances based on their archival status:
- Exclude: This option is selected by default. This would exclude archived workflow instances from the search results.
- Include: This option would include archived workflow instances in the search results.
- Only: This option would display only the archived workflow instances in the search results.
Start Date
To search for workflow instances started after a date, before a date, on a date, or within a range of dates:
- From the Start field, select “Later than”, “Earlier than”, “Equal to” or “From”
- From the Date field, select a date
- If you have selected “From” in the Start field, select a date from the “Date” field and the “To” field. “From” option should be used when you wish to search for the start date within a specific date range.
Finish Date
To search for workflow instances those have finished after a date, before a date, on a date, or within a range of dates:
- From the Finished field, select “later than,” “earlier than,” “equals to,” or “From.”
- From the Date field, select a date
- If you have selected “From” in the Finished field, select a date from the “Date” field and the “To” field. “From” option should be used when you wish to search for the Finished date within a specific date range.
Workflow Name
To search for workflow instances by the name of the Workflow: Enter the name in the Workflow Name field. Please note that the search field would by default work as a wildcard search. For example, entering Test would display Test 1 and Test 2 in the test results.
Manager:
To filter the search results by the Manager of the Workflow Instance: Select the Manager Name from the picker to display the Workflow instances which have manager assigned as the selected user.
Scope
To search for workflow instances by scope: Please select the scope of the workflow instance in the Scope field. Please select the Portfolio/Super Portfolio or the Item Name for which you wish to see the associated workflow instances.
How To...
Edit
To Edit a Workflow instance’s template; please click the hyperlink on the Workflow Name. This will open up the Workflow Editor of the respective workflow.
Stop
To stop one or more Workflow instances; please select the checkboxes for the required Workflow instances and click Stop.
Archive
To Archive one or more Workflow instances; please select the checkboxes for the required Workflow instances and click Archive.
Remove
To Remove one or more Workflow Instances; please select the checkboxes for the required Workflow instances and click Remove.
Report
To view the Report of a Workflow instance; please click the hyperlink on the Instance Name of the required Workflow instance. This will open up the Report Page of the Workflow instance
View Details
To view the details of a Workflow instance, please click the row in the table for the required Workflow Instance. This will display the details of the workflow instance in the right hand side pane.
Security Permissions
If you have Read & View permission on Manage Workflow Instances security module, this dialog box displays all Workflow instances in the system (Regardless of whether their status is Pending, Active, Completed, Stopped or Faulted, and regardless of whether or not they have been archived)
If you are a manager of workflows, this dialog box displays all Workflow instances of which you are a manager (Regardless of whether their status is Pending, Active, Completed, Stopped or Faulted, and regardless of whether or not they have been archived).
In either of the above cases you can
- See the name of the Workflow template even if you do not have Read & View Permission on the workflow folder in which this template is located.
- Stop any workflow whose Status is `Pending' or `Active'
- Archive or Remove any workflow whose Status is `Completed', `Stopped' or `Faulted'
- Get a Report of any Workflow Instance listed, whether archived or not
- View/Edit any listed workflow template provided that the you have Read & View/Edit permissions for this template.
To access the Workflow Instances dialog box:
Click Collaborate, Workflow Instances. The Workflow Instances dialog box appears.
The Workflow Instances dialog box displays the following:
- Workflow instances list: A list of workflow instances including the status of each. These are the possible workflow instance statuses:
- Active
- Completed
- Pending
- Stopped
- Faulted
- Active
- The Description pane on the right side of the dialog box displays information about the selected workflow instance.
- If the selected instance is either Pending or Active, the information visible to the workflow manager in the Guide Pane when in Show Manager View, is displayed.
- If the selected instance is Completed, Faulted or Stopped, then only the Workflow name, Start date and time, Started by, Scope and Manager information are displayed.
- The Show Details checkbox when checked displays full information about the Workflow and current Steps and Tasks and when unchecked, shows only abbreviated information. This is identical to their Show Details/Hide Details option in their Guide Pane counterpart.
- This checkbox only affects the display of Pending and Active workflows.
About Embedded Workflow Instances and Completion Policy:
For embedded workflows, the completion policy, if one was assigned when the task was defined, is applied on the workflow instance level. So, for example, assume the following: Group A was assigned as the Step manager when creating the embedded workflow task; Group A has three users (User 1, 2, and 3); and the embedded workflow has one step with four tasks. When the workflow is started, three workflow instances are created, one for each of the three users. As soon as any one user completes all four tasks, the workflow instances for all three users will be set to a status of “Stopped,” and all the workflow instances for the embedded task are removed from the workflow list for all the users. If there is more than one level of embedded workflows, then all the respective workflow instances would also be set to a status of “Stopped” if the task successfully meets its completion policy.
Subtasks for embedded workflows are handled as follows: By way of example, assume the following: There is a portfolio named P1; there are three items under that portfolio: Items Item1, Item2, and Item3; and there is a group, named G1, with three users: U1, U2, and U3. You create a task where the scope of the task was defined as P1, and then select the scope level as one level below. In the performer section you define G1 as the performer. When this task is run, there will be three tasks created for each item (Item1, Item2, and Item3) for each user (U1, U2, and U3). Essentially, the task is divided into subtasks for each of the items for each of the users. In this case, the completion policy is applied at these subtasks levels individually. In this example, let’s assume that the completion policy defined for this task is Any. When user U1 signs-off the task for Item1, only the tasks with same scope as Item1 for both users U2 and U3 are marked as Group-Signed off. The other tasks are not affected. This is true for all the task types where the completion policy is applicable.