Using workstreams

Published workstreams are exposed to specific teams of users in your organization. They are available to be started from the Start list in the Workplace app.

About this task

The workstreams that are ready for you to start and use include:
  • Out-of-the-box workstreams, such as the simple approval and simple checklist, are basic workstreams which you can use right away by starting a workstream instance and filling in data. The out-of-the-box workstreams are predefined and can be used for very simple automation. You can add your own data to a simple approval instance.
  • Published workstreams that other people in your organization assigned to your team, which you can access and use as per your role.
  • Your own workstreams, which you configured, reviewed, and published to use for more complex automation work.

To start a published workstream, you simply click its name in the Start list. When you start a workstream, you create a workstream instance that you configure before using it for your work. Each activity in the workstream instance becomes a task that is assigned to a specific user or team. The task shows up in the My work task queue for that user, and the user must claim it in order to work with it. For each task, you make the necessary configuration updates. When you're done configuring it, submit it to mark the task complete.

Typically, multiple instances of the same workstream can run at the same time. You can view and manage workstream instances from the Manage started workstreams option in the library.

Procedure

Let's use the workstream you configured and published earlier in Configuring workstreams as an example. To use the published workstream:

  1. Log in to Workplace.
  2. In the library, the published workstream for an upcoming trip is listed under Start. Click its name and start a new instance of this workstream.
    The new instance is listed under Start > Manage started workstreams.
  3. Open the instance and claim the first task (form) to work on it.
    The task is sent to your My work queue. Configure the form as needed, and click Submit to mark the task complete.
  4. Claim the second task (checklist), then configure and complete it as necessary.
    The completed tasks are no longer listed in your My work queue. Under Manage started workstreams, your workstream instance shows up in a Completed status.

What to do next

Other role-based actions you can perform with a published workstream include:
  • Update it, which returns the workstream to a draft status (it requires a supervisor or configurator role).
  • Archive it when it's no longer needed (it requires a supervisor or configurator role). Archiving a published workstream hides it from the Start list so that no new instances of it can be created.
  • Restore the archived workstream, which brings it back to its former published state (it requires a supervisor or configurator role).
  • Delete an archived workstream (it requires a supervisor or configurator role). When you delete an archived workstream, all of its instances, including the active ones, are deleted alongside the workstream.
Filtering tasks in the My work list
In Workplace, the My work page gives you a count and lists all your tasks, grouped by status and sorted by specified criteria, such as status, name, due date. Based on how large your total number of tasks is, you can use the following options in conjunction to adjust the content of the task list to your needs.
  • Use the Per page option at the top right corner of the task list to set the number of tasks that are listed per page.
  • Use the Total entries option under Task list setting Gear icon to set the maximum query limit. This is the maximum number of tasks you can get back from the server per query. The default value is 25, but other values you can choose are 50, 75, 100, and 1000.
  • Use the filter section across the top of the My work page as an additional tool to optimize your query results. Say, for example, you have a total of 1077 tasks and your maximum query limit is set to 1000. In the filter, you can define a search rule similar to the following example to retrieve and display the remaining 77 tasks.
    Task state is Claimed and available, Instance is greater than 1,000