Managing artifact lifecycle

As an admin, you can manage the lifecycle of artifacts across your account by setting expiration dates, archiving inactive artifacts, and permanently deleting archived artifacts when they are no longer needed.

The Artifact management tab in the Admin page provides a centralized view of all artifacts in your account, including process blueprints, process apps, policies, and decisions. You can manage the artifacts lifecycle by setting expiration dates, archiving, and deleting artifacts, which helps you maintain an organized, efficient, and governed Blueworks Live account.
Note: Spaces are not included in the artifact types that you can manage from the Artifact management tab. For more information about managing spaces, see Spaces.
Consider the following guidelines for managing artifact lifecycles:
  • Set expiration dates for artifacts that have a defined lifecycle or review period.
  • Regularly review artifacts that approach their expiration dates to determine whether they should be updated, archived, or have their expiration dates extended.
  • Archive artifacts that are no longer actively used but might be needed for reference or compliance purposes.
  • Use filters to identify groups of artifacts that need attention, such as all artifacts in a specific space or all artifacts of a certain type.
  • Communicate with artifact owners before you archive or delete their work to make sure that no important information is lost.

Accessing artifact management

  1. Open the Admin page, then select the Artifact management tab.
    Note: You must have administrator permissions.

    The page displays a table of all artifacts in your account with the artifact name, its type, the space that contains the artifact, and the date when the artifact is scheduled to expire (if set).

  2. Select the Active view to see artifacts that are currently used in the account, or the Archived view to see archived artifacts.
  3. To filter specific artifacts, click the filter icon and set whether you want to filter by artifact type (process blueprints, process apps, policies, or decisions), by an expiration date range, or by spaces.
  4. Click Apply.

Setting expiration dates

You can set expiration dates for individual artifacts or multiple artifacts at the same time, which serve as reminders to review artifacts and determine whether they should be archived or updated. Artifacts are automatically archived when they expire.

To set an expiration date for a single artifact, follow these steps:
  1. Hover over the artifact row in the table, and click the Actions menu.
  2. Select Add expiration date.
  3. Enter the expiration date and click Save.
To set expiration dates for multiple artifacts, follow these steps:
  1. Select the checkboxes next to the artifacts that you want to update.
  2. In the bulk action toolbar that appears, click Update expiration date.
  3. Enter the expiration date to apply to all selected artifacts and click Save.

When an expiration date is set, the administrator and the artifact owner receive a reminder email 7 days, 3 days, and 1 day before the scheduled date. After the expiration date is passed, the administrator and the artifact owner receive a notification that the artifact or artifacts were automatically archived.

Manually archiving artifacts

Archiving removes artifacts from active use while preserving them for reference. Archived artifacts can be restored if needed.

To archive an artifact:
  1. In the list of Active artifacts, hover over the artifact row in the table, and click the Actions menu.
  2. Select Archive artifact.

The artifact is archived right away. It is now visible in the list of Archived artifacts.

Restoring archived artifacts

You can restore archived artifacts to return them to active use.

To restore an archived artifact:

  1. In the list of Archived artifacts, hover over the artifact row in the table, and click the Actions menu.
  2. Select Restore artifact.

The artifact is moved back to your list of Active artifacts.

Deleting archived artifacts

You can permanently delete archived artifacts when they are no longer needed.

To delete an archived artifact, make sure your are an account admin with an Editor license, then follow these steps:
  1. In the list of Archived artifacts, hover over the artifact row in the table and click the Actions menu.
  2. Select Delete artifact.
  3. In the popup that appears, click Delete artifact to confirm the action.
Important: Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone. All details and history from the activity stream that are associated with this artifact are also deleted. Make sure that you no longer need the artifact before you delete it.
You can also delete an artifact from the Library:
  1. From the Library, open the tab that contains the artifact that you want to delete, for example Processes.
  2. Change the view from Active to Archived.
  3. To delete a single artifact, click the drop-down menu next to the artifact that you want to delete and select Delete.
  4. To delete multiple artifacts:
    1. Select the artifacts that you want to delete with the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + click (on Windows) or Cmd + click (on Mac OS).
    2. Click the drop-down menu next to one of the selected artifacts.
    3. Select Delete

Links to the deleted artifact from other artifacts are not removed. When you attempt to delete an artifact, you are notified of links from other artifacts. A deleted artifact displays as "inaccessible" from artifacts that previously linked to it. You must manually change or remove those links.

Glossary managers can remove glossary values that are not in use. For more information, see Deleting glossary values.