Start task

This action appears only if the workflow is new or under revision. Clicking this action makes a new workflow available for use or puts revisions to an existing workflow into use.

Publishing is described in Create-Publish-Revise cycle

This action appears only if the workflow has been published. Clicking this action creates a new version of the workflow that you can revise without affecting the version of the workflow that is currently in use.

Revising is described in Create-Publish-Revise cycle.

Clicking this action takes the existing version of the workflow out of use. It can be put back into use by publishing it again.

If the workflow to be retired is referenced by a Call Workflow task in another workflow, the system displays a warning. Retiring is allowed after confirmation. To see the list of workflows calling the selected workflow, click the Callers action on the Workflow Properties section bar.

Retiring is described in Create-Publish-Revise cycle.

This is the name of the workflow. This is the name that will appear in the Workflow Builder and the name you will use to identify the workflow.

The name of the workflow is not the Start task's label. Start tasks do not have a label that you can change. The label that appears on the Start task in the workflow editor's diagram section is always Start.

Workflow naming conventions are discussed in Workflow naming conventions.

This property is used to determine whether the workflow will be synchronous, subflow, or asynchronous. The distinction between synchronous and asynchronous is explained in Synchronous versus asynchronous workflows.

If you select the Synchronous radio button, the workflow will be synchronous. As a synchronous workflow, it will have access to temporary data. However, there will be no way to associate the workflow with events, since synchronous workflows cannot be associated with events. Nor can a synchronous workflow be used to migrate data from staging tables into IBM® Maximo® Real Estate and Facilities records because the Integration property is not available to synchronous workflows.

Synchronous workflows that are triggered by actions on Maximo Real Estate and Facilities records' forms are processed to completion before allowing the user to continue. This makes them good for performing validations or automating processes that need to complete before the user performs their next task.

If you select the Subflow radio button, the workflow allows required parameters. Standard synchronous workflows only allow optional parameters. A Subflow workflow can be selected only in a Call Workflow task. A Subflow workflow cannot be selected as the workflow to run for a form action, a state action, or the like.

If you select the Asynchronous radio button, the workflow will be asynchronous. Asynchronous workflows allow optional parameters but do not support return values. As an asynchronous workflow, it will not have access to temporary data. However, you will be able to associate the workflow with an event, since asynchronous workflows are launched in response to an event. An asynchronous workflow can be used to migrate data from staging tables into Maximo Real Estate and Facilities records because the Integration property is available to asynchronous workflows.

This property is only visible if the value of Concurrence is Synchronous.

The value of this property determines whether the workflow will be accessing temporary or permanent data. This distinction is described in Temporary versus permanent data.

If the Permanent radio button is selected, the workflow only can access permanent data that is stored in the record used to launch this workflow.

If the Temporary radio button is selected, the workflow can access temporary or permanent data that is stored in the record used to launch this workflow.

Set the value of this property by clicking the Module icon. Clicking the Module icon causes a list of modules to pop up. Click the module name you want to be the value of this property.

Workflows are launched as a result of an action or system event being performed on a record.

The value of this property is either the name of a business object in the specified module or -Any-. If the value of this field is the name of a business object, the workflow can be launched only as a result of something happening that is related to a record created from the named business object.

If the value of this property is -Any-, the workflow can be launched by something happening related to a record created from any business object in the specified module. The workflow will be restricted to accessing only the fields in a record it is launched for that have the same name as fields in the module's base business object.

If this check box is checked, a record will be kept of every time this workflow is run. The record includes the execution path that the workflow followed.

To see the record of this workflow being run, click the List All Instances action on the Workflow Builder. To see just instances of this workflow that are still running, click the List Active Instances action in the Workflow Builder.

The statuses in the list of workflow instances are described in Workflow instances.

It is also possible to see a list of workflow instances that have run from a particular record. This is discussed in Workflow instances.

If this check box is not checked (the default for new workflows), no record will be kept of this workflow running. This can produce a noticeable speed improvement.

The forms for User Action tasks and Approval tasks have a check box with this same label. The value of this check box is used as the default value for the like-named check boxes for User Action and Approval tasks.

The User Action task is documented in Approval task.

The Propagate Integration Status check box indicates whether the workflow should consider the Integration property. If the workflow is called by an Integration workflow, the Integration status is propagated if the Propagate Integration Status property is checked. If the workflow is called by an Integration workflow and the Propagate Integration Status property is not checked, the Integration status of the calling workflow is not propagated. The default is for this property to be checked.

Integration is a property available to asynchronous workflows. The Integration property is as follows.

This property is always visible if the workflow is asynchronous.

When the property is selected, the workflow is used to migrate data from staging tables into IBM Maximo Real Estate and Facilities records. This type of workflow is used extensively in IBM Maximo Real Estate and Facilities DataConnect. More information about DataConnect can be found in Application Building for the IBM Maximo Real Estate and Facilities: Data Management.

Tasks can check the Integration status to control flow through the workflow.

If an event is generated while the workflow has Integration status on and the Propagate Integration Status flag on, when that event is processed the workflow context for the workflows run will have the Integration status set on (true).

The Integration status can be included in a condition expression in a Start task condition or a Switch task condition. For example, if there are steps in a workflow that should not be called if run from an Integration workflow, check the Integration setting with a Switch Condition or in the Start Condition.

This property is always visible if the workflow is asynchronous.

When this property is selected, the workflow only runs when all other asynchronous workflows for the primary event (the initiating event) have been run. For example, assume the On Process Completion check box is checked for workflow W1 that fires on a Save event. Workflows W2, W3, and W4 also fire on the Save event. A user clicks Save. W1 does not start until W2, W3, and W4 have finished.

The initiating event is specified by the values of the Module, Object Type, and Event properties.

When the workflow agent detects that a process has completed, it posts a special event. The event is constructed by taking the event name and the record from the initiating event information. The workflow lookup process uses the initiating event information to identify the event as being for process completion and restricts the workflow lookup to be for On Process Completion type workflows for the given module, business object, and event name of the event.

Only one process completion event is posted for a given process.

Use an On Process Completion workflow for final processing and clean up. Do not use it to initiate another batch of involved processing.

To aid in debugging, the event name used in the agent thread name has (pc) appended to it, for example, triActivate(pc).

This property is always visible if the workflow is asynchronous.

The value of this property is the action or system event that can launch this workflow. The launching of workflows is discussed in "Launch conditions".

This field is a drop-down list that contains system events and the actions that are used by the state families available to business objects in the specified module.

If an action from the business object's or module's state transition family is chosen, it means that the workflow will be asynchronous. The workflow will be launched when the specified action is performed on a record created from the specified business object. If the specified business object is -Any-, the workflow will be launched when the specified action is performed on a record created from any business object in the specified module.

If a system event is selected from the drop-down, the workflow is launched when the system event happens to a record created from the specified kind of business object. System events are discussed in System events that trigger workflows.

If the selection from the drop-down is the system event Associate or the system event De-Associate, three additional fields appear to allow the affected association to be specified: Associated Module, Object Type, and Association.

This field is visible only if the selected value for Event is Associate or De-Associate.

The value of this property is the name of the module in which the business object used to create records at the other end of the association is defined.

This property is visible only if the selected value for Event is Associate or De-Associate.

The value of this property is the name of the business object used to create records at the other end of the association.

This property is visible only if the selected value for Event is Associate or De-Associate.

This is the name of the affected association.