Automation Center

Overview

The Automation Center is an innovative two-part module that allows you to organize and execute your workflows from a unique dashboard.

Unlike the workflow editor, it’s more focused around using and running workflows rather than creating, building and editing them. The integrated AC dashboard is intended for manual execution, complete with access control.

Specifics

The basic structure of the Automation Center relies on panels and tiles. Panels can be considered containers for customized cards called tiles. These tiles allow you to execute workflows from the AC dashboard rather than running them through the editor.

Full RBAC control grants you both execute rights and the ability to add, edit, remove, and change images, names, and descriptions for both panels and tiles.

Remember that, unlike regular workflows, tiled flows are considered active and counted towards your license.

Before you begin

From your instance, navigate to Automation Center. Make sure you have appropriate permissions to fully interact with this module.

Panel basics

By default, whenever you access the AC module, you’ll be presented with a list of your existing panels. These containers don’t do much by themselves, but are ultimately put to purpose as soon as you add tiles inside.

On the main page, you can locate specific panels by typing their name or description, using the search bar found at the top. Instead of hiding the results you don’t need, the page will simply highlight the one(s) you are looking for.

Panels can be shared, meaning that multiple users can have access to and work on the same panel. To include shared panels into the list of existing panels, toggle the respective slider.

Creating a panel

To add panels to store your execution tiles, complete these steps:

Click the Create Panel button.
Provide a title for the panel. You can also provide a description.
Optional: Customize the panel by associating it with an image. Click Upload icon and select an image file below 100 kilobytes.
Click Save. The new panel will be added to the list of existing panels.

Panel actions

There are two actions you can perform on each of your panels. They’re accessed through a dropdown menu triggered by the three-dot button positioned at the top-right corner of a panel.

Edit Panel Details: Allows you to change the details you’ve provided for the creation of the panel.
Delete Panel: Removes the panel and will ask for confirmation first.

Tile basics

Different tiles can be stored within each of your existing panels. They allow you to execute workflows directly from the Automation Center dashboard.

To access your tiles, click on a panel.

This takes you to the panel’s individual page, which, given that it was just created, will be empty.

Creating a tile

To link new tiles to your workflows for execution through the Automation Center dashboard, complete these steps:

Click the Create Tile button located at the top-right corner of the page. When it’s your first tile, the same button is available from the center of the screen.
Choose a workflow.
1. In the Select workflow field, click the folder button at the far-right side of the field to choose the workflow your new tile will be able to execute.
2. In the Workflows dialog, locate the flow using the search bar and click once on it to confirm your selection.
3. In 1.1.4 and later versions, select the workflow version that you want to use.
  - Select Always use latest version to use the latest saved version of the workflow when you run the workflow from the tile.
  - Select Use current version to use the workflow version that is the latest when the tile is created. This version of the workflow is always used for the tile, even if later versions of the workflow are created.
  - Select Use specific version to choose the version that you want to use from the list of saved versions.
4. In the Select worker group dropdown, choose a worker group for your flow to run on.
Click Next.
Provide a title and an optional description for the tile.
Optionally, customize the tile by uploading an image. Click Upload icon and select an image file below 100 kilobytes.
Click Next.
Optional: Manage any input parameters the workflow might use for its execution process.
If the workflow contains authentication parameters, or they have not been set within the workflow editor, you can click + to create a new authentication.

Starting in 1.1.4, you can click the Create binding button, to configure your tile input parameters to display drop-down lists of values. These values can be populated based on static values or based on the results of separate workflows that run dynamically when you run the tile. For more information, see Configuring lists of values in tile parameters.
Click Create to add the tile to your panel.

Like in the Panels page, you can locate specific tiles by typing their name or description in the search bar found at the top. Instead of hiding the results you don’t need, the page will highlight the one(s) you are looking for.

Tile actions

There are three actions you can perform on your tiles.

They can be accessed when you click the three-dot button positioned at the top-right corner of a tile.

Open Workflow Editor: Opens the flow the tile is linked to inside the workflow editor. Here, you’ll be able to build it using different integrations. Use the available tools, features and blocks to achieve your desired results.
Edit: Allows you to make changes to the information you’ve provided during the creation of the tile.
Delete: Removes the tile and will ask for confirmation first.

In addition to the three available operations, you can click on, hold and move your tiles across the panel to rearrange them as you wish.

Workflow execution

The most important aspect of the Automation Center dashboard is its ability to initiate instant workflow executions. This saves time by virtually eliminating the need to use the workflow editor.

To run a workflow from here, you’ll need to have both the appropriate permissions and the certainty that your tile has been properly linked to the flow.

For the process to begin, click on a tile.

In the window that opens, you’ll be able to find the Input and Output of the associated workflow.

When you click Execute to run the flow, you essentially perform an execution. If everything goes well, you’ll get a positive output within seconds.

During tile execution, the platform will automatically show status message updates as the workflow executes. A progress bar will show the completion stage while in the center area, the running time will be shown in seconds. You can safely exit from the Run Workflow screen and use the Logs page to check on detailed log messages during or after the workflow run.

If there are errors, you’ll get negative output.

Optionally, use the folder button to copy the output’s raw version.

Apart from a Deployed and Scheduled status, the Active column of the Workflows page features a separate Tiled status. If you hover the mouse over it, you’ll be able to learn which panels a flow is tiled on.