Creating a flow

The users can create a new flow for a customized requirement.

Before you begin

  • You must have administrative permission to complete this task. Additionally, a user with readFlows permission can view and run the flow or with manageFlows permission can have complete access to the Flow designer. For more information on creating user role, see Creating an administrator role.
  • Log in to the IBM® Security Verify administration console as an Administrator. For more information, see Accessing IBM Security Verify.

Procedure

  1. Log in as an administrator on Verify. Navigate to the profile icon and click Switch to admin.
  2. Select User experience > Flow designer.
  3. Click Create flow button to create a new flow. In the opened Create flow screen, enter the Name and Description in the provided fields and click Create flow button.
  4. A new canvas screen to create the flow is opened.
    The left-side bar includes the following tools:
    Icon Description
    Task Click the Task icon to view and select from the opened Tasks panel. See Managing tasks for further details.
    Decision points Click the Decision points icon to select one or more appropriate events from the opened panel. See Managing decision points for further details.
    The following tools are included in the toolbar for better user experience:
    Icon Description
    zoom in Click the Zoom in icon to enlarge the flow diagram size.
    zoom out Click the Zoom out icon to reduce the flow diagram size.
    Zoom to fit Click the Zoom to fit icon to resize the flow diagram to its original state.
    minimap Click the Minimap icon to orient within the canvas that displays the created flow.
    Trace view The Trace view toggle button is only displayed for published flows. By default, the button is off. Switch on the toggle button to shift to the trace view. See Managing Trace view for further details.
    Note: Trace logs can be generated by launching the flow by using trace URL. You can generate the trace URL from Settings > Trace settings.
    No errors The default icon that is displayed if no errors are found in the flow. If there are any errors in the flow, Has errors icon gets displayed, clicking which opens the list of errors.
    Settings The icon opens the Settings panel that displays the General settings and Trace settings.
    Note: The Trace settings get displayed only for Published flow.
  5. Click the Add to canvas from the Task or Decision points tile to add that node to the flow or drag-and-drop the node.
    Clicking the specific node opens its description panel that displays details about it. For a task, the information includes the Input parameters, Output parameters, and Learn more hyperlink that can be clicked to view the detailed information.
    Note: The flow designer supports approval-based flows for three months after the first approval starts. Configure the number of approval tasks and the timeout to accommodate that interval.
  6. In the canvas, click the added node and update the input parameters in their respective properties editor panel.

    Use the connectors to link one node to the other.

    Note:
    • If any of the required properties is missing in the flow, its corresponding node and the toolbar displays the Alert icon to define the errors. These errors must be fixed to publish the flow. The Fix now link gets displayed for auto-fixable errors, clicking which optimizes the flow by fixing the specific error.
    • In addition, the Invalid expression error(s) need to be fixed before saving the flow as Draft.
    • A maximum number of executions are allowed for a node if it is creating a loop.
  7. Add the End event to complete the process within the flow after it is designed to meet the objectives.
  8. Click Save to save the flow design as a Draft.

    After the changes are successfully saved, a notification gets displayed with View all flows hyperlink that can be clicked to open the Flow designer main screen.

    The saved flow gets listed in the Flow designer screen with Draft status.

  9. Click Publish button to publish the created flow.
    Note: The flow cannot be published before all the errors are fixed.

    The flow gets listed in the Flow designer screen with Published status.

What to do next

For Published flow, click the Settings icon. The opened Settings panel displays the General settings and Trace settings.
  • General settings - Click the Launch icon that is adjacent to the Execution URL field to launch the flow. Click the Copy error icon to copy the Execution URL, if user wants to launch the flow with additional query parameters.
    Note: The flow that are authored by using the Initiate access request approval, Ask for approval and Complete Approval nodes must not be directly launched in a browser. The approval-based flows must be published and triggered through access request API or USC (Add app flow).
  • Trace settings - It can be used to generate additional logs to debug Function tasks using a time-bound Trace URL. Configure the Trace URL validity and click Generate trace URL.
    Note:

    The Trace URL is non-recoverable and is lost when the Settings panel is closed. Ensure to Launch or Copy the URL.

    The Trace URL validity can be configured up to a maximum of 8 hours.