Starting (sub)workflows from a button with a hyperlink

Applies to version 2020.1.3; author: Michał Kastelik

 The "Hyperlink" action type enables you to place a button in the form bar. This button can be used to launch a specific WEBCON BPS workflow, which can be a sub workflow of the current Workflow. It can also link to other relevant information, e.g., documentation for the process or guidelines that should be taken into consideration before submitting the form. Workflow automation becomes easy when you use it.

The button can be available on all steps of the Workflow or just at the selected one(s).  If it launches a sub workflow, it will be automatically connected to its parent instance, and you can pass values to initialize fields in the new instance.

Interested? Then continue reading to learn how to configure a button that starts a workflow from the form.

The scenario

Let us start by showing you how it works once configured. We will use the "Task assignment" application, Here you can download it for free. 

In this application, a task (or subtask) is asigned at the "In Progress" step. Then, it can be started by pressing a button on the form.

After pressing the "Create Subtask" button, a form will be launched. You can define a new task in it. The new instance will be linked to the instance in which the start button was pressed.

Information about parent-child workflow instances appears in the information panel on the right. Continue reading if you want to learn how to achieve the same result in your application. 

Creating an action to initialize a subtask

Go to the Workflow, choose a step at which you want to add a button, right-click on it and select "Edit". Now, go to the Actions tab, look at the Actions list on the left and right-click on the "Menu button" trigger. Press "Add button". 

Now, fill in the name for the button. It will appear on the form as the button name. Below this button, you will find a "New Action" that was created by default. Select it, change its name if you want (e.g. to "Start subtask") and choose "Hyperlink" from the Action type drop list. 

Now, click the "Configure" button on the right to start defining the action.

In the configuration window of this action, in the "Hyperlink (URL)" field, define the link to which the user should be brought after pressing the button on the form menu. You can do it on your own (please refer to the next section for details) or use a predefined action from your system.

To do the latter, look at the bottom of the window under "Predefined actions." Select an action, e.g., "Send email," and press the plus button (+) on the right. The code for the selected action will be pasted into the Hyperlink field. Now, you can save everything, and you are done! You do not need to configure anything more.

However, you can consider using additional options presented below and then jump to the "Summary" section of this article.

The hyperlink configuration window includes additional options you may want to use, such as:

• Open in a new window - pressing the button will open a new tab in the browser instead of going to the item,
• Automatic save - after opening the link, the form will be saved,
• Encode special characters in variables' values - this option is used to avoid errors when sending forms with values containing special characters.

How to define the hyperlink?

If you do not want to use a predefined action to create a hyperlink, follow this section to learn how to create your own link. To do so, go back to the "Hyperlink (URL) field" and click on the button with three dots (…) on the right.

The configured hyperlink looks like this:

/db/1/app/13/start/wf/8/dt/8/form?AttText1=Build the new reports for Q3 2020&PARENT_WFDID=7&AttDateTime1=2020-08-05T00:00:00&AttChoose2=4#Reports&AttChoose1=1#High

The expression has two parts. The first part starts with the database ID (/db/1), then there is the information which application should be started (app/13/start). After that, the expression tells which process and Workflow should be initialized (wf/8/dt/8/form). It will start a new "Task." This is the first part of the expression:

/db/1/app/13/start/wf/8/dt/8/form

The second part contains a list of fields that take values from the form fields of the current instance. The field PARENT_WFDID receives the ID of its parent instance. This is the second part of the expression:

AttText1=Build the new reports for Q3 2020&

PARENT_WFDID=7&

AttDateTime1=2020-08-05T00:00:00&

AttChoose2=4#Reports&AttChoose1=1#High

You can follow the example above and write the hyperlink manually or use the Expression editor.

If you prefer to use the editor, go to the "Functions" tab, expand "Hyperlinks," and double-click on "Start Element(…)". It will add this function to the editor on the left. Right-click on the function and select "Parameters mapping."

A window will pop up. Fill in the information for those fields:

• Workflow ID - the identifier of the Workflow that should be started,
• Form type ID - the identifier for the form that is associated with the Workflow,
• Company ID - company ID,
• Parent workflow instance ID.

You can also open the "Objects" tab, find the object you need (e.g., a workflow), and double-click on it to add it to the field.

When you have finished, click the plus button (+)  right to the white space in the editor. Now you can add parameters. Open the "Objects" tab, go to the Workflow you are starting in this hyperlink,  and find the form field you need. Now, drag and drop it to the Parameter's column. After that, assign the right value to it. You will find it in the "Values" tab.

After saving the process, everything is configured. Well done!

Summary

Using the hyperlink action type, you can redirect your users to various places once the action is triggered. You can also add buttons that have actions configured underneath them. In the case of the Hyperlink, it will allow the user to initialize a new process directly from the form or start a sub workflow in the current process. A sub workflow instance will be automatically connected to its parent instance.

This article shows you how to make the button with a hyperlink visible at a given step of your business application. However, you can make it available at all steps. To do so, open your Workflow, go to the "Global actions" tab, and configure the hyperlink button there.

In both cases, you can decide that the button should be available to the user only if certain conditions have been met in the Workflow. Those conditions should be introduced into the Availability restriction field (see below).