Control Workflow Content and Run the Workflow

Workflows > selected Workflow > Content tab

Requires Workflows - View permissions to view Workflows Workflows - Add/Edit Permissions to perform content-related operations. Requires Workflows - Delete Permissions to use the Delete option and Workflows - Lock/Unlock to use the Lock option/icon

Define the Workflow Content

From the Content tab of a new Workflow, you will see the Workflow "card" identifying the Workflow Name and description, if one was defined. To the right of the Workflow name, you will see an icon that indicates whether the Workflow is unlocked (the initial state) or locked . (As long as you have Lock/Unlock permissions and do not have unsaved changes, you can click the icon to control the state.) After the lock information, you will see a green checkmark to indicate that a Workflow is valid as of the last Validate operation for the Workflow. This checkmark will not appear for a new Workflow that has not yet been validated. Once you validate a Workflow and then make more changes to the Workflow, the green checkmark will remain in place until you click Save to apply the changes. At that time, the checkmark will be removed because the Workflow needs to be re-validated, and you will see the Validate button become enabled.

In a new Workflow, you will see that the main toolbar buttons (Save, Discard Changes, Validate, and Run...) are grayed out until you start defining the content of the Workflow, which includes the initial Search Target and the Steps that you want in the Workflow.

Select the Initial Search Target

For the Initial Search Target, you can use the default Initial Search Target for a Workflow, which is Project Data, or you can select another Initial Search Target by clicking Select Target.

The initial Search Target of the Workflow is the body of data searched first when you run the Workflow. Available Targets for a Workflow include Project Data, or a specific view of Project Data, such as a Custodian, MediaID, Batch, Tag, or Folder view. In a Workflow with multiple queries, the first query runs against the initial Search Target. The second query runs against the results of the first query, the third query runs against the results of the second query, and so on. You can think of a Workflow as an ordered set of Search in Result searches.

Add a Query to the First Step of Your Workflow

When you create a Workflow, you will initially see a placeholder first step, Step 1: . This placeholder step has the following:

A label of No query to indicate that there is no query yet defined.

Report Description – A text box in which you can provide a helpful description that will appear in the report for a given query in the Workflow. The description can have up to 255 characters.
An Edit... split button that enables you to click to open the Search Query selector and add a query, or use the accompanying drop-down menu to select other Step-related options. You can also right-click within the Step box, to see a context menu that lets you add another step with a query, or perform other operations.

The Search Query selector popup enables you to pick a Freeform, Advanced, or Bulk Search from Search History, or create your own Freeform, Advanced, or Bulk Search (combined) query. You can also pick from a list of Saved Searches.

When you select or add the query, accept it, and close the popup, the Step is updated as follows:

The entire query appears in the Step 1 box.
The query will use color to help identify items such as Boolean operators and special syntax.
The step will either have the type Term Query if you selected a term-based search or Date Range Query, which applies when you populate only the Date Range section of an Advanced Search.
The search options associated with your selected search will appear with the enabled options shown in boldface (for example, Families, Metadata, and/or Synonyms, where it applies).

When you want to edit the query for a step that you have added, click Edit for that step. The search is recalled for you, as Freeform for either a Freeform Search or a Bulk Search formed as a Combined Search, or as Advanced Search, if you used the Advanced Search form.

Adding More Steps to Your Workflow

In general, you can add steps as follows:

Hover over the down arrow that appears above a step, which changes the arrow to a with the tooltip Add a New Step Here. This is a shortcut allowing you to quickly add a step where you want it in the Workflow.
Use the Edit... drop-down menu for a given step and select the appropriate option.
Use the right-click context menu within the Step box for a step and select the appropriate option.

Step-specific actions, available based on your current step and whether you have multiple steps, are as follows:

Add Step Before – Adds a step above your current step.
Add Step After – Adds a step below your current step.
Move Up – Moves your current step up in the order, if applicable.
Move Down – Moves your current step down in the order, if applicable.
Edit... (from the right-click context menu) – Enables you to edit the search query for the current step.
Clear Query – Clears the query from the current step.
Delete – Deletes the current step.

Note: Each step that you add must have a query. If one or more steps that you add do not have a query, you will see a popup message when you click Save. The popup will then let you discard the blank step(s) to perform the Save, or let you cancel the operation and modify the step(s). If you discard the blank step and Save, if you have no other steps in the Workflow populated with a query, your Workflow will be in an initial state and require you to add at least one step with a query and save it before you can validate the Workflow.

Tag and/or Folder Workflow Results

Beneath the steps your Workflow, you initially see a Tags icon with No tags and a on the left. You also see a Folder icon with No folder and a on the right. Use the appropriate icon to either add a Tag or add a Folder for Workflow results.

Tags icon – Opens the at Select Tags dialog and enables you to select one or more Tags you want applied to the Result Set. You can add a new Tag as part of this process. (Note that you cannot select the Tagging Scope or specify a Comment when selecting Tags for a Workflow.) When you click OK from the dialog, the icon for your Tag selection appears in the Status area at the bottom of the Workflow, and hover text displays the Tag name. You can then remove a given Tag by clicking the that appears to the right of the Tag name.
Folder icon – Enables you to use a pop up to select a single Folder from the list of available Folders or create a new Folder to use as part of this process. Click OK when you have made your selection, or click Cancel to cancel the operation. Once you have a Folder selected for the Workflow, you can remove the Folder by clicking the that appears to the right of the Folder name. Then you can click to select another Folder.

Use the Main Workflow Toolbar

The Workflow toolbar provides buttons that are available based on the state of the Workflow, a Last Ran status, and a Workflow drop-down that makes global Workflow actions available (for example, to Edit the Workflow name or description).

If you do not save your changes before navigating away (for example, to go to another view, to the Workflow Reports tab, or to go Home or log out), the Unsaved Changes popup appears (as described in the next section).

Note: As long as you have Workflows - View permission, you can use the Validate and Run options for existing Workflows.

Main toolbar buttons are as follows:

Save – Applies changes you have made to the Workflow.
Discard Changes – Removes the changes to the Workflow made since the last Save operation.
Validate – You must initially validate your saved Workflow before you can run it. If there are any unsaved changes for initial validation, this option will not be available for selection. When you have saved query changes and click this button, the software validates each query that serves as a step in the Workflow. Workflow validation generates a single Work Basket task (for example, Validating workflow wflow1). As long as the validation proceeds without issue, the Work Basket task reports a status of SUCCESS. In the Workflow, red text near the Validate button will indicate that errors were found. Each step that had a query with invalid syntax will be marked with the icon after validation. Hovering over an invalid query enables you to see the specific syntax error. You must then edit the Workflow to correct each invalid query, apply the changes, and then validate the Workflow again. Note that once you have initially validated a Workflow successfully, you are not required to re-validate the Workflow unless you edit the query in one more Workflow steps and then save the changes. Validation is optional (but not required) if you make any of the following changes and then save the changes: modify the Workflow's initial target, modify the descriptions for any steps, reorder steps, delete steps, add or remove Tags or a Folder, or simply run the Workflow.
Run... – As long as the Workflow initially passes validation and thereafter remains valid (that is, its queries have not changed), you can use this option, which launches the Workflow Reporting Options popup, so you can pick which level of reporting you want for the Workflow when it runs. Note that you cannot pause a running Workflow. (You can, however, pause a search from a Workflow using the Work Basket.)

To the right of the Run button you can see Workflow status information:

Last ran: – Initially indicates Never before a Workflow is run, then identifies date and time information for when the Workflow was last run. While the Workflow is running, you see a green Running... status, along with a % complete value.

From the Workflow drop-down, you can perform the following global Workflow actions, as long as you have permissions to perform those actions (actions that are not permitted will be grayed out) and as long as there are no unsaved changes (in which case, the entire menu will be unavailable within the Workflow, within the Workflows Summary, and for the Workflow context menu in the Navigation Tree):

Copy (requires Workflows - Add/Edit permissions) – Enables you to make a copy of the Workflow, which copies the key contents of the Workflow to a new Workflow. The newly created Workflow inherits the following from the source Workflow: initial search query, each query, comments, reports descriptions, and tags. The newly created Workflow does not inherit the Workflow name, search results, results Folder, culled results, or Lock option from the source Workflow.
Lock (requires Workflows - Lock/Unlock permissions) – Enables you to explicitly lock the Workflow, as long as you do not have any pending edits. This option will be grayed out if there are unsaved edits. (A locked Workflow cannot be edited or deleted.) Once a Workflow is locked, the available option changes to Unlock.
Edit (requires Workflows - Add/Edit permissions) – Enables you to edit the Workflow name and/or description. You can edit the name or description regardless of whether the Workflow has been run (and you do not have to re-validate). However, you cannot rename a Workflow if it is running, if there are unsaved changes, or if it has been explicitly locked.
Delete (requires Workflows - Delete permissions) – Enables you to delete a selected Workflow, as long as the Workflow does not have unsaved changes and is not explicitly locked. You cannot delete a locked Workflow. It must be in an unlocked state beforehand. (A Lock icon indicates that the Workflow is explicitly locked.) Deleting a Workflow deletes all document associations to that Workflow from the Project. You are asked to verify the deletion of the selected Workflow. Note that this does not remove any queries or results from the Project; just from the assignment to the Workflow.

View Workflow Search Results

Anyone can view the Workflows (the Workflow Cards) in a Project by clicking the Workflow under the Workflows section of the Navigation Tree. However, how you view the individual search results from a Workflow depends on whether you are the creator of the Workflow or another User in the Project.

If you have permissions, you can view the Workflow Report.

How a Workflow Creator Views Workflow Search Results

When you create and run a new Workflow with a set of Workflow searches (that is, you are the Workflow creator), you can view Workflow search results as follows:

By selecting Workflow search results from your Searches > Search History (either using the searches shown in the Navigation Tree, or using your paged Search History). A Workflow search under your Search History has the format Workflow <workflow_name>: Searching for <query>. A Workflow Search also appears in the Work Basket in this same format.
By selecting a Workflow Step under the Workflow in the Workflows section of the Navigation Tree. Here, the Workflow Steps provide the latest results for the Workflow. Each Step is numbered and identifies the type of query (for example, Step 1: Term Query). Select a Step to view the latest results for that Step.

Note: Note that while viewing a Workflow Step in the Tree, you can perform a search and choose Select Target... if you want to launch a popup that enables you to select from a list of available targets, such as Project Data, a Custodian, MediaID, Batch, Folder, or Tag view, or a search result. You can also use the down arrow shown in the button to choose Current Results if you want to search within a current set of search results. When you select this option, the target box changes to show the current results (with the query and its associated target) and enables you to enter a query as a Freeform Search.

By clicking the result number shown in parentheses after a query in the Workflow (the Workflow Card). The number in parentheses serves as a hyperlink that directs you to the correct Step of the Workflow in the Navigation Tree.

How Other Users View Workflow Search Results

Users who did not create and run the Workflow searches will not see them under their own Search History (unless they have permissions to use the Display all users' history option). Users without the ability to see the Search History of other users can still view the Workflow search results as follows:

By selecting a Workflow Step under the Workflow in the Workflows section of the Navigation Tree. Here, the Workflow Steps provide the latest results for the Workflow. Each Step is numbered and identifies the type of query (for example, Step 1: Term Query). Select a Step to view the latest results for that Step.
By clicking the result number shown in parentheses after a query in the Workflow (the Workflow Card). The number in parentheses serves as a hyperlink that directs you to the correct Step of the Workflow in the Navigation Tree.

Deletion of a Workflow Search Result Task

Deleting a Workflow Search result task in the Work Basket causes the following:

Removal of the task from the Workflow owner's Search History.
Removal of the task results from the appropriate Workflow Step. Under the Workflow in the Workflows section of the Navigation Tree, the step will be empty (and will not be selectable). In the Workflow Card, the step will no longer provide a result number in parentheses.

If you delete a query from the Workflow Card, save your changes, and rerun the Workflow, you will no longer see that query as a Step in the Workflow in the tree, or in the latest Search History entries for the Workflow.

Rerun a Modified Workflow

After the initial run of a Workflow, you can modify that Workflow and rerun it. For example, you may want to modify, add, or replace certain queries. You may also want to change the Tag used, or the Folder used to save the results.

Note: When you edit, apply, validate, and rerun a Workflow, only the new results are displayed for the Workflow under the Workflows section of the Navigation Tree. You can then either click the appropriate Step in the tree, or you can click the result number shown in parentheses after the query in the displayed Workflow Card. The results of your previous run are still preserved in the Search History, which will also have the new results (in the standard Workflow Search format). Note that when you are editing a Workflow, your previous results continue to appear in the displayed Workflow Card until you apply the changes (or rerun the Workflow). Otherwise, you see the current results if you view a Workflow.

If maintaining separate result sets for each run of a Workflow is important, then make sure that you use a different Folder for each run. If you want to use the same Folder, then be aware that the Folder will contain the results from the first run AND any new results associated with a subsequent run (the delta). You may find that if you use the same Folder, it is helpful to use a different Tag to identify results from a given run.

If you find that you need to make a large number of changes to a Workflow, it may be better to create a new Workflow.