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Creating and Editing Workflows

Use the Business Process Editor to create a new workflow or edit an existing workflow. Original workflows can also be created from existing processes.

Basic Workflow How-To Tasks(LINK IN DOC)

The Process Editor has the following tabs:

Interface Tab Inputs
Process Details Specify Name, Type, and Description of the workflow. See Process Details Tab(LINK IN DOC).
Process Variables Lists the input, output, and processing variables you can use with the workflow.See Process Variables Tab(LINK IN DOC).
Process Designer To graphically represent the process, specify the actions involved in each step, and provide the evaluation conditions for moving from one step to another. See Process Designer Tab(LINK IN DOC).
Process Metrics Review statistics gathered for the process as it launches. See Process Metrics Tab(LINK IN DOC).

For more information, see:

  • Basic Workflow How-To Tasks(LINK IN DOC)

  • Editing Workflow XML(LINK IN DOC)

  • Workflow Library Methods(LINK IN DOC)

  • Monitoring Workflows(LINK IN DOC)

  • Advanced Workflow Topics(LINK IN DOC)

Process Details Tab

The Process Details tab contains basic information about the workflow, including:

Name – name for the workflow.

Type – the pre-defined workflow type for this workflow. IdentityIQ uses types to determine which workflows to present in the Business Process configuration list boxes. See Workflow Types for details.

Description – a description of the workflow.

Enable Monitoring – select this option to turn on metrics tracking for the workflow.

Process Variables Tab

The Process Variables tab lists variables you can use with the workflow. For most of the default processes, the variables are listed in a collapsed, advanced view. You can expand the view to show the details for each variable. Variables include:

Input variables for workflow

Output variables for workflow

Working variables used for processing a workflow

Variables are marked as Input, Required, Editable, or Output.

To delete a variable, expand the variable and click Remove.

Object Usage
Input Specifies that the variable is one of the arguments to the workflow, passed in when it is launched.
Output Stores the variable in the workflow's task result to allow the user to view the progress and results of the workflow. To view the results, navigate to Setup > Tasks > Task Results.
Editable Enables the variable to be edited in the basic view.
Required Indicates that the variable must contain a value (non-null) when the workflow starts.
Description A brief description of the variable and its function.

Note

The order of variable declarations can make a difference. For variables in the XML that reference other variables in their initializations, the referenced variable must be declared first.

When variables are created through the user interface, the new variables are inserted in the list above the existing variables. When the XML representation of the workflow is generated, the variables are listed in the order they were created, which is the opposite of the display order in the user interface.

Basic View

IdentityIQ has several built-in business processes that are available when you install the product. The commonly used processes are available through the Basic View which is a simplified, form-based view. The information you edit in the Basic View can be also be configured or removed using the Advanced View. The Basic View includes the following business processes:

Note

Business processes with the LCM label are part of IdentityIQ Lifecycle Manager, which is licensed separately.

  • Identity Update

  • LCM Create and Update

  • LCM Manage Passwords

  • LCM Provisioning

  • LCM Registration

How to Use the Basic View

  1. Navigate to the Debug page and edit the XML of the business process.

  2. Manually add and configure the configForm attribute to reference the form to be presented in the Basic section of process variables. See also Editing Workflow XML(LINK IN DOC).

Note

If the reference exists in the business process, but the form does not, an error is displayed and you are returned to the Advanced view.

Variable Initialization

To initialize variables for the workflow, specify an initial value for the variable in this panel. For best results, use initial values for the workflow variables, rather than creating multiple process steps to initialize each variable.

There are five ways that initialization can occur:

Object Usage
String Assigns a literal value to the variable.
Reference Sets the variable value through a reference to one of the other workflow process variables.
Script Sets the variable with a Beanshell script inside the workflow.
Rule Sets the variable by calling a Beanshell rule outside the workflow.
Call Method Assigns the return value of a call to a compiled Java method in a workflow library to the variable.

Note

Variable values passed into the workflow through workflow arguments supersede variable initial values. Therefore, any value provided in an argument overwrites the initial value for that argument.

Timing of Variable Definition

Variables that are known at the beginning of workflow development can be defined before the graphical process design begins. Throughout the development process you might need to define other variables. Variables are not restricted to only those that were previously defined on the Process Variables tab. Variable definition can be done before, during, or after the design process.

Process Designer Tab

The majority of the work in creating and modifying a workflow is done on the Process Designer tab. The steps and transitions you create for workflow determine the workflow activities and can include the following items.

Process Steps

A workflow involves a minimum of three steps: a start step, a processing step, and a stop step or END. For best results, all workflows should contain a start and stop step and that these two steps contain no actions. Workflows can contain as many or as few processing steps as are necessary to manage the required actions. To add steps using the Process Designer, navigate to the Process Editor and click the desired step type in the Add A Step section. You can drag steps around the Process Designer grid to line them up visually in a logical progression.

To add a new step:

  1. Click Add a Step in the left-hand column to display panel that contains available steps.

Note

Only steps associated with the process type and that exist in the Step Library are listed in the Add a Step panel.

  1. Click and drag the desired step to a position in the process design grid.

To edit to the contents of a step:

  1. Right-click the step icon and select Edit Step.

  2. The step details window displays. You can:

    • Record the Name and Description of the step.

    • Name the Result Variable, a variable to receive the resulting value of the step action.

    • Specify the Action for the step. See Action Type(LINK IN DOC) for details.

Process Metrics Tab

The Process Metrics tab displays the following statistics that are useful for troubleshooting workflows:

  • Number of times the workflow launched

  • Number of times the workflow succeeded or failed

  • Average and maximum duration of the workflow

-Date the workflow last launched

You can view additional process metrics, including data tracked at the step level, through the Intelligence > Advanced Analytics > Process Metrics Search tab.

To turn on metrics tracking:

  1. For individual workflow steps, select Enable Monitoring in the Details window.

  2. Alternatively, you can right-click on a step and select Enable / Disable from the dropdown menu on the step.

To turn on monitoring for all steps in a workflow, click Monitor at the bottom of the business process editor window.