Create User Initiated Workflows

You can create user-initiated workflows for events that occur in various applications. For each workflow, you specify an event, including conditions for the event, and the action that triggers the event.

If you plan to create an Insert/Associate type workflow and a similar Change type workflow, create the Insert/Associate workflow first, test it, and then copy it to create the Change type workflow.

To create a user-initiated workflow:

  1. In the Navigation pane, select Settings > Workflow > User Initiated Workflows.
  2. On the User Initiated Workflows settings form, use the Area option to select the application for which you want to create a workflow.
  3. To create a workflow event, click +Add Workflow below the Workflows grid and complete the following:
    1. In Workflow Table, select the entire record or select a specific table/grid for which to create a workflow.
      The tables available are specific to the application that you selected with the Area option.
      • Entire records display in brackets, such as [Employee Record], and consist of both standard and user-defined fields.
      • User-defined grids display with underscores, such as Employee_Profile.

      If you set the Area option to Approval Workflow and then select an approval workflow in the Approval Type field, the Workflow Table column in the grid displays ApprovalItem.

    2. In Workflow Type, select the type of workflow for which you want to generate an action:
      Type Description
      Change Vantagepoint generates an action when a change (other than an Insert or Delete) occurs in an existing record. For example, if the status of a client changes from Active to Inactive, an action occurs.
      Insert/Associate Vantagepoint generates an action when new information is added to the specified workflow table entered above. For example, when a new project record is added, an action occurs.
      Delete/Remove Vantagepoint generates an action when information is deleted from the specified workflow table. For example, if a project record is deleted, an action occurs.
    3. If you are setting up a workflow for the Projects hub, use the Level drop-down list to specify the WBS level at which the workflow event should execute.
    4. Select Active to enable the workflow.
      After the workflow event is saved, you can clear this option to disable the event temporarily without deleting it from the database.
    5. Enter a description for the event.
    6. To enter one or more conditions for the event, click Ellipsis in the Conditions field and complete the Conditions dialog box.
      For example, you can set up a condition to specify that employees must be principals, or that the projects must be completed by a certain date.
    7. After you finish creating events, drag and drop rows in the Workflows grid to specify the sequence in which the events are executed.
  4. To create one or more actions for the workflow, in the Actions grid use the Add Action drop-down list to select an action to add to the workflow and then complete the following substeps.
    The dialog box that displays depends on the action that you select. For example, if you select Email Alert, the Email Configuration dialog box is displayed.
    1. Complete the fields and options on the dialog box and click Apply.
      The name of the action displays in the Action column in the Actions grid.
    2. If you are setting up a workflow for the Projects hub, specify the WBS level at which the action should execute.
    3. To enable the action, select Active.
      After the action is saved, you can clear this option to disable the event temporarily without deleting it from the database.
    4. Enter a description for the action.
    5. To enter one or more conditions for the action, click Ellipsis in the Conditions field and complete the Conditions dialog box.
    6. If you are using multiple languages and the action is an Email Alert, Notification, Validate Warning, or Validate Error, click and use the Languages dialog box to select the language to use with this action.
      Employees in the specified role or group with the selected language receive the action in their language. If an email address is entered for an alert action, the employee receives the alert whether or not the language matches.
    7. After you finish creating actions, drag and drop rows in the Actions grid to specify the sequence in which the actions are executed.
  5. Click Save.