Proceeding and Changing Steps Through the Process

Proceeding of steps is a key feature of the Work-Relay application. It allows:

  • change step statuses
  • visually track process walkthrough
  • notify users
  • create, update and delete records
  • start other processes
  • create tasks and issues
  • execute program code
  • send web requests and get responds
  • etc.
Proceeding

Proceeding actually means moving from one step to another on their connections and updating step statuses. There are 3 types of steps proceeding: "Proceed", "Approve" and "Reject". Actually these types of proceed do the same things, they differ only by availability for different step types and by look of the buttons.

When step is proceeded/approved/rejected, several things happen:

  • Step becomes changed to other one:
    • if the next step is connected after the proceeded one, the current step becomes completed (step status becomes updated to proper value). Completed step is shown with green color on Progress bar
    • if the next step is connected before the proceeded one, the current step becomes future (inactive)
  • All actions set on this step with "After Step" start type become triggered
  • All actions set on next connected steps with "Before Step" start type become triggered
  • The next steps connected by default connector, branch starting connectors or connector that matches conditions for current situation, will become active (or pending, if there are any restrictions)

Step can be proceeded (approved, rejected) in different places:

  • on the Progress Bar (either at Process Details page, or at any other where Progress Component is built in) - by clicking proper button (1, 2, 3)
  • on the Task Manager dashboard - by clicking proper button at the card layout header (4)
  • on the Planning Dashboard - if click step name, a Step Properties popup appear with step information and proper buttons (5)
  • on the Progress Dashboard - if click step cell (a square), a Step Properties popup will appear with step information and proper buttons (6)
  • automatically by the system - for automatic steps; user does not required to do something by himself
Changing

Active step can be changed to another one, if there is a necessity to immediately pass to another step. In order to do step change, just select a necessary step. The "Proceed/Approve/Reject" buttons will be substituted with "Change" button (7) - click it. New step will became active, and other steps will change their status accordingly to their connection order (like when step has been proceeded). The differences between steps proceeding and changing are:

  • When step is changed, no actions are launched
  • Changing step does not restart sub-processes
  • Step to be changed to can be either future or completed
  • Step to be changed to will always get "Active" status, even if it should get "Pending" status due to some reasons (e.g., constraints) when it had been reached through the common process walkthrough.

Q: Why actions are didn't started if I change step?

A: In spite of where action has been added - on connector or on step - and of start type (before step or after step) all actions have the same behavior - they work when one step (including "Start") is getting passed to another, that means all actions are triggered on connectors. When user performs a step change, he passes from one step to another directly through non-existing connector. And if connector does not actually exist, it has no actions on it.

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