We're well aware that many of you have been looking for workflow restart / resubmit functionality in NWC...and I'm pleased to introduce you to the new workflow resubmit feature that has just gone live!
There are two primary use cases for this function:
- Restarting a workflow that has previously failed - perhaps there was an issue with a connection or the logic in a version of the workflow
- Restarting the workflow for an item that previously completed normally.
In this post we'll take a look at how different roles will be able to access this function, and what they'll see once it has been used.
Let's first consider the experience that a workflow designer might have - the scenario might be that we had a problem with actions using a connection in the workflow and many workflows have Failed status as a result. While users can resubmit their own workflows, we're going to do it on their behalf.
We'll navigate to the NWC Automate section and the Instances page...so what's new?
First...at the top of the workflow list we see new options to Select to terminate and Select to resubmit. Refresh used to live here, that has moved to a new button in the top right corner. Next, when we look at the workflow instances we can see that it looks like there is a hierarchy for some of them...the instance name is indented and there is an an > to expand a collapsed group.
Let's expand one of those groupings:
Here we're seeing that, Claim No - 444300
- Was first run on 15 Aug at 1050 and failed
- It was resubmitted at 1146 and completed normally
- It was resubmitted again at 1151 and completed normally
- And finally that it was resubmitted at 1155 and is still running
Speaking of running workflows, how we manually terminate those has changed. We saw the Select to terminate option above...if we click that, that will enable multiple selection of Running workflows from the instance list view e.g.
And a similar approach applies to resubmit. If we use the Select to resubmit button multiple selection will be enabled for workflows with Failed or Completed status. Below I've selected my two recent failed workflows after fixing a logic issue in my workflow.
On clicking Resubmit I get confirmation that has been successful
So, how has this functionality impacted the Instance details page for a workflow? Firstly, I can launch instance details for any instance of a workflow directly from the screen above. What's most important is that regardless of which instance I select, the Instance details page lists details of other instances relating to the same start item. So for Claim No - 940021 above, having selected the running instance I can expand the new Instance history section to see related instances.
Note the updates to the placement of Terminate and Refresh buttons. Terminate is also available for the running instance in the Instance history list. If I want to see details of the previous failed instance I can click under instance name to go there.
So, we've covered how designers can help in the case that many workflows might need to be restarted. Let's move on to the experience for end users i.e. those who only work within the confines of My Nintex.
For end users, the option exists to resubmit a workflow for a completed or failed instance, provided that there is not currently a running instance for the start item. As an end user I can also see the hierarchical view of workflow instances for resubmitted workflows. My two main entry points to this functionality are the Latest form submissions area on the Dashboard
or, the Forms submission page where the hierarchical view is visible.
First we'll take a look at re-submitting the workflow for Claim No - 030905. To access the function, click the hyperlinked form name. When the workflow history panel is shown at the right hand side of the screen, click the Show form link Here we find the Resubmit form button.
Now that I have a new, running instance of this workflow, the right hand side history panel also shows details of resubmission. Here I see an example where the workflow has been resubmitted by someone else on my behalf. Note: the resubmitted workflow will continue to run under the context of the original submitter.
Finally, let's consider business owners, those users who can access all instances of a particular workflow type via the Workflow tracking feature in My Nintex. We should be quite familiar with how this works by now! Below we see the experience for business owners of the Health care claim process. As we would expect, they have access to a Select to resubmit button that enables multiple selection for completed and failed workflows.
So, that's Workflow resubmit! It's important to note that any resubmitted workflow will restart from the beginning. In future we'll be looking at further enhancements around restart from the point of failure.
