Can a workflow be tested from the middle

  • 24 January 2017
  • 7 replies
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Badge +7

While troubleshooting my workflow, I keep starting over after a publish a new version.  Is there a way to start testing from a point other than the beginning? 


7 replies

Userlevel 6
Badge +15

Hi

Yep, there sure is!

I find that the easiest way to do this is to disable everything up to the point that I want to start running the workflow. Sometimes I disable everything right down to a single action just to test that!


You can disable things by using the drop down in the top right hand corner of an action and choosing disable.

Action Sets help this because you can plop everything in there and disable an entire set.

Let me know if you have any questions.


Cheers!

Rhia

Badge +7

Thank you, that sounds good.  How do I set up an Action Set? 

Userlevel 6
Badge +15

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Type "Action" into your Workflow Actions and a little box with a blue top will pop up. It's basically a folder for your Nintex actions. Once you drop this onto your workspace, you can name it, then drag & drop Nintex actions into it -- just make sure your Action Set is placed where those pieces of the workflow would have run. When you run the workflow it will run items within the Action Set as if it weren't there at all .... but, as mentioned earlier, this is great when troubleshooting; you can just disable the whole box (and thus everything in it.)


Best practice is to ensure they are like-items that make sense to group together ... think of it as like chapters of your workflow happy.png  

Cheers!

Rhia

Userlevel 4
Badge +12

Another great way is to build segments using the state machine action. It's built to bring your workflow from one state to another until it finishes.

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At your initial state machine action you usually set the workflow to start with state 1 but for testing purposes you can also configure it to start with state 2 or 3.

In a more complex scenario you could even let the workflow decide where to start, based on a variable, as shown here

 

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Enrico

Badge +8

Nintex also offers an option "Run Now" for few of the workflow actions (Integration / Operation action type), wherein you can pass test data and check for outcomes. 

Badge +6

A lot of good approaches! I prefer the suggestion of ‌, it's not only good for testing but also good for restarting workflows at a desired point (complex scenario needed).

Badge +7

I tried both approaches - Using the State Machine to indicate where to start and setting up Action sets.  They both work great.  Thanks for the hints.

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