Administration of data workflows
If you have been given permissions for administration activities associated with data workflows, any relevant publications, active data workflows, and work items, will appear under the entries of the 'Monitoring' section in the navigation panel. From these monitoring views, you can directly perform administrative tasks from the Actions menus of the table entries.
Note
When a workflow model gives you administrative rights, you automatically have monitoring permissions on all of the relevant aspects of data workflow execution, such as publications, active data workflows, and work items.
Overview of data workflow execution
When a data workflow is launched, a token that marks the step currently being executed is created and positioned at the start of the workflow. As each step is completed, this token moves on to the next step as defined in the workflow model on whose publication the data workflow is based.
At any given point during the execution of a data workflow, the token is positioned on one of the following:
a script task, which is run automatically and requires no user interaction. The script task is completed when the defined actions finish running.
a user task, which spawns one or more work items to be performed manually by users. Each work item is completed by an explicit 'Accept' or 'Reject' action from a user, and the completion of the umbrella user task is determined according to the task termination criteria defined for the user task in the workflow model.
a condition, which is evaluated automatically in order to determine the next step in the execution of the data workflow.
a sub-workflows invocation, which launches associated sub-workflows and waits for the termination of the launched sub-workflows.
a wait task, which pauses the workflow until a specific event is received.
The token can be in the following states:
To execute: The token is the process of progressing to the next step, based on the workflow model.
Executing: The token is positioned on a script task or a condition that is being processed.
User: The token is positioned on a user task and is awaiting a user action.
Waiting for sub-workflows: The token is positioned on a sub-workflow invocation and is awaiting the termination of all launched sub-workflows.
Waiting for event: The token is positioned on a wait task and is waiting for a specific event to be received.
Finished: The token has reached the end of the data workflow.
Error: An error has occurred.
See also
Data workflow administration actions
Actions on publications
Disabling a workflow publication
To prevent new data workflows from being launched from a given workflow publication, you can disable it. Select the 'Publications' entry from the navigation pane, then select Actions > Disable in the entry for the publication you want to disable.
Once disabled, the publication will no longer appear in the 'Workflow launchers' view of users, but any data workflows already launched that are in progress will continue executing.
Note
Once a publication has been disabled, it cannot be re-enabled from the Data Workflows area. Only a user with the built-in repository 'Administrator' role can re-enable a disabled publication from the Administration area, although manually editing technical tables is not generally recommended, as it is important to ensure the integrity of workflow operations.
Unpublishing a workflow publication
If a workflow publication is no longer required, you can remove it completely from the views in the Data Workflows area by unpublishing it. To do so,
Disable the workflow publication to prevent users from continuing to launch new data workflows from it, as described in Disabling a workflow publication.
Unpublish the workflow publication by selecting Actions > Unpublish from the workflow publication's entry in the same table of publications.
Note
When you choose to unpublish a workflow publication, you will be prompted to confirm the termination and cleaning of any data workflows in progress that were launched from this workflow publication, and any associated work items. Any data that is lost as a result of forcefully terminating a data workflow cannot be recovered.
Actions on data workflows
From the tables of data workflows, it is possible to perform actions from the Actions menu in the record of a given data workflow.
Replaying a step
In the event of an unexpected failure during a step, for example, an access rights issue or unavailable resources, you can "replay" the step as a data workflow administrator. Replaying a step cleans the associated execution environment, including any related work items and sub-workflows, and resets the token to the beginning of the current step.
To replay the current step in a data workflow, select Actions > Replay the step from the entry of the workflow in the 'Active workflows' table.
Terminating and cleaning an active data workflow
In order to stop and clean a data workflow that is currently in progress, select Actions > Terminate and clean from the entry of the workflow in the 'Active workflows' table. This will stop the execution of the data workflow and clean the data workflow and all associated work items and sub-workflows.
Note
This action is not available on workflows in the 'Executing' state, and on sub-workflows launched from another workflow.
Note
Workflow history data is not deleted.
Forcing termination of an active data workflow
In order to stop a data workflow that is currently in progress, select Actions > Force termination from the entry of the workflow in the 'Active workflows' table. This will stop the execution of the data workflow and clean any associated work items and sub-workflows.
Note
This action is available for sub-workflows, and for workflows in error blocked on the last step.
Note
Workflow history data is not deleted.
Forcing resumption of a waiting data workflow
In order to resume a data workflow that is currently waiting for an event, select Actions > Force resumption from the entry of the workflow in the 'Active workflows' table. This will resume the data workflow. Before doing this action, it is the responsibility of the administrator to update the data context in order to make sure that the data workflow can execute the next steps.
Note
This action is only available for workflows in the 'waiting for event' state.
Cleaning a completed data workflow
When a data workflow has completed its execution, its history is viewable by monitors and administrators of that workflow in the view 'Completed workflows'. To remove the completed workflow, you can perform a clean operation on it. To do so, select Actions > Clean from the entry of the workflow in the 'Completed workflows' table.
When cleaned a workflow is no longer visible in the view 'Completed workflows' but its history is still available from the technical administration area.
Note
This action is not available on sub-workflows launched from another workflow.
See also
Modifying the priority of a data workflow
After a data workflow has been launched, an administrator of the workflow can alter its priority level. Doing so changes the priority of all existing and future work items created by the data workflow. To change the priority level of a data workflow, select Actions > Modify priority from the entry of the workflow in the 'Active workflows' table.
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