Process Designer

This section gives you details on how to lock and unlock a workflow and the functionality of Workflow when the feature Lock and Unlock is used.

How to lock and unlock Workflow

Workflow can be locked and unlocked manually or the auto lock and unlock feature can be used. Access the links below for more details on:

Manually Locking a workflow

A Workflow can be locked by selecting the Lock option from the context menu. The section below gives detailed instructions of how to lock and unlock a workflow:

Steps to Lock and Unlock a Workflow

Consider a scenario where Jack wants to lock the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' to ensure that no other user edits or modifies it.

1. Access Workflow List from the Enterprise Console.

2. Select workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits'.

3. Right-click on the workflow and select the option Lock from the context menu.

   Workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' gets locked and a lock icon is visible beside the workflow in the Workflow List.

   

4. Perform all required actions on the Workflow, such as designing, editing, defining/updating activity properties, publish.

   Note: Jack can design/edit the workflow multiple times, as the workflow is locked by him. Workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' will be locked even after Jack exits the Process Designer as they had explicitly locked the workflow from the context menu options. Jack has to Unlock the workflow, in order to allow others to edit it.

5. To unlock the workflow, select the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits'.

6. Right-click on the workflow and select the option Unlock from the context menu.

7. A message 'Item has been Unlocked' will be displayed. Click OK.

   Workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' will get unlocked and the lock icon beside the workflow will not longer be displayed. Other users will be able to modify the workflow.

Auto Locking of a workflow

A workflow gets auto locked when the options Edit or Design is selected. The workflows which get locked automatically will get unlocked when you save the changes or when the Process Designer is closed.

Consider a scenario where Jack is editing the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits'.

8. Access Workflow List from the Enterprise Console.

9. Select workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits'.

10. Right-click on the workflow and select the option Edit Workflow from the context menu.

    Or

    Select the Edit option from the ribbon bar.

    The Edit Workflow window of 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' is displayed.

11. Select the option Design a workflow and click Save & Continue. The Process Designer is displayed.

12. Minimize the Process Designer window and refresh the workflow list. An lock icon is visible beside workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits', which indicates the workflow was auto locked on selecting the edit option.

    

13. Click Publish and Test Run, save the changes and close the Process Designer.

14. Verify the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' in the workflow list.

    Workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' is unlocked automatically as Jack closed the Process Designer and the lock icon beside the workflow is no longer present.

Actions which are allowed or restricted on a locked Workflow at a glance

The table below lists out the actions which are allowed and which are restricted for a Locked workflow:

Note: User will be allowed to perform the above mentioned actions only if they have appropriate rights.

The table below categorizes the actions which locks the workflow and which do not lock the workflow

Impact of locking a workflow on the ribbon bar actions

When a workflow is locked by an user, any action performed from the ribbon bar which leads to modification of the workflow will be restricted for all other users. Only the lock owner will be able to perform all the actions from the ribbon bar. The scenario given below explains the behavior of the ribbon bar options when a workflow is locked:

Scenario:

John locks the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' to make some changes to it. Kevin logs-in to the Enterprise Console , accesses the Workflow list and selects the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' which is locked by John. Kevin will not be able to perform any action which leads to modification of the workflow, 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' as John has locked the workflow.

This section explains the behavior of the ribbon bar options when Kevin performs the actions given below:

• Design: When Kevin selects the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' and clicks on the Design option, a message ‘Item is currently locked by another user, John’, will be displayed.

• Edit: When Kevin clicks on the Edit option in the ribbon bar with the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' selected, a message ‘Item is currently locked by another user, John’, will be displayed.

• Delete: When Kevin tries to delete the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' using the ribbon option Delete, a message ‘Item is currently locked by another user, John’, will be displayed.

• Publish: With the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' selected, if Kevin clicks on the Publish icon in the ribbon bar, a message 'Item is currently locked by another user, John' will be displayed.

• Change Owner: Kevin will not be allowed to change the owner of the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits', using the Change Owner option in the ribbon bar, as the workflow is locked by John and a message ‘Item is currently locked by another user, John will be displayed.

• Associate: Kevin will be allowed to Associate the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' to Enterprise console even though it is locked by John.

• Organize: Kevin can use this feature, and re-organize the workflow list items, as Lock will not be considered for Organize.

  Note: John who locked the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' will be able to perform all the above mentioned actions as no restrictions will be levied for the lock owner.

Impact of locking a workflow on the Context Menu options

When a workflow is locked by an user, all the context menu options of the locked workflow will not be available for the other users. The scenario in the section below explains the behavior of the context menu options when a workflow is locked:

Scenario

John locks the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' to make some changes to it. Kevin logs in to the Enterprise Console , accesses the Workflow List and selects the workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' which is locked by John. However, Kevin will not be able to perform any action which leads to modification of the workflow, 'Employee Compensation and Benefits'. Context menu options which Kevin can view and use for the locked workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' are:

• View Workflow

• Export Workflow

• Create Associations

• Dissociate

• View Associations

• Unlock

• Show Child Item

• Show All Versions

• View Audit History

• View Properties

• View Exceptions

Context menu options which Kevin cannot view and use for the locked workflow 'Employee Compensation and Benefits' are:

• Design Workflow

• Edit Workflow

• Publish

• Publish and Test Run

• Import Workflow

• Lock

• Save As

• Disable

• Delete

• BAM Configuration

• Change Owner

• Tasks

• Security settings

Tasks

The table below explains whether the workflow will remain locked or will get unlocked on selecting the options available in the Workflow Tasks window if the selected workflow is auto locked.

Context menu options available for Lee who is an administrator at repository level are:

• View Workflow

• Export workflow

• Create Associations

• Dissociate

• View Associations

• Unlock

• Show Child Item

• Show All Versions

• View Audit History

• View Properties

• View Exceptions

  Note: Since Lee is a administrator at repository level, they can see the Unlock option in the context menu and can use it to Unlock the workflow.

Features

• Workflow will get auto locked only when the options Design or Edit are selected.

• When a workflow is locked, the child workflows will not get locked and other users can work on it.

  Scenario

  Consider a workflow Finance - Fiscal year 2011- 2012, which has the following child items

  • Incentive / Bonus

  • Contract employee's compensation

  • Employee Provident Fund calculator and contribution

    Login to Enterprise Console as John, access Workflow list .

    Select the workflow Finance - Fiscal year 2011-2012 and lock it by selecting the Lock option from the context menu.

    Log out and login as Kristen and navigate to the workflow list.

    Workflow Finance - Fiscal year 2011-2012 is locked and a red lock icon beside it indicates it is locked by a different user.

    Double click workflow Finance - Fiscal year 2011-2012 to access its child workflows.

    A list of child workflows of Finance - Fiscal year 2011-2012 is displayed. Verify the lock status of the child workflows.

    The child workflows of Finance - Fiscal year 2011-2012 are not locked though the parent workflow is locked. Hence, Kristen will be allowed to modify it if required.

• When a workflow is locked, all the versions of that particular workflow will get locked.Scenario

  Consider a workflow Leave Approval Workflow, which has four versions

  Scenario

  Log into Enterprise Console as Lee and access Workflows List.

  Select the workflow Leave Approval Workflow which has four versions and lock it.

  Log out and log in as Lan, access Enterprise Console > Workflows List.

  Select the locked workflow Leave Approval Workflow, right click on it and select the option Show All Versions.

  All the versions of Leave Approval Workflow is displayed, wherein you cannot see the Lock icon and determine if the versions are locked or not.

  Select a version and click the Edit icon in the ribbon bar.

  A message 'Item cannot be edited because it is locked by the user Lee' is displayed. This indicates the versions are also locked, though a lock icon is not present beside the workflow versions.

See Also

Forms Designer

List Designer