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Workflow application

Blog: Comidor Blog

Comidor platform offers the ability to design your own workflow apps through App Designer, without using any coding. Making a simple or more advanced workflow app is easier than ever, even for non-developer users. Comidor guides you with simple steps, in order to publish your idea.

There are various types of applications provided in Comidor App Designer. You can choose the one that fits better your needs from the following options:

1. Table applications: 
   • Sequential apps (with workflows)
   • Process-based workflow apps
   • Simple Non-process based apps (Data-driven)
2. Report applications
3. Kanban applications

Let’s see step-by-step how to create and run a workflow app.

Workflow Application

The workflow app is a table process-based application. Choose this type when you want to monitor processes that include few or many steps, manual or automated, with multiple paths and business rules, with scheduling, state, completion, etc. With workflow apps, designers can easily map and orchestrate the business process steps with Comidor powerful workflow engine, which is compliant with BPMN 2.0.

Access App Designer

In order to access App Designer go to the main menu on the left side of your screen and select the icon App Factory > Application Builder > App Designer

 

 

In the new unit that opens, click on the button Create an App.

 

Create App

• Click on the “Create an App” icon to create a new workflow app. The creation form opens.

• In the Application Type select Table Application.

• Give the Application Name and Description.
• You can also classify your app in a proper Category. Choose one Category from the existing options, or make a new Category. Categorization helps you find easier your apps in the App Designer. Based on the category you choose, the app is also displayed on the respective sub-menu.
• Collaborators are the users or groups that have access rights to this App. Choose one or more users(s), Group(s) from the list.
• Leave the option Process enabled checked. If so, you are able to link a Workflow to your App.
• Uncheck the option Is sequential.
  • If you leave it checked, you will create a Sequential app. You can then, switch to BPMN 2.0 in step 2. Once you switch to BPMN, you will be able to see the respective steps represented in a sequential workflow diagram, where you can add more steps and rules. Your app will no longer be sequential.
• There is an option to upload an Image for your App.
• Click Save to create your App, or Close to cancel.

Once you save your app, you are redirected to the view form. Comidor guides you through simple steps to design your App.

 

1. Dashboard

In the step Dashboard, you get an overview of your application. In particular, you are able to view:

• Quick Stats:
  • Number of forms, Steps and Widgets that are created in this app
  • Graphs that show the application activity timeline and the Apps Overview status.
• Basic Info:
  • the Type, Category, and other parameters
  • You can click on the pencil button to edit the above info
  • You can lock your app by checking on the Locked option. With this option, only the user that locks the app will be able to edit the app (in all steps). All the rest users will just be able to view the app, but can not edit it.
  • By checking the Has customizations option, the application will not be exportable.
  • Put a flag to remember if this application Has application parameters.
• Collaborators: the users or groups that have access rights in this App.
• Comments: an area where users that have access can write and view comments.

 

2. Process

In the second step, you can fully design your process in terms of the number and the looks of the process steps, your Data model, Table View and User forms.

Workflow

Define one by one the steps of your workflow application, or Switch to BPMN design for more advanced applications. Each step is actually a workflow task in BPMN 2.0, with assignees, one form and fields linked to it. Click on “Create the first step of your application”.

Find out more about Sequential apps here.

• You have the option to Switch to BPMN design, in the Process step.

• A confirmation pop-up appears.

• If you click Yes, you will be able to see the respective steps represented in a sequential workflow diagram, where you can add more steps and rules. Your app will no longer be sequential but a workflow app.

With Comidor BPMN 2.0 designer, you can map and optimize any process that takes place in your company.

• Drag-n-drop any workflow components from the left side panel, into your pool.
• Define the attributes of each component
• Draw the sequence of your steps and define your business rules
• Make sure you connect all alternative paths with one or more End components.

Basic Components

Comidor offers the following BPMN 2.0 basic components:

• Tasks and escalations
• Subprocess
• Email
• SMS
• Notification
• Timer
• AND/OR/XOR gateways
• Annotation
• End

Integration Components

Additionally, designers can cover their integration needs with the following components:

• RESTful Web Service
• Message Queue
• Teams integration
• Google integration
• Zoho projects API
• Zoho leads API
• Freshdesk API
• Salesforce API

Data Components

Designers can use low-code data components for data input and output:

• Comidor DATA (insert/update/delete)
• Shell Command
• File Reader
• Export Data
• Convert Data
• Digital Signature
• Document Creator
• QR Generator
• Table Extractor
• Excel Processor
• Graph Creator
• SQL Creator

RPA Workflow Components

Other workflow elements can be added within the workflow design to enhance automation in business processes with RPA and ML/AI. Those components are:

• RPA Caller/ Receiver
• Sentiment Analysis
• Document Analyzer
• Text Classification
• Predictive ML
• Selenium RPA
• Image Classification
• Web Scraper

 

Learn more about each Workflow Component in detail.

Data Model

• When you open the Data model tab, you will see a sub-table with the following columns icon, size, column name, created by, created on, last updated by, last updated on, the pin and multi checkboxes.
• You can see the existing and/or add all fields that you want to be used in the App here.  You can click on the “+” to create your own custom fields.
• Click on the refresh icon, and the table should be updated.
• Type a keyword in the search area, click enter and the table should be refreshed displaying results that match the keyword.

• Click on an existing field, to view its basic info: By default, you will see Entity, Label, Auto-generate name, Column name, Type, Default Value, Store Type, Tooltip and Security Level. Connected Forms tab: you view the list of forms this field is used.

Table View

• Determine which columns you wish your App to have in the main table. By default, you should see all the table fields you have created in the steps and will be added ad columns in your application table. Each field has pencil and x buttons.
• You can add more Columns, by clicking on the “+” icon and selecting the desired field, or drag-n-drop from the list of the available fields.
  • A pop-up appears to add a column. Choose a field from the list (both custom fields and process fields are available).
  • Add a label name. If left empty, the column gets the field name.
  • Prefix or Suffix to be displayed before or after the value of each entry
  • Select the preferred alignment
  • Define the preferred width in percentage to be displayed as default in the summary table
  • Other options like set as Not sortable and Hidden are available, too.
  • Click save to add this column to your table, or cancel.

• Drag and drop the field columns, in order to re-arrange their position in the Table View.
• You can select one or more columns and delete them from Table View if you wish.
• Click on the edit button to make any changes you need to each column.
• Click on the x button to remove this field from the Application table.
• Switch to mobile view, to get a preview of your Application table in a browser of a mobile device. Choose a preferred device (mobile, tablet)

Forms

All forms included in this App are visible in the tab User Forms. Create new or edit the existing ones here.

•  By default, no form is chosen. The message “You haven’t selected a form. Please select one!” is shown. Select a form, ok and plus buttons are available.
• Click on the “+” icon. A pop-up window appears to define the title of your new form. Click on Save to save your form and you are directed to the form designer.
• On the left side of your screen, you can see the Blocks(panel, section, code, paragraph, style, group), a list of fields available to be included in your form and a preview of the form. Search the desired fields and add them easily to your form with drag-n-drop.
• Click on a field and a pop-up appears where you can add properties for each field. You can define mode, label, tooltip, pattern, pattern error message, required, alignment, placeholder, element CSS, Element CSS Class, label position, size, hidden, Trigger event scripts on user entry, Disable changes by scripts on this field, is Area, and Area Size.
• On the right side of the screen, you should see the following fields in the Basic tab: Record type Title Access Main Primary Quick. And in the Advanced tab: Position, Form Division, Script before open, Script before edit, Script before save, Template File, Mobile Form, Approve/ Reject form.
• The following buttons are also available in the form designer: Add tabs, mobile view, toggle fullscreen, publish, copy and delete.
  • You can also make a form Main, which means it will be visible in the main record as a tab. State the position of each form that you want to display.
  • For the form, you want to start the App with, select the option “Replace existing form” in the field Primary, if you wish to initiate your app from the “+” icon of the summary table of the App.
  • In the Quick field, you can choose the form to be visible in the quick add menu or in the process templates list, if you wish to initiate your app from the Quick add menu.
• Don’t forget to Publish your form after finishing your design.

• Furthermore, you can edit the existing forms from the tab Forms. You can select one from the list and click OK.

 

 

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3. Graphs

In step 3, you can design your app Graphs or Widgets. Comidor Widgets are the ideal choice for data visualization. Get the most updated data on the visualization format you define.

• Create your own personalized dashboard in seconds.
• Combine multiple views of data to get richer insight.

You can easily create a new Graph, by clicking on the “+” icon.

Find out more about all types of Widgets and how to create them.

4. Advanced

Get the most out of the App Builder with this advanced options step by including user tabs in your records or the table of your app, event scripts and field rules to show or hide fields, sections or tabs in forms when specific conditions are met. This step is available only for Table applications (non-process & process enabled).

User Tabs

Use tabs to have complete control over the accessibility of your application.

• The tabs appear inside records (as a tab at the left part of the record) or at the summary table of the application.
• A tab can be a table from any Comidor entity, HTML, or widget.

• You can easily create a new Tab, by clicking on the “+” icon
• The Record type is by default the name of the App and disabled
• Select the Type of Tab you wish to create (Table, HTML, or Widget)
  • In Type Table:
    • Give a Title to the Tab
    • In the View Tab in: choose record.
    • Select Query: the query to define which fields to be fetched as columns from which tables
    • Where Clause: type a specific condition to be met
    • Access Code defines who can access this tab
  • Select Type HTML when you want to add guidelines or other important information for a specific app:
    • Give a Title to the Tab
    • In the View Tab in: choose record or table.
    • Access Code defines who can access this tab
    • Unit-action – insert the HTML here

1. • Type Widget: a tab to monitor all the widgets (general or application widgets)
     • Give a Title to the Tab
     • In the View Tab in: choose the table option.
     • Access Code defines who can access this tab
     • After saving this tab, click on Add widget button to Select the widget you would like to be displayed
     • All added widgets are displayed on Linked widgets. You can click on the ‘-‘ to remove a widget from this tab.

Event Scripts

In this tab, you are able to write scripts for a certain Data Type to be executed before/after/on a specific event.

Click on the “+” icon to create a new Event script:

• Add the Procedure Name.
• Choose the Data Type (apprec, task, process, dataset) and define where you want the script to be applied.
• An Event Type can be inserted, updated, deleted, etc.
• In the Procedure Body add your code.
  •  This is for advanced users to write their procedures.

Field Rules

5. Configuration

In this step, you can make the configuration of the workflow application.

• Decide what you would like to include from the Basic options
  • Notes, Tags, and Links
  • The ability to create, edit and/or delete an entry
  • Decide if you want to have the print/export options in the summary table of this app
  • You can set the app to Automatically start the process, which means the state of the app is set to running and the workflow starts as well.
  • Define a Primary Field (Record Identity: Appears in lists, etc). From the drop-down list, choose one of the fields you created in step 2.

• Customise your data by:
  • Setting a Prefix and Suffix to the app and an Incremental No Field; select a number field from Data Model for which you want to auto-populate a number. eg. for this app the requests will get SR.1, SR.2, etc.
  • Selecting a default categorization for the table view based on a specific field (Title, Priority, etc.) – up to level 3.
  • Choosing a specific field to display the Summary table ordered by ascending or descending order.
  • Granting rights to your app; define to whom each entry is assigned, send notifications, Admin 1,2, and Supervisor. Choose users, groups, or dynamic options such as Creator, creator’s manager, etc.
  • Setting up to 3 numeric fields, to be displayed in the table as Totals (Sum fields 1, 2, 3).

• You can fully customise the app layout, by selecting font sizes and colours in CSS Design options.

6. Analytics

The Analytics step provides the designers, with insights into each Workflow’s real-time usage.

Dashboard tab: Set Analytics Filters to get the results you wish.

• • Narrow your results to tasks that were assigned to a specific user or group.
  • Select the period of time you are interested in.
  • Click on Refresh and the following graphs are populated: Analytics Totals, Instances per State, Tasks per User, Delayed tasks per User, Tasks per Team, Delayed tasks per Team

• Pinpoint the total and delayed instances and tasks that were created within one workflow. Cost is calculated based on the duration of each task multiplied by the cost rate of the user that completes each task. See more in the Services unit.

Analytics Preview tab: Set Analytics Filters to get the results you wish.

• Choose between Total or Delayed Tasks to be displayed.
• Monitor the Duration and Cost of each step.
• Select the period of time you are interested in.
• Click on Refresh. The diagram is updated and in each task, for each chosen filter a row is added with the data from the run time. (value & percentage).

• View workflow analytics with the “Delayed Task” Filter to measure the scheduled time and the actual time it took for a task to be completed. This feature enables users to identify bottlenecks.  Each task will have the chosen filters ((Total tasks, Delayed tasks, Cost, Duration, ineffective KPIs) with counter & percentage. The tasks with delays will be highlighted in red, whereas with no delays in green.

• View workflow analytics with the “Total Task” Filter to measure how many times every task is executed in total. This will identify your “critical path”, and your process “optimal path” and ultimately helps identify where the focus should be on, for better resource management.

 

Publish

Finally, click on the Publish button in order to Publish your app.

Your workflow app is ready to use!

Note that you can also create an Application with NLP in just 4 steps. Find out more here.

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Edit Apps

If you want to edit an existing workflow app, go to the main menu on the left side of your screen and select the icon App Factory > Application Builder > App Designer. From the list of applications, select the one you wish to edit.

• You can navigate through steps 1-6 by clicking on the respective step and applying any change you wish. Do not forget to publish your changes.
• You can delete a User App if you wish.  Open the App you want to delete, and from the actions button, click on the Delete option.
  • A confirmation pop-up will appear. Click Confirm to proceed with the deletion or cancel.
  • You can also check the Linked Entities that will be affected in the respective tab.

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Run App

• While viewing an app in the App Designer, you can easily run your workflow app! Click on the Play button on the top right of your screen and the quick add form of this app is populated.
• In case there is no quick add form, a respective message appears and you are directed to step 2, in User forms to create a new quick add form.

See the Table

Users can apply the following actions in the table workflow apps:

• Access the table (based on the access rights that are specified by the designer)
• Print or export the table results
• Apply filters, categorize and search within each table
• Access, edit or delete each record
• View records in table or graph views
• In the graph view, pie, bar, or stack charts can be easily created with real-time data and the desired filtering.

• In order to view the User Apps you created and published through App Designer, go to the menu on the left side of your screen, and select the Packages Icon. A list of all the published apps will be displayed here under the category you chose in Step 1 of App designer. In case no Category is chosen, the app is shown below Custom Apps.
• Select the one you wish to access and it will open in a new tab.

 

By clicking on the “+” icon you can create a new entry of this app. (In order to see the “+” icon, you should have checked first the respective option in the Configuration step of App Designer). A new tab opens with the form that was created in the App Designer. Fill in the fields and click on Save to add this entry.

See the Record

In a workflow app, the record looks as below:

• In the process record, you will see all the default Process summary form, and any main forms you have created in the App designer step 2. If you have

• • Since the App is process-based and linked with a workflow it will have State (Opened, Scheduled, Running, etc.) and also some more Tabs in the left-side menu, such as Workflow tasks, attachments, and workflow audit.
    • Keep in mind that the process state needs to be “Running” in order for the workflow to start.
    • Every time a new task is assigned to a user, the user will be notified in his calendar. The user can open the task and view the connected form (if any). Once the task is completed, the workflow will move on to the next step.
    • Click on the tab “Workflow tasks” to see the tasks that have been created so far in a table grid. In particular, you can view which task is completed, by whom, when and its scheduled and actual duration.

• • • Get real-time data for every workflow step via the Workflow Run Diagram, which is the graphical representation of the entire workflow design that highlights the completed and pending steps in different colours along with start and end times and the paths that the flow follows.

 

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