Workflows

Use the Workflows page to manage workflows. You can open, edit, delete or schedule workflows.

Users with the Administrator role can see all workflows across the tenancy.

Nintex for Office 365 uses the native SharePoint list and site workflows. For more information about workflow types, see Types of Workflows.

Open the Workflows page

Do one of the following to open the Workflows page:

  • From a Site List or Document Library, or the Site Contents page:
    • On a SharePoint Site Contents page, click the Nintex Workflow for Office 365 app.
    • On a SharePoint List or Document Library page, click Nintex Workflow on the top ribbon.
  • If you are on a different page on the Workflow Gallery, click Workflows on the left menu.

Types of Workflows

Nintex for Office 365 uses the native SharePoint list and site workflows.

Create workflows

Save your workflow

Saving a workflow allows you to save workflows to work on and publish later. Note that saving a workflow, whether new or existing, does not publish the workflow.

  1. From the toolbar at the top of the Designer page, click Save.
  2. In the Save dialog box, fill in the fields and then click Save. For more information about the fields and settings in the Save dialog box, see Save dialog box fields and buttons.

Edit workflow

Do one of the following to open the workflow in the Designer to edit as required:

  • On the Workflows page, click the name of the workflow you want to open.
  • On the right of the workflow you want to open, click  and then select the option you want from the menu.

Publish your workflow

Publishing a workflow makes it available to start depending on how it is configured. When you publish the workflow, you must specify if the workflow is counted against your workflow subscription license as production or development.

  1. From the toolbar at the top of the Designer page, click Publish.

  2. In the Publish dialog box, fill in the fields and then click Publish. For more information about the fields and settings in the Publish dialog box, see Publish dialog box fields and buttons.

Workflow failure alerts

You can configure a workflow to send an email notification to a user if an instance of the workflow fails. The alert that includes details of instances of the workflow that failed is sent as an email notification to the users selected.

One or both of the following users can be selected to send the notification to from the Publish dialog box when you are publishing the workflow:

  • Last user to modify the workflow
  • Workflow owner
Note: 
  • Alert notifications are sent only for failed production workflows.
  • The notification will include details of instances of the workflow that failed during a certain period. One email will include an aggregation of the failed instances that occurred during that period of time and the maximum number that will be shown in one email is 100.
  • Notifications for a failed workflow will not be sent instantly and it may take up to six hours from the time the workflow fails to receive a failure notification.

Setup a user to receive workflow failure alerts

  1. From the toolbar at the top of the Designer page, click Publish.

  2. In the Publish dialog box, under Alerts select the user to send the alert notification to.

    • If the Workflow owner option is selected you must select a user in the Workflow owner field.

    For more information, see the detailed descriptions of the Workflow failure alerts and Workflow owner fields in Publish dialog box fields and buttons.

Unpublish a workflow

You can unpublish a workflow using the SharePoint workflow setting page. When you remove a Nintex for Office 365 workflow, it is no longer available for users to start. However, the workflow continues to be available as an unpublished workflow.To unpublish a workflow

  1. In the SharePoint site, open the Workflow Settings page for the list, library, or site on which the workflow is published.
  2. On the Workflow Settings page, click Remove, Block, or Restore a Workflow.
  3. On the Remove Workflows page, click Remove for the workflow that you want to remove, and then click OK.

Import and Export workflows

You can import and export Nintex for Office 365 workflows to and from Office 365 lists, libraries, and sites. Workflows exported fromNintex for Office 365 are saved as .nwp files.

Note: 

Things to consider:

  • Only site workflows can be imported to a site; only list workflows can be imported to a list or document library.
  • Importing a workflow overwrites any existing workflow of the same name. The existing version is not retained or retrievable by default in Nintex for Office 365. To retain the existing version, you should first export the workflow. For more details about best practices when importing workflows, see Workflow version control.

Export a workflow

  1. Open the workflow that you want to export.
  2. On the Toolbar, click Export. The browser determines if the site is trusted and then initiates the file download process.

Note: If the file download process does not begin, then the browser may not trust the site. To configure your browser to trust the site, add the Office 365 domain to your trusted sites.

  1. Respond to prompts from the web browser to download and save the workflow.

Import a workflow

  1. Open the designer for the destination list, library, or site. For more information, see Designer.
  2. On the Toolbar, click Import. The Choose file to upload dialog box is displayed.
  1. Select the workflow file you want to open (.nwp), and then click Open. The workflow opens in the designer.