Part 3: Workflow

1. In K2 Designer, edit the Leave Request Workflow. (Right-click the workflow name in the category tree, then select Edit.)
2. Click the Workflow Steps tab to expose the wizards if it is not already open. Drag a Send E-mail event into the approved outcome Placeholder event. Click Yes, for the confirmation dialog that asks if you want to change this step.



3. The e-mail event wizard opens. Expand the Context Browser, then Workflow Context. Drag the Originator Email into the To field.
Recall that the context browser provides dynamic values. Context browser properties are displayed as green blocks of text, so that you can easily distinguish them from other properties. At runtime, the context browser properties are replaced by "real" values. For example, in the image below, the Originator E-mail will be replaced by the actual email address of the form originator. Within the Workflow Context node, you will find a variety of properties that all relate to the current workflow in progress. Simply drop and drag any of these properties to use throughout your workflow.



4. For the Subject line, enter the following text, replacing the bracketed text [Title] with the Item Reference > Leave Request SmartObject > Leave Request Title found in the Context Browser.
   Your Leave Request is Approved: [Title]
Item References are "pointers" to values found in the SmartObject associated with the workflow. Where context browser properties are generally system-related values, item references are specific to the associated SmartObject. Once again, at runtime, K2 will replace the item reference with the actual value of the SmartObject record for the specific workflow instance.



5. Using the same approach as above, enter the following content into the message body, again replacing the bracketed text with the appropriate Item References properties from the context browser.
   
   Your Leave Request has been approved by your manager. Your request details are as follows:
   
   Leave Start Date: [Leave Start Date]
   Leave End Date: [Leave End Date]
   Leave Type: [Leave Type]
   
   Approver Comments: [Approver Comments]

Your email should look like the image below. Click OK when ready.



6. Double-click the Placeholder title of the step and change it to
   Email Originator Approved
7. In the basic Leave Request tutorial, you copied and pasted events to speed up the build process. You will do the same here. Begin by deleting the rejected side Placeholder so that you can paste the e-mail event you just created in its place. Right-click the Placeholder1 event and select Delete. Click Yes for the confirmation dialog that appears.



8. Next, you need to add back in the Continue outcome line, which will add a corresponding event holder. Hover over the Set Status Rejected event until you see the Workflow Step Outcomes icon (it looks like a blue mini-flowchart). (If you don't see the icon when hovering, click anywhere on the design canvas to refocus your mouse to the canvas, then try hovering again.) Click the icon when you can see it.



9. On the Workflow Step Outcomes configuration screen, click Add. Replace New Outcome with
   Continue
   then click OK. You should now see the continue line with an empty event box.
10. Copy the E-mail event you just configured. To copy an event in K2 Designer, click outside of the event box, then drag over the event to highlight it. Click Copy when the option menu opens. (If you get a dialog about allowing access to the clipboard, click Yes to continue.)



11. Right-click inside the empty event box and click Paste. You should now see the Email Originator event has been replicated. You need to make a few adjustments to reflect the rejected outcome.
12. Double-click the event to open its wizard. Change the Name to
    Email Originator Rejected
    then click Next.
13. There are no outcomes to configure, so click Next. Change the Subject line and the message body to reflect the manager's rejected decision. Use the image below as a guide, the changed values are underlined in red. Click Finish when ready.

STEP 5 REVIEW

In this step, you added an email event and customized the email using properties found in the context browser. The placeholder values from the context browser (indicated by green blocks in the wizard screens) will be replaced at runtime by K2 with the actual values for that instance of the workflow. The workflow context offers properties that contain details about the workflow itself, such as the workflow originator, originator's email, manager, folio and so on. Item references contain SmartObject property references. For example, the [Leave Request Title] item reference is replaced at runtime with whatever value was entered into the form's Leave Request Title field. This allows you to customize and personalize your workflow. You also discovered the ease of reusing content by copying and pasting events.

1. Double-click the Manager Approval user task to open its wizard. Enter a third action and name it
   Rework
   then confirm the option to Allow user to action the task without opening the Form is CHECKED. Confirm the option to Automatically generate Outcomes for the above Actions is CHECKED. Click Next to continue.
By allowing the user to action the task without opening the form, you are enabling SmartActions. SmartActions are a K2 feature that allows the user to simply reply to the email with the action entered in the message body. This eliminates the need for the approver to open the form, select an action, then submit the form. You will edit the task notification email message to let the user know they can action the task using SmartActions. Selecting the option to automatically generate outcomes will tell K2 to add another outcome line for the rework action.



2. There are no changes to the Linked To values, so click Next. The Leave Request Form is correct, so click Next. There are no changes to the work item rules, so click Next. There are no changes to the Participants, so click Next.
3. On the Event Notification Settings screen (email message/body content) CHECK the box to Customize the Notification Message. Notice that after you check the box, K2 adds the default task notification content in the message body. You are going to add additional text to the email so that the manager can approve, reject or rework the request using SmartActions.
Notice the paragraph in the email that contains the Work Item Context called Configured Actions. (Refer to the image below, blue dashed line.) At runtime, configured actions will be replaced with the actual actions you have configured (Approved, Rejected, Rework). Using SmartActions, the user can simply reply to the email with one of the actions as the message body.

For this step, you will add text to the notification email and customize the subject line. For the subject line, enter
Leave Request Submitted: [Leave Request Title]
then drag the Item References > Leave Request SmartObject > Leave Request Title to the end of the subject line, replacing the bracketed text. (See the image below as a reference if necessary.)

In the message body, just below the Dear Participant line, enter the following, dragging values from the context browser as needed for the fields contained in brackets.

A Leave Request has been submitted and now requires a decision by you. Please review the following details, then reply to this email with one of the decision actions as the email message body.

Employee Name: [Employee Name]

Leave Start Date: [Leave Start Date]

Leave End Date: [Leave End Date]

Leave Type: [Leave Type]

(Click Finish when ready.)



Notice that K2 has added a third action outcome with an event box. You will now add a user task for the form originator to either resubmit or cancel the request.



4. Drag a User Task (SmartForms) event into the new rework event box.



5. The User Task wizard opens. Name the new event
   Rework Request
   and enter the following for the Instruction:
   
   Your manager has requested that you rework your Leave Request. You may resubmit or cancel the request.
   
   For the actions, enter
   Resubmitted
   Canceled
   then click Next.
   



6. The Leave Request Form is correct, so click Next. There are no changes to the work item rules, so click Next.
7. On the Participants screen, drag the Originator into the Task Group box. CHECK the box to Notify participants when they receive a work item. To save time you will not customize the email content, so click Finish.



Now you want to configure the events for the two rework outcomes (Resubmitted and Canceled). First, you will route the resubmitted outcome back to the Set Status Submitted event so that the workflow returns to a previous step in the workflow. For the canceled outcome, you will copy and paste a Set Status event, then update the Request Status value so that it indicates the request was canceled.

8. Double-click the Rework Request user task to open its wizard. Click Next from the home screen. Change the Linked To value for the Resubmitted outcome to Set Status Submitted. Click Next until you can click Finish to complete this step (three times).



Notice now that K2 routes the Resubmitted outcome back to the Set Status Submitted event. This will create a loop effect in the workflow between the rework and resubmitted outcomes until a different action is selected.



9. Copy and paste the Set Status Submitted event into the Canceled event. (See Step 5 (j) if you need a reminder on how to copy and paste events in K2 Designer.)
10. Double-click the new Set Status Submitted1 event to open its wizard. Change the name to
    Set Status Canceled
    then click Next.
11. On the Workflow Step Outcomes screen, CHECK the box next to the Continue2 outcome and click Remove. (Depending on how you've worked through the steps, your outcome may have a slightly different name from Continue2.) Click Next.

You are removing this outcome because you don't need to continue the workflow after this step. If the decision is to cancel the request, then after the request status has been updated, the workflow will be complete.



12. Click Next to reach the input properties screen, then scroll down and change the Request Status value to
    Canceled
    then click Next. You do not need to change the ID value as it is telling K2 which record you want to update (the current record). Click Finish when ready.
    
13. Your completed workflow should look like the image below.



14. Save your work. (File > Save)

STEP 6 REVIEW

In this step you added a third action for the manager approval task. You customized the task notification email so that the manager can use SmartActions to action the task directly from the email. You added a user task for the form originator in the event the manager decides the request needs to be reworked. You routed the resubmitted outcome so that the workflow essentially starts over again if the originator resubmits the request. Finally, you added a system event to update the request status if the originator decides to cancel the request.

1. Click the Manager Approval event to highlight it. Right-click and select Escalations.
   
   
2. When the Add Escalation screen opens, click Add.
3. On the Escalation Settings screen, name the escalation
   Manager Approval Reminder
   then select the option Escalate On.
4. You want the escalation to fire 2 days before the leave start date. You will use an inline function to achieve this. In the context browser, expand the Inline Functions > Date and Time node and drag the AddDays function into the date field as shown below.
There are three options for escalations. The most common perhaps, is Email, where an email reminder is sent to the destination user (and optionally, the form originator) letting them know they have an outstanding task. You can choose to Redirect the task to another user or Expire the task, which essentially marks the task complete and moves the workflow on to the next step.



5. On the AddDays screen, expand Item References in the context browser and drag the Leave Start Date property into the Date and Time field. For the Days value, enter (minus 2)
   -2
   then click OK, then click Next.

Here, you are simply telling K2 that you want to kick off this escalation two days prior to the Leave Start Date.



6. On the Escalation E-mail screen, CHECK the boxes to send the notification to the participant and the originator. This will send the email to the manager and the form originator. See the screen shot below for guidance, if needed.
   For the subject line, enter
   REMINDER: Leave Request for [Originator Name]
   then expand the workflow context node in the context browser and drag the Originator Full Name into the subject line (replacing the bracketed text above).
   For the message body, enter the following (again replacing the bracketed text with item references).
   
   This is a reminder that the Leave Request [Leave Request Title] starting on [Leave Start Date] has not yet been approved. Please check your worklist items and process this request with your decision.


Click Finish when you are done to complete the Escalation wizard screen.



7. Your screen should look like the image below. Click OK to close the Activity Escalations screen.



8. Save your work.

STEP 7 REVIEW

In this step, you added an escalation to send an email reminder two days prior to the leave start date in the event the manager has not actioned the request yet. You customized the email to include details about the specific request and configured the email to route to the manager and the form originator.

1. Deploy the workflow (File > Deploy)

1. In K2 Designer, right-click the Leave Request Form and check it out (if it is not already), then Edit it.
2. Click the Rules tab in the Breadcrumb Bar. (A below) Highlight the Workflow Task state, then highlight the When the Form is Initializing rule. Click Edit Rule. (Once again, the Workflow Task state represents the form and view configuration that the approving manager will see.)



3. Rules: Events, Conditions and Actions
   As a reminder, rules consist of events, conditions and actions.

   • Events are when something occurs, such as clicking a button or when the form or view loads.
   • Conditions evaluate if a criteria has been met: if the condition is true, continue. For example, evaluating a required field to determine if the field contains a value.
   • Actions do something. If the event and condition passes, then perform the action, such as starting a workflow, or calling another rule, or enabling a form field.

In the Rule Definition pane, locate the condition that says if current Workflow Activity is Manager Approval. Notice that this condition already has an action to open the Manager Approval worklist item. K2 added this condition and action when you configured the Manager Approval user task. You want to add an action at this point to enable the Approver Comments field.



4. Confirm the Actions tab is highlighted. (A below) Click on the current action (then open the Manager Approval worklist item) to highlight it. In the Actions pane, scroll down until you see the Control Interaction heading. Click on the Set a View control's properties action to add it to the Workflow Activity condition, just below the open worklist item action as shown below.



5. Click the select View link and select Leave Request Item View. Click the select control link and select Approver Comments Text Area.



6. Click the (configure) link. On the Mapping Destinations screen, scroll down until you can see the General heading. Change the Read-Only setting from Yes to No. By turning off the read-only setting, the manager will be able to add comments when they open the form. Click OK. Click OK to return to the Rules home screen.

STEP 9 REVIEW

In Step 9, you edited the Workflow Task state, Form Initializing rule and enabled the Approver Comments field for the Manager Approval task. This will allow the approving manager to add comments to the request if they choose. This step demonstrated the power of states and how you can edit individual states to customize the form and view configurations for a specific task or event.

1. On the Rules home screen, confirm the Workflow Task state is highlighted, then click Add Rule.



2. Click the Events tab. (A below) Scroll down until you see the Workflow Events heading. Locate and click the After the Workflow action was submitted event to add it to the Rule Definition pane.



3. Now click the Actions tab and click to add the Execute a View method action to the Rule Definition pane. Click the select View link and select Leave Request Item View. Click the select method link and select Save.
The Save action saves the form field entries (Employee Name, Leave Start Date, etc.) to the Leave Request SmartObject. You will first specify the item view as the 'container' of the field entries you want to save. Then you will auto-map the view fields to the SmartObject. Auto-map is simply a time saver, as K2 will map all of the view fields to their corresponding SmartObject properties. K2 knows which fields correspond to which properties because the view was generated from the SmartObject in the first place.



4. Click the (configure) link. Click Auto-Map. (In some versions of K2 blackpearl, the ID property may be auto-mapped as well. Continue to the next step on editing the ID property.)



If the ID property has a value, you need to replace it with the correct SmartObject ID. If the ID property was left empty, you need to map the SmartObject ID to it.

When you auto-map the input properties, K2 creates a new record in the SmartObject and saves the form field entries to their corresponding SmartObject properties. While we want to save the form field entries, we don't necessarily want to create a new SmartObject record. Why is this? When you started the workflow, K2 created a placeholder of sorts in the SmartObject. (This is where the item references come from as well.) We want to save our record to the SmartObject that was started with the workflow, not create a new one. That is why we want to reference the SmartObject ID that already exists.
5. If there is an auto-mapped ID, click to the right of the ID value and backspace until you have removed it. With the field empty, expand the Leave Request Item View in the Context Browser, then expand the Leave Request SmartObject. Drag the SmartObject ID into the Input Properties >  ID field.
IMPORTANT: Be sure to complete this step. You want to use the SmartObject ID so that K2 knows you are updating the current record. If you use the auto-mapped ID, K2 will not recognize the value as the current record.

Click Finish. Click OK to close the Rule Designer.

STEP 10 REVIEW

In this step, you added a rule that will fire off the save method (which is the equivalent of update) for the Leave Request SmartObject with any changes the approving manager might have made.

1. First you will configure an action to clear the form entries upon submit. On the Rules home screen, highlight the Leave Request Workflow (Default) state, then the Create Button is Clicked rule. (The Leave Request Workflow (Default) state is the configuration for the form originator.) Click Edit Rule.



2. Confirm the Actions tab is highlighted, then click the Execute a View method action to add it to the Rule Definition pane. Click the select View link and select Leave Request Item View. Click the select method link and select Clear.

Sorting through events and actions: first you see an event for when the Create Button is Clicked. Then the Create method for the SmartObject fires and creates the record in the Leave Request SmartBox SmartObject. Then the workflow starts. Finally the Leave Request Item View is cleared.



Now you will update the Leave Request list view so that the new entry is displayed.

3. Click Execute a View method once again to add another instance to the Rule Definition pane. Click the select View link and select Leave Request List View. Click the select method link and select Get List. Click the (configure) link.
   
   
4. In this step, you will map the current user's email as the input property so that K2 knows to search the SmartBox records for those that have the same email value as the current user. In the context browser, expand System Values, then Current User and drag the Email property into the Employee Email Input Property. Click Finish.



You have one additional step you need before you close out of your form. In the previous step, you cleared the form entries when the user clicked the Create button. Now you need to add back in the Employee Name and Employee Email values so the refreshed form appears exactly the same as a brand new form. Recall that you configured the Employee Name and Employee Email values to be the current user values, which you again, obtain from the context browser, system values.

5. Still on the Actions tab, search for
   transfer
   then click Transfer data to add it to the Rule Definition pane. Click the (configure) link.



6. In the context browser, expand the System Values node, then Current User. Drag the Display Name into the Employee Name Text Box field and the Email into the Employee Email Text Box field. Click OK twice, then click Finish to save and exit the form.



7. Right-click the Leave Request Form and select Check In. If you get a message about associated Views, click OK to continue.

STEP 11 REVIEW

In this final step of configuring actions, you added a clear method so that the user will have a visual confirmation that their form was submitted. There are a number of mechanisms for letting your users know they have successfully submitted a form, including adding a confirmation pop-up message or redirecting them to a web page, for example. As you build more applications within your own environment, you will gain knowledge of what works best for your target users.

Now that your application changes are done, you will move on to Part 4: Test, to try out your application!