Delete a workflow

You can delete a workflow from the Designer, Workflow Designer, and from Management. When deleting a workflow, it is important to understand the type of version you are deleting and the impact of doing so.

To access the Workflow Designer you need Designer rights in the Management site. This also allows you to create, edit, and delete workflows in the designer.
To deploy a workflow you need Export rights on the Workflow Server. For more information and how to grant rights, see the Server rights topic.

When deleting a workflow keep in mind the following:

  • You can delete a workflow that is not yet deployed or saved as a draft, this means no version has yet been created of the workflow.
  • You can delete a minor or major version of the workflow from the Designer and from Workflow Designer. Note that these are only the design time versions of the workflow.
  • You can delete a major version of the workflow in Management. This is the runtime version of the workflow and to do this, you must have administration rights.

Minor version - When you select to save a draft, a minor version of the workflow is created. The second digit of the version is increased, for example 1.0 to 1.1. A minor version is a design time version only, and managed in the Designer and Workflow Designer. Once deleted from design time, the version is no longer available.

Major version - When you select to deploy a workflow, a major version of the workflow is created. The first digit of the version is increased, for example 1.0 to 2.0. A major version shows in design time in the Designer and Workflow Designer, and is also stored as a runtime version in Management. While working with a major version in design time, the version can be edited and deleted, but is not deleted from the runtime versions list in Management. This allows you to have a clean design time experience, while all major versions are still available in Management if you need to manage or download the version at a later stage.

Design time vs runtime versions

See the table below to better understand the differences between design time and runtime versions of a workflow.

Version Description
Design time
  • Managed in the Designer and Workflow Designer.
  • Minor and major versions of a workflow.
  • Require the same permissions as when editing a workflow.
  • Typically used as a short term solution to test, roll back, or to compare the differences between versions to see what has changed for troubleshooting purposes while designing your workflow.
Runtime
  • Managed in Management.
  • Only major versions of a workflow.
  • Require administration rights.
  • Typically used as a long term solution to keep record of what has changed in the workflow over time.

For more information on how to delete a workflow instance, see the Management - Workflow Instances topic.