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Workflow Rules

Workflow rules define the behavior of how topics change states. When creating a topic category, admins can select to use either a static workflow or a worflow rule (available as a drop down in the Categories administration panel).

Workflow rules are composed with topic status decisions that can use control ops (IFs, FORs, ...) and stash variables.

When to use Workflow rules

Workflow rules should be used for implementing complex status change workflows that depend on topic data, such as the project it belongs to. If your workflow is dead simple, just use the simple workflow designer available in the Categories panel.

Recommendations

We recommend using as many Workflow palette as possible and use as little CONTROL operations as possible. Keep the workflow simple and neat so that it can be understood by users.

The reason for this is that the user sometimes will click on the topic workflow diagram button to understand your workflow. The graphical representation of a Workflow rule is an exact match of each op in your rule.

  • Give meaningful names to your ops

  • Don't use the almighty Change Topic Status If Matches op, because it can potentially hide away the workflow in one big black box. If you use it, put a long op name that describes what it does.