Knowledge Base

Actions are commonly used in WEBCON BPS to design the processes and individual workflows. They are performed without any user interaction and defined on the transition paths or steps. An example actions perform such activities as calculating the field value, making an entry to AD, sending an e-mail. While working with WEBCON BPS they will appear situations (at the stage of creating the processes, testing or using already implemented solution) when you are not sure whether the action was correctly triggered.

If an employee is absent, their tasks can be automatically passed to another person. Read this article to learn how to configure substitutions in WEBCON BPS. WEBCON BPS allows you to use this workflow automation in many places. One of the options for setting the substitutions is to use the actions in the “Substitutions” category in WEBCON BPS Designer Studio.

In WEBCON BPS a frequently used function is to generate automatic documents based on DOCX or HTML templates. This article explains how to change the current document template that has been created in the process of document templates. Using the system process that creates a document templates library allows you to easily update the existing printout templates. All you have to do is assign the privileges to a specific user and they can manage their own templates.

The ability of generating printouts is one of the functionalities in WEBCON BPS (e.g. car reservation, order or shopping list) – thanks to the MS Word add-in. This article describes how to Install the add-in. To install the add-in, go to the WEBCON BPS Portal, click on your profile icon and then, click the “Install MS Office add-ins” -> “Word” option. The MS Word add-in to the WEBCON BPS gives you a lot of abilities to create printouts. You can easily create a printout and implement them for your business needs.

In WEBCON BPS you can create simple workflows consisting of several steps and form fields, but you can also use the subworkflows mechanism. The following article describes the action connected to subworkflows – “Update related workflow instance”. This action allows you to change the value of the form fields in the parent workflow. More experienced system users can associate the previous name of this action, which was changed in the 2016 release – it was previously called “Update the parent workflow”.

In WEBCON BPS Portal there is the ability of viewing instances created in the system. The article presents the ability of displaying instances according to a given key – search structures. The searching structure allows for viewing instances without the ability of defining the report. In a few moments you can search the structure and find the instance you are interested in. On the main screen of the panel on the left there is a “Searching structure” list – after clicking on them, the “Archive” system structure will appear on the screen. After selecting them a list of applications existing in the system will appear – select the application you are interested in.

In WEBCON BPS the individual steps require tasks to be performed by a specific user or group of users. The appropriate design of a process and the correct assignment of tasks can improve the performance of daily duties, document processing and company management.The article describes the idea of assigning tasks to groups – on the example of BPS groups, available from the 2019 version. Tasks in the system can be assigned to the specific users, defined at the level of a specific workflow. However, when the company structure changes, then it will be necessary to make additional changes in the workflow configuration in WEBCON BPS Designer Studio.

WEBCON BPS allows you to start workflows in several ways. In addition to a manual start by the user, instances can also be launched by the system using dedicated actions. The "Start a subworkflow" action allows you to start a workflow within the same application. By using them you can start only one workflow instance – in this case it will be creating an additional task in the Design process. The "Start a subworkflow (SQL) action allows you to start a workflow instance(s) within the same BPS application and differs from the previous with its “Data” tab, and in that it is not possible to save and store the IDs of started workflow instances in form fields.

One of the methods to start a bpm workflow in WEBCON BPS is to use REST API BPS. It can be especially useful in situations such as:

1) Data exchange between different WEBCON BPS instances – e.g., there is an internal application for your organization and a public application available for your clients.
2) Data exchange with external systems e.g., CRM, ERP.

To give you an idea of how you can use it, let us show you how the REST API can be used to start a workflow in the design process.

There are situations in which, after going through a path, you will need to go back to one of the previous steps of the workflow e.g. when the form has been incorrectly completed or you forgot to add an attachment to the instance. The article describes two basic configuration methods: Moving back an instance to the defined step and Moving back an instance to the previous step using the “Back to the previous step” predefined option. Using using more advanced types of configuration e.g. using the system step where, on the appropriate condition, the instance moves back to the defined step – you can create intricate combinations specifically tailored to your scenario.