Instance numbers in WEBCON BPS

Applies to version 2019.1; author: Jarosława Markopolska

Introduction

The instance number is a unique string of characters in the system (e.g., EXP/2020/09/00002) that uniquely identifies each workflow instance, and it is created when the instance is first saved. This number will always refer to the same instance and there is no option to change them, even by administrators. 

A properly configured structure of the instance number facilitates searching for instances (without knowing their ID number) and viewing reports.

This article describes the methods of configuration the instance number and the advantages of defining appropriate signatures for your document management workflow.

Instance number configuration

Instance numbers can be defined on two different levels – workflows or form types. However, only one of them will be set by the system (if both are defined at the same time, the instance will be assigned the number defined in the form type).  

A simple workflow has been created that contains three form types – Domestic travel (DOM), Foreign travel (FOR), and Local travel (LOC):

1. On the instance workflow level – this instance number is taken into account only if the form instance number (for which the workflow was started) is not defined or set as “Use workflow instance number”.

Fig. 1. The form instance number

In the workflow configuration in the “Instance number” section, the example number structure has been configured (Fig. 2):

Form type/Year/Month/number in a month

Fig. 2. Instance number settings on the form level

In this way, subsequent numbers will be assigned throughout the entire workflow, without distinguishing between types of instances. For example, if you register one instance of each type, their instance numbers will look like this:

• DOM/2020/09/000001
• FOR/2020/09/000002
• LOC/2020/09/000000

2. On the form type level – if the “Use workflow instance number” option is not selected, the instance will have the number defined in this place (Fig. 3):

Fig. 3. Instance number setting on the workflow level

In this case, the numbers will be assigned within each form type. So documents will have the following instance numbers:

• DOM/2020/000001
• FOR/2020/000001
• LOC/2020/000001

For both examples, the numbering will reset on each subsequent calendar year.

There is also the third more advanced method of creating instance numbers – by using the SDK plugin (this method is not described in this article).

Instance number structure

In WEBCON BPS Designer Studio there is the option to configure a custom instance number. In the “Instance field” section select the “Custom” option and use system form fields and context variables (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. The custom instance number

The screenshot shows an example instance number configured in this way:

Fig. 5. Instance number on the form

Important! If you decide to include the form field value in the instance number configuration, remember that the number is assigned when the instance is first saved. This will require validation that checks if the value is given in the form field and if has not changed. If no value is given in the form field, there is no ability to going through any path or save the instance. This prevents incorrect instance number creation.

Instance numeration

In the “Instance number” field there is a list of instances (Fig. 6):

Fig. 6. Expression edition

In addition to the previously described numbering within the current year, WEBCPN BPS also offers numbering within the month, days, “Date and time” form fields type and continuous numbering (without including the date). The option with date is particularly useful in processes where the date of the registration in the workflow does not always correspond to e.g. the date of creation the document by an employee.

A good example can be the contract archive where you want to register all contracts – concluded even several years before the implementation of WEBCON BPS, and the contract date should be visible in the instance number.

There is also the ability of numbering within business entities and logins. If WEBCON BPS supporting many business entities, you can number instances separately for each of them. It allows you to avoid a situation where people having access to all instances of the company A do not know what the numbering gap is caused, while these numbers have been assigned to instances registered in the company B.

Instance numbering can be defined with autocomplete up to a certain number of characters (maximum 20). This means that all numbers will be prefixed with zeros to match their length to the selected length. For example, if you select autocomplete up to 6 characters and register the 15th document in turn – its number will be 000015.

Instances searching

To search an instance in WEBCON BPS Portal, enter an instance number in the search field (Fig. 7):

Fig. 7. Searching instances

To make it easier for users to find appropriate instances based on their numbers, you can configure the SWE reports in such a way that the search field after the instance number is displayed by default.

Fig. 8. Searching instances on the report

To get the effect as shown in the screenshot above, in the "Search" section, select "Show results immediately" and turn on the visibility of the search panel (Fig. 9).

Fig. 9. Search panel configuration

Good practices:

• The instance number should be carefully considered before starting the production process. You can edit the template at any time, but this is not the recommended solution. It can disrupt the continuity of the numbering of subsequent signatures so the numbers of the already created instances will not be changed in any way.
• Before selecting the numbering within the year, month or day, it is worth estimating how many documents can be registered in each of these time units and, on that basis, decide on how to narrow down the numbering. In the case of instances registered daily, the best option is to number them within a day or a month. In turn, for workflows of which there will be several dozen a year instances, a better solution will be numbering within the year or even continuous numbering.
• To keep the instance number in a short form, it is a good practice to give workflows and instances acronyms no longer than 3-4 characters and use them in the instance number definition instead of the full names.
• The continuous numeration without any other information is almost always a bad solution. By getting the number itself (e.g. 00000765) there is no additional information about the instance. And secondly, you will be able to have only one process with this numbering method (instance number must be unique) and the BPS system will not allow you to register an instance with the same number (e.g. 00000001).
• If you need to search instances in the database  - e.g. to display information from another instance in the “SQL table” form field, you should use the instance ID (WFD_ID) instead of the instance number.