Workflow
Workflow is just another name for an approval or review process that a record might have to go through. For example, an expense report might need to be reviewed and approved by the person’s manager before it can be paid. Another example would be a contract that might need to be reviewed and approved by Legal, Finance and the department manager, before being sent to the division VP for final approval.
In GW Apps there are four or five parts to a workflow:
| Item | Description |
| Form | You need to make sure the form has all the fields required to hold the information the users will require for the full approval process. |
| Workflow Stages | A Stage is a step in the review/approval process where a record will wait for a user to take an action, such as approve, reject, assign to a colleague. |
| Workflow Action Buttons | The buttons a reviewer can use to move a record along in the workflow. For example, at the Manager Review stage there might be ‘Approve’, ‘Reject’ and ‘Return to Submitter’ action buttons. |
| Security | It is important that while a record moves through a workflow, only the right people can take actions, edit record values, or even see the record at all.
Security is where you tell GW Apps who should be able to see or do what to records as they move through the workflow. |
| Email Templates
(Optional) |
It is usually a good idea to let people know if a record is waiting for them to review it, that way the record doesn’t just sit there until somebody happens to notice it. These notification emails can also be used to explain what steps the reviewer might need to take, so that people new to the workflow process will know what to do. |
App Security
As we just discussed, security can be set at each stage of a workflow. In addition we also need some security at the application level. GW Apps will need to know who is allowed to make design changes to the app, who can access the app, and what the users of the app should be able to do.
In GW Apps there are four parts to app security:
| Item | Description |
| App Designers | These are the users who are able to make design changes to the app. |
| App Users | These are the users who are allowed to access the app. If you are not a listed app user, you will not see the application on you app dashboard. |
| Roles | Roles are a bit like groups, and are a key part of how you control who can do what in an application. You can use roles to control things like who can create a new record, take a workflow action or see a view. You add people into a role, and then tell App Builder which role can see or do something. |
| Anonymous Access | By default, all users who want to access any aspect of GW Apps need to have a valid login and be setup as a GW Apps user at some level. Anonymous access allows access to specific forms by users via a specific URL link, with no need to log in. (It is similar to sharing access to files with people via a link in Google Drive, One Drive, box, etc.) |
Next Steps
| Below are links to articles that cover the main areas of creating a workflow: |
| Workflow Stages |
| Workflow Action Buttons |
| Workflow Security |
| Email Templates |
| Below is the link to the episodes of Building an Expense Reports App tutorial series that include descriptions of setting up a workflow: |
| Part 5 – Expense Reports App – Workflow |
| Part 6 – Expense Reports App – Security |