A workflow is a sequence of activities that mirrors the steps in a business process. It provides a logical, orderly representation of the actual tasks carried out by individuals or systems interacting with a business model. In EmpowerID, workflows serve as the primary method for users to engage with IT resources to achieve specific organizational objectives.

There are three primary layers in a workflow:

1. Process Layer – This layer represents the logical flow of the activities within a workflow. It defines the sequence and conditions of tasks, decision points, branching, and parallel execution paths.

2. Data Layer – The data layer captures and manages the information processed throughout the workflow. It includes input and output data, intermediate variables, and any data transformations or manipulations required by the workflow activities.

3. Presentation Layer – This layer is specific to user-centric workflows that require human interaction. It provides the user interface (UI) through which end-users interact with the workflow, input data, or make decisions.

A typical EmpowerID workflow is comprised of a number of components (i.e., Forms, Lookups, Operation Activities, Business Rules, Activities etc.). Depending on the purpose of the workflow, not all of these need to be present.

Workflow Studio IDE

The Workflow Studio IDE is where you develop EmpowerID workflows. It comprises four user interface components that work together to provide developers with a visual design environment. Through friendly drag-and-drop operations, depictions of business processes can be translated quickly into workflow logic without the need for extensive code. This can be as simple as dragging predefined activities onto the design surface of the IDE and connecting those activities with flow lines. Code editors allow C# code to be injected into the process when desired to create a complete package.

The below image shows what the Workflow Studio IDE looks like with a Flow Chart workflow opened in the Workflow Designer (also known as the Document Space.

As depicted by the above image, the Workflow Studio IDE is comprised of four components – the Toolbar, the Solution Explorer, the Document Space, and the Toolbox – each of which combines to create a rich, interactive environment for workflow development.

Workflow Studio Toolbar

The Workflow Studio toolbar provides immediate access to a variety of tools and application-specific development commands. The commands are dynamic in that the number of commands at any given time is determined by the number and types of designers and editors opened in the Workflow Studio IDE.

Toolbar Commands

Solution Explorer

The Solution Explorer tab in Workflow Studio is an essential tool for organizing, accessing, and managing your workflow applications and other objects within the development environment. The three sub-tabs within the Solution Explorer provide different functionality to help you efficiently work with your projects:

1. Workspace tab: The Workspace tab displays all the objects you develop in Workflow Studio, organized into folders on your local development machine. These folders act as containers for holding and organizing your workflow applications, activities, user interface elements, and other objects. You can create new folders, add objects to existing folders, and manage the contents of your workspace through this tab. As you develop new objects, Workflow Studio prompts you to select the folder where the object should be placed, ensuring that your workspace remains organized and easy to navigate.

2. Search tab: The Search tab allows you to search for objects by name and type, making it easy to quickly locate specific items within your workspace. This functionality is especially useful when working with large projects or searching for objects across multiple folders.

3. SharePoint tab: The SharePoint tab enables you to work with your SharePoint objects, integrating them into your EmpowerID workflows as needed. This functionality allows for seamless collaboration and integration between your EmpowerID projects and SharePoint resources.

Overall, the Solution Explorer tab in Workflow Studio provides a comprehensive and user-friendly interface for managing your workflow applications and objects. By organizing your projects in folders and providing easy access to search and integration features, the Solution Explorer helps you maintain an efficient and streamlined development process.

Source Control folders exist for each item type that can be created in Workflow Studio and encompass the following:

Additionally, the Workspace tab of Solution Explorer gives you ready access to the commands associated with folder and folder items. These commands are accessible from a context menu that appears when right-clicking an object in the Workspace Source Control tree.

Document Space

The Document Space in Workflow Studio is where you work with various designers and editors to develop and edit workflow applications, activities, forms, and lookup controls. The designers and editors offer visual design capabilities, making it easy to create and modify your workflow components without extensive coding. Some of the key designers and editors in Workflow Studio include:

1. Workflow Designer – The Workflow Designer allows you to visually design workflow applications and access all necessary commands and editors to build a complete workflow application. It provides tabs for designing the workflow, managing properties, creating bindings, setting up external rules, and viewing source code.
   

   

   When you open a workflow in Workflow Studio, you gain access to several workflow-related tabs that provide different functionalities to assist you in designing and managing the workflow process. These tabs include:

   • Workflow Designer Tab – In this tab, you create and modify the workflow visually by adding shapes and connecting them with lines and Business Rules (line rules) to define the process flow within the workflow.

   • Properties Tab – This tab provides a tree view of the workflow's properties. By clicking on a property, you can view its details. To add new properties to the workflow, right-click the base node in the tree and select "Add New Property" from the context menu.

   • Bindings Tab – The Bindings Tab displays two tree views showing the workflow's properties and the properties of each shape within the workflow. Using simple drag-and-drop operations, you can bind workflow and shape or activity properties to one another by dragging a property from one tree onto the corresponding property in the other tree. This binding allows you to visually maintain data consistency throughout the workflow process execution.

   • External Rules Tab – This tab is similar to the Bindings tab, but it displays two different tree views for binding properties in your workflow application. One tree shows the properties of the workflow and any shapes or activities within the workflow, while the other tree displays the Smart Object properties of any External Business Rule Application added to the workflow. This enables you to bind workflow properties to the Smart Object properties of the External Business Rule Application.

   • Source Code Tab: This tab allows you to view and edit the source code of the workflow application, providing an opportunity to further customize the workflow by modifying or adding custom code if necessary.