AppsStudioWorkflows

Understand workflow terminology and concepts

Understanding key workflow design concepts is essential for creating effective automations in Itential Platform. This page explains the foundational elements you’ll work with when building workflows in Studio.

This topic focuses on design-time concepts for building workflows. To learn about running and monitoring workflow instances (jobs), see Understanding jobs.

Workflows

A workflow (also called an automation) is a collection of tasks arranged in logical order, beginning and ending with terminator tasks (Start/End). Workflows are reusable templates you design in Studio.

Think of a workflow as a blueprint that defines what should happen when the automation runs. You create workflows in Studio (design time), and when you run a workflow, it creates a job instance that executes in Operations Manager (runtime).

Tasks

A task is a single unit of work within a workflow. Tasks represent discrete actions such as making an API call to an external system, transforming data from one format to another, evaluating a condition to determine the next step, waiting for manual user input, or executing a query against a database.

Task types

Itential Platform includes several task types: automated tasks (which execute without human intervention, such as API calls, transformations, and queries), manual tasks (which require user interaction before the workflow continues), subworkflow tasks (which call another workflow as a nested automation), and terminator tasks (which mark the Start and End of a workflow).

Task configuration

Each task has configurable properties including a name and description, input variables (data the task needs to execute), output variables (data the task produces), error handling settings, and actor assignments (which user groups can work on manual tasks).

Transitions

Transitions are the connections between tasks that define the flow of your automation. They determine which task executes next based on the previous task’s outcome.

Transition types

  • Success transitions execute when a task completes successfully.
  • Error transitions execute when a task encounters an error.
  • Conditional transitions execute based on evaluated conditions.

Defining transition logic

You can create complex workflows through branching (multiple transitions from one task to different destinations), merging (multiple tasks connecting to a single downstream task), and looping (transitions that cycle back to earlier tasks for iteration).

Variables

Variables store and pass data between tasks in your workflow. They make automations dynamic and reusable by allowing the same workflow to process different inputs.

Variable types

  • Workflow variables are accessible throughout the entire workflow.
  • Task variables are created and used within a specific task.
  • Input variables are passed into the workflow when it starts.
  • Output variables are returned when the workflow completes.

Variable scope

  • Global scope variables are available to all tasks.
  • Local scope variables are available only within a task or section.
  • Parameter passing refers to variables explicitly passed between tasks via transitions.

Working with variables

Reference variables in task configurations using JSONPath notation:

job.variable_name
task.output_variable

Variables can store strings, numbers, and booleans, as well as arrays, objects, responses from API calls, and transformed data.

Actors

Actors define which users or user groups can interact with manual tasks in your workflow. You assign actors during workflow design to ensure tasks route to the appropriate teams.

When configuring manual tasks, specify which user groups can claim and complete the task, the assignment rules for distributing tasks among group members, and notification settings for when tasks become available.

Actors must have appropriate Itential Platform permissions to view tasks in their queues, claim available tasks, complete or cancel tasks, and view task history.

Workflow validation

Before running a workflow, validate it to catch design issues such as missing connections (tasks without transitions to End), uninitialized variables (references to variables that don’t exist), invalid configurations (tasks with incomplete or incorrect settings), and circular references (logic loops that could cause infinite execution).

Use the Validate button in Studio to check your workflow automatically.

Learn more