New Workflow

The Workflow feature enables automating company processes. You can start creating a new workflow by highlighting the Workflows heading in the left-side tree view of M-Files Admin and selecting New Workflow... on the task area.

The properties dialog for a workflow.

Name

Give a descriptive name for the workflow.

Description

A free-form description of the workflow.

States

Use the arrow keys along the right side of the dialog to change the order of the states. Use the Add..., Edit... and Remove buttons to manage the workflow states.
Note: If you are creating a workflow that is going to be forced for new objects of a specific class (see New Class for more information), make sure that the first state after (no state) in the graphical workflow designer is the topmost state in the States list.

Allow using this workflow with the following class

You can allow a given workflow to be used with all classes or with one class only. For example, you can define that the Purchase Invoice Approval workflow can be selected for documents in the Purchase Invoice class only. The workflow will in that case not be selectable for documents in any other class.

The Permissions tab

Access for viewing this workflow can be set on the Permissions tab. If the user does not have access for viewing the workflow, also the workflow states are hidden.

The Advanced tab

From the Advanced tab, you can define an alias for the workflow. For more information, see Associating the Metadata Definitions.

Creating a New Workflow

Steps

  1. Open M-Files Admin.
  2. In the left-side tree view, expand the desired connection to M-Files Server.
  3. In the left-side tree view, expand the document vault of your choice.
  4. Still in the left-side tree view, select the Workflows node.
  5. Click New Workflow... on the task area to start creating a new workflow.
    The Workflow Properties dialog is opened.
  6. In the Name field, enter a name for the workflow and, in the Description field, enter an optional description for the workflow.
  7. Optional: Click Add... to add states to the workflow.
    States can also be added later in the graphical workflow designer by selecting a workflow and clicking New State on the Tools pane.
  8. Click OK to finish creating the workflow.

Results

The workflow you have just created is added to the Workflows list. You can add workflow states and state transitions to it by selecting the workflow from the list and using the tools on the Tools pane.