Friday, May 31, 2013

What is Automation, Work Flow and how to Reproduce it.

Hi All,

Well, I am not saying you do not know what is a work flow, sure you do.
Just wanted to point - in Acumatica it is called Automation Steps and located System->Automation menu.


We can create work flow nodes for any screen in Acumatica, as many steps per screen as we want. In the above example I show standard Automation Step for Purchase Order screen, Step called NL Open. Based on the author's idea it supposed to mean Normal Order Open State ;)
Plain English - When the Purchase Order of type Normal is on Open Status, we should exercise this step. We are on this step. Whatever you like to call it.

Q: So, once we are here, what will define position of this step in a work flow?
A: Tab called Conditions, there you can see:
1. Approved Checkbox must be checked.
2. Hold checkbox must not be checked.
etc.

Q: Once we are here, what is configured under this step?
A: We can define Actions, Reports and Inquiries seen from the screen.


For example, action Approve is disabled, which is reasonable, since we approved the order already. Option to place order on Hold is available, so we have it active.

Last thing, we can define some fields on the screen here.


So basically its just a step in a long tree, so where is this hierarchy stored?
Here it is:


In order to see actual tree in XML form we should press the button Show Populated:


There was a question from the reader: How can we add to this list steps that we have customized?
A: Before you press Show populated button, simply depress Populate Definition button, that will copy actual steps into XML code.

And here is the best part: ALL STEPS, FIELDS AND BRANCHES are in this XML code.

And we CAN COPY this code to another company. Meaning - WE CAN replicate our automation steps for another customer :)

In order to do it, just copy the XML text into a clipboard.

Then open another company, then Add definition , then Press "Show populated".
It will be blank, then just copy the text into it, then save the definition.

Then Press Activate Definition.

This way you can copy tailor made work flows to a newly created companies.

All the best,

Sergey.

2 comments:

  1. Sergey, you said: 'We can create work flow nodes for any screen in Acumatica, as many steps per screen as we want'

    How about our custom add on screen? How to create work flow for our add on screen? Any manual to do that?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Adijaya, as long as you design the screen in Acumatica framework, it will be automatically available for automation. Simply choose it from the site map, then design the automation steps.

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