Add workflow triggers in applications

This page explains how to add actions in the Application Builder to trigger workflows.

Data-driven workflows, available in Semarchy xDM 2023.1 and later, are subject to specific licensing requirements; please confirm your eligibility to use such new functionality by consulting your license agreement or by contacting your Semarchy account representative prior to use.
All customers can still use the workflow feature available in previous versions (now known as legacy workflows). For more information, see Workflows (legacy).

For business users to use workflows within applications, you need to add workflow-triggering actions in the Application Builder.

Application actions

To add an application action that triggers a workflow:

  1. Follow the procedure for creating an action until you are prompted to select an action type.

  2. In the Action Type field, select Start Workflow from the drop-down list.

  3. Click Next.

  4. Next to the Workflow field, click the Edit Edit button.

  5. Select the workflow definition that you want this action to trigger and click OK to close the dialog.

  6. Next to the Start Event field, click the Edit Edit button.
    The list of start events for the selected workflow definition opens.

  7. Select the start event you want the action to trigger and click OK to close the dialog.

  8. Click Next.

  9. (Optional) Select the Custom Label checkbox and add a label, description, icon, and image for this action. These attributes appear in the application interface.

  10. Click Finish.

  11. Add a navigation item containing the action you just created.

Alternatively, workflow instances can also be triggered using a REST API. For the complete list of API actions you can perform to programmatically interact with workflows, see Workflow Administration REST API.

Entity actions

Entity actions belong to action sets and are visible from the action menu of a collection or from browsing forms.

workflow action set

The startup context property of the start event determines whether the action is available. For example, if this property is set to Start From Selection, then the action will be available only if a record in the collection is selected. If no record is selected, then the action will be unavailable (i.e., grayed out).

To add a workflow-triggering action in an entity action set, follow the procedure for adding an action to an action set.