Windchill 11.0 Workflows - Part 1: Using the Drag and Drop Workflow Editor

Windchill Admins and Customizers,

It is finally your turn to learn how to work with Windchill Workflows!  This series will shed light on the mysterious ways that workflows work and how you can manipulate them to do just about anything you want with the Windchill API and a little Java grease.  I know trying to learn this stuff has always been a big pain to many people but don't worry!  I will make it so easy that you will be impressing your boss in no time!

In Part 1, we will go over the basics of what a workflow is and do some high level manipulation via the Workflow Administration GUI.  You don't need to know how to write code....yet...

What are Workflows?
Windchill Workflows are basically little snippets of code that automate tasks in Windchill.  They send emails, create and assign tasks, change the lifecycle states of objects, and much more.  Their purpose is to save you time and force a certain standard process on your users.

Why do I need them?
A few reasons:

1. You want to use Windchill as a PLM system instead of just a PDM system i.e. get your money worth.
2. You want to go paperless and save the trees.
3. You want to be more efficient, save time and thus save money.
4. You can do many things with workflows that you normally would have to do with a serious customization.
5. They are easy to use once they have been introduced to you the right way.

Do I need to learn/know how to code in order to use Workflows?
You don't need to be a coder to make basic functional changes to existing workflows.  If you want to be able to make use of the their true power, then you need to be able to code in Java.  Thankfully, workflows are actually a great place for beginners to start.  Because you aren't making a full fledged app, you can focus on just writing code.  You don't even need to use Eclipse or some other IDE to make changes.  You can use a simple code editor like Visual Studio Code.

​You sold me (Maybe?).  Continue.
Sure, so now that you know of their importance and what they can do, let's take a look at one of the two main OOTB workflows included in Windchill.

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Promotion Requests:
A Promotion Request is the most basic major workflow in Windchill.  Most customers who use workflows will at least use this one.  It is a simple request for a lifecycle state change.
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What the user does:

1. Opens Promotion Request on one or more objects.
2. Defines details such as due date, lifecycle target state, and additional approvers.
3. Provides additional details if asked to do so by approvers.

What the Approvers do:

1. Approve, Reject, Rework (ask for more details from creator) the request.

Promotion Approver Task

What the Workflow does:

1. Assigns Tasks to Approver and User (if rework required).
2. Sends emails notifying Approvers of the newly created task.
3. Locks all objects on the Promotion Request in a temporary state (OOTB this is Under Review).
4. Changes state of all objects on the request to the new or old state if it is approved or rejected.

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Where do I go to access workflows in order to make changes?
Because OOTB workflows reside at the Site level, you need to login as a Site Administrator (wcadmin by default).  Then go to Browse -> Site -> Utilities -> Workflow Template Administration.

You can see a bunch of OOTB workflows there already plus one custom one I made in the screenshots above.  We will get to that custom one in another part of the series.  For this part, we are going to focus on the Promotion Request Approval Process since that is the one we just went through.

Right click on that workflow -> Edit

You will notice a small window saying not to close it.  Don't close it.  That handles saving changes you make to the second window that was opened showing the actual workflow.  Only close that small window once you save and checkin your workflow changes.

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What do all of these icons mean?
If you think the interface looks old, you are correct.  That interface hasn't been updated in a while.  That plus the general blandness has always turned people off from going here.  You need to focus your attention on the content rather than the design.  Let me explain what some of the major icons on the screen do.  You can learn more about all of the rest from the Windchill Help Center.

Assigned Activity:
This one is used to:

• Creates tasks and send emails to approvers.  Think of these blocks as places where people need to interact with the workflow.
• The activity tab defines the list of instructions for approvers.  This is plain text which can be as simple as "Click Approve" or "Go to X for physical signature on form Y and return to person Z".
• The participants tab defines requirements for approval i.e. how many approvers are needed in order for the Promotion Request to be approved.
• We won't get into the code right now but the routing tab shows a list of various options available to the approvers.  This list allows the workflow to branch into different parts depending on the outcome of the approval results.

The rest are fairly straight forward based on their name i.e. the Notification icon is used to send an email not attached to a task to users.  This is useful for letting you know that things are moving along in the process.
The OR connector requires only 1 connected item to complete before it kicks off the rest of the attached code.  You can also use these to route you workflow lines in order to make the workflow display appear cleaner.
The AND connector requires all connected items to complete before going forward.
The Conditional connector routes based on some code you put in it.
Click around and explorer the code.  Try to visualize an object being processed through the code and what each block does.  This will help you to better understand.  Below is a brief visual explanation to help it sink in.

1. User creates Promotion Request which kicks off workflow.
2. Promotion Request is set to Under Review.
3. Objects on Promotion Request are locked which means they are automatically set to their specified locking state (OOTB this is Under Review).
4. Approvers are sent a task and an email about the new Promotion Request.
5. Code inside this block changes the state of the objects on the request to the state requested by the Promotion Request creator.
6. The Promotion Request's state is changed to Approved.
7. A notification is sent to the user who made the request that it was approved.
8. The workflow has ended.

Promotion Request Approval Route

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Show me how to make changes already!
Okay!  Let's get straight to it.  One of the most common changes customers want in the Promotion Request Workflow it to have a multi-stage approval process.  The reasons for this are:

1. There are multiple approvers and the OOTB workflow sends a task to all approvers immediately.  They want to only send a task to person B if person A approves.  That way, person B isn't being spammed with tasks and emails until they actually need to do something.
2. Having a multi-stage approval process ensures that people do the rights things in the right order with the right information. i.e. if mechanical can't sign off on an assembly and needs to make changes then why should electrical be looking at their wiring routes before mechanical has signed off?

Step 1:
Let's say our requirements are such:

1. 3 Approval stages in sequence.
2. Each stage has different role.
3. 1st stage requires all approvers to approve.
4. 2nd stage requires only 1 approval to proceed.
5. The 3rd stage requires at least 2 before the promotion request can finally be approved.

Looking at the requirements, it appears that we can just copy and paste the "Approve Promotion Request" assigned activity (#4 in above diagram) so let's do that!

Assigned Activity Copy and Paste

Step 2:
Now that we have 3 copies of the assigned activity, let's look at how the original activity is connected to the rest of the workflow.

1. There is only 1 input arrow.
2. There are 3 output arrows (Approve, Rework, Reject).
3. We want the next activity to only kickoff if the previous activity gets approval.

Let's connect the activities be clicking the arrow (Action) icon in the left toolbar and dragging the arrow from the starting point to the end point.

Assigned Activities Connected in Sequence

Step 3:
The activities are all linked now.  But what about those "?" marks?  We need to tell the action arrows when to kick off the next activity.  In this case, we want the next activity to start only on Approve.  Click on each question mark and set Approve to "Start".  

You will notice the last activity doesn't have a "Start" option.  Why is that?  The options that are given depend on what the arrow connects to on both ends.  Because the end of the last arrow only connects to a block that is not an activity, it just needs to fire i.e. run code instead of initiate an activity.  Set the last arrow to fire.

Step 4:
We aren't done yet!  We only gave options for the Approve route.  What if the other activities has a reject or rework vote?  Right now, that would cause the workflow to fail and stall.  It is important to provide routes for all routing options in each activity.  Go ahead and mirror the arrows routes and actions from the original activity to the other 2 we made.

Assigned Activities with All Routes Connected

Step 5:
You can see that the web of lines begins to make things difficult to read and understand.  You can drag the activities around until you can clearly see everything or use OR blocks to routes lines in a less direct and thus less intrusive manner.

Assigned Activity Route Connections Cleaned up with OR Blocks

It's still not the prettiest thing but you get the idea and you can always manipulate things further.  Try to keep things as simple as possible.

​Step 6:
Since we have all the connections made, let's go to each assigned activity, give each a unique name, change the required roles, and set the vote tally per our requirements.​

Step 7:
With our changes complete.  Let's go ahead and save.  In the Workflow Administration page, you will see that typical checkout icon next to the workflow we were modifying.  If you don't, refresh the page and you should see it.  Right click on the workflow and check in leaving any comments you think will help you remember what you did.  You can finally close that small window when you are done.

Testing:
Now it's time to test our new workflow changes!  Remember that I added 3 different roles in the assigned activities so I need to make sure to add those same three roles to the product team page and populate them with the appropriate amount of people.  Once that is done, just create a promotion request like normal and confirm that each assigned activity only shows up after the previous one is completed.  I won't show you this part since I have already shown you the process in the very beginning.

Outside of the obvious "I didn't get a task", how do I troubleshoot Workflows?
Let's say your workflow has stalled.  The first thing you should do is login as an organization administrator, go to the promotion request -> Process tab -> Right click on Routing/Process History item -> Open Process Manager.

The process manager will show you the status of the workflow and where it has stalled.  From there, you just go through the normal motions of resolution i.e. logs, queues, workflow not able to handle what users have done, etc.

Important:
Always make sure to test on a test system so you avoid interfering with production work.  The changes you made are effective immediately on the next Promotion request that is made.

What if I don't have a test system?
There are still ways to mess around with workflows even if you are doing so directly on a production system.  It would be ideal if you created a separate private product for you to do your testing in for what I am about to show you.  If you can't do so then you can still do the below and just hope that users don't get curious.

1. Make all of your changes in a new copy of the workflow using save as in the Workflow Template Administration page.
2. As an organization administrator or product admin, go to any Product -> Utilities -> Promotion Preference Management -> Right click on the only preference on the screen -> Set Preference
3. Hold control and select your newly copied workflow making sure that the others are still included in your selection.

Now when you make a new Promotion Request in that product, you will notice that the extra process is included as a selection in the final screen of the New Promotion Request Wizard.

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What about the Windchill API?
You technically worked with it and you didn't even know!  We will get to the coding aspect of the API a little bit in part two and then much deeper in part 3 so stay tuned!