A workflow is constructed by sequentially connecting the various Bizweaver tools. This is done in the Workflow Design pane. For this discussion, this area will be called the “design pane.”

Start the process with an empty design pane. Click the file option in the menu bar, then a new workflow. You can also use the shortcut Ctrl-N anywhere in the Bizweaver main application.

The following pages contain additional information about the specific components used to construct Bizweaver workflows.

• General Settings
• Workflow Tools
• Crystal Reports Tool
• Decision Tool
• Email Tool
• File Processing Tools
• Global Connections Configuration
• Looping Tool
• SQL Command Tool
• Using Variables
• VBScript Tool
• Web Service Tool
• External Application Execution Tool
• Pause Tool

• Each workflow step must have a unique name.
  • The application will assign a default name “Untitled”, but we recommend that you change the name to something that helps you understand the step's purpose.

• See the General Workflow Rules above.
• It is not necessary to have the workflow-enabled initially. The workflow can be executed in test mode during the development process. However, it will need to be enabled to use the “Run now” or scheduled options.
• Enter any Notes about the workflow. This information can be updated at any time.
• Click the “Save” button at the bottom of the workflow designer

• Begin by dragging a Start point onto the canvas.
• Drag the next tool onto the design pane.
  • A connector line is automatically added to show the link between the two steps.
• Continue adding tools as needed.
• The workflow should always contain a Stop/Endpoint.

The tools used to construct Bizweaver workflows are found in this area. They are added to a workflow by dragging them from the Tools area into the Design area. See the Workflow Tools page for descriptions of the tools. Details on each of the tools are found in other Bizweaver documents.

Save the workflow as you work. Information on saving a workflow is found here

Starting with Bizweaver version 2.6, the workflow designer is a separate window from the Bizweaver application. This allows users to open multiple workflows at once.

This area is the “design area” where a workflow is constructed. See the following sections of this document for more information.

The description window can be opened when right-clicking on a tool and selecting “Show Description”. This will open a window with any notes associated with the step entered into the tool description box. To close, click the “X” in the right corner of the description box. This will also contain the results of a test run. If you close the test run results, you can reopen the last run by selecting the “Last Run” link next to the test run button.

Adding additional steps to a workflow follows the same process as described above, with one additional action.

• Right-click on the workflow step that will precede the new one.
• Select the “Create Link From” option.
  • The step name changes to bold.
• Drag the new tool onto the design pane.
  • The “linking” line now connects the selected starting point to the new step.

• Hover over the new step, and you will see a blue “dot” icon in the lower right corner.
  

• Left-click on the icon, and a marker icon is displayed.
• Drag the marker to the next step in the workflow and drop it anywhere on the step.
• The “linking” line now connects the new step to the next step.

• Right-click on the workflow step to be removed.
• Select the “Remove” option.
• Confirm that the step is to be removed in the dialog presented.
• Reset the workflow links as needed using the “Manually Linking Workflow Steps” process described above.

In Bizweaver version 2.3 (build 2.3.3), a new feature is added to assist with step-to-step links. Right-click on the small, blue link icon found at the lower right corner of a step.

Two options are displayed: Links Info and Reset Links

“Links Info” shows the source (incoming) step(s) into the current step and the target (outgoing) step from the current step. This can help diagnose errors where links seem to be in place but are not functioning.

“Reset Links” will clear any links coming into the current step. Again, this can be helpful if “ghost” link lines are appearing in the design area. Keep in mind that if you use this function, you will need to recreate the links.

On some occasions, it is necessary to view the workflow steps in a hierarchical view rather than the design (canvas) view. This is done on the “List View” tab. This tab is found on the top of the design area.

Click the “List View” tab to switch the view. You can switch between the two views at any time. However, you can only make changes to the workflow on the design canvas.

Here is a simple workflow on the design canvas.

Here is the same workflow in the ListView tab.

In this view, the workflow steps are presented in the sequence in which they will be executed.

“Variables” are data values that are held in memory during the execution of a workflow. There are two types of variables in Bizweaver: User Variables and Step Variables.

To access these variables while in any workflow tool, press F4. This will display the variables menu. Workflow tool will be displayed on the left, appearing in the order they are in the workflow. Workflow variables will be displayed on the right in alphabetical order.

To select variables, select the desired tool, select the variable in the tool then press save. It will automatically be inserted into the last place the cursor was in the tool.

User Variables are defined by the user. These values can be defined in the Variables tool or they can be created using the VBScript tool.

Step Variables are special references created by the Bizweaver application. Most Bizweaver workflow tools create these variables as the step is executed. An example of this would be a reference to an output column from a SQL/HANA Tool or File Reader step.

Bizweaver variables are available to other workflow steps that follow the step where they are created.

More information is found on the Using Variables page.