Getting Started with Workflows

Building Workflows

Workflows are the part of your application that will be seen, manipulated, and used by end-users. Workflows will put your Things to work. Without workflows, the Things in your application will be like housecats sitting around doing nothing.

There are three main components to a workflow. These elements are used to compile a sentence describing the workflow as a user story. We will look at all three elements and then explore how to use them. 

Starting with a User Story

The foundation of a Kleeen Workflow is a user story. This is the purpose of your workflow, As a (Noun) I would like to (verb) a (Scope) of (Thing). For example, As an (Admin) I would like to (See Details) of (My Users). 

Components of Creating a Workflow

These are the components that are used to create a workflow. Once this is complete you will begin to create the experiences you want to provide to your users.

Persona

Persona is used to describe who will be using this workflow this is for your reference and will have no impact on your application. It will be the subject of the sentence that forms your user story.

Verb

The verb is the action in your sentence. This word can be anything with the exception of a few edge cases. Kleeen provides a list of suggested verbs but you can use any string you like. It is best to choose words that describe how users interact with your application.

Configure as a Verb

Configure is an exception to the rule that you can use any Verb. If you want to add a configuration view to your application you will need to specify Configure and choose a Scope of Entire Product Domain.

Report as a Verb

Report is another exception to the rule that you can use any Verb. If you want to add a report view to your application you will need to specify Report and choose a Scope of Entire Product Domain.

Scope

Scope determines what Things will be visible in your workflow and how that workflow is navigated too. There are three scopes to choose from: Single, Collection, and The Entire Product Domain.

Single 

Single will build a detail page that will not appear in the navigation menus of your application. A single workflow will be cross-linked to that specific thing anywhere it appears in your application. For example, if you build a workflow on the Single Stock Symbol anywhere that Thing is used in your application will be cross-linked automatically in your application. You will likely build detail pages for individual things of high value to your users. 

Collection

A Collection is used to work with a specific group of things. Using the example above a collection of stocks will contain all of the Stocks in the collection and not display the details of a single stock or Things not related to Stocks. 

Entire Product Domain

The Entire Product Domain is used to build workflows that are broad in scope oriented towards reporting and dashboards of unrelated Things or larger groupings of data. However, to build a Configuration workflow you will also need to use Entire Product Domain.

Creation Method

The Creation Method determines if you are going to use the Kleeen Authoring Tool to build this workflow or if you are going to build a custom workflow. Choosing Custom will indicate that Kleeen needs to provide a folder in your code repository and Kleeen will not alter the content of that folder. You can provide an image as a placeholder in your prototype for Custom workflows. These images need to be publicly available on the internet and can be animated or static.

Naming Your Workflows

You can name your workflows as you see fit, however workflow names can not be duplicated. It is helpful to apply a naming convention to your workflows so as they grow in number it is easier to navigate in the authoring environment and in your application. For example, it may be helpful to name detail workflows with the name of the thing and the word Detail. (ie Stock Detail)

Next Steps

After you create a workflow, you will build the Insights and Experiences your application will provide to your users. Experiences are the containers for interacting with and viewing your application’s data through Insights.