FlowForma Overview

Steps

A flow will always have at least one step, and a form isn't saved in the system until you've saved or submitted the first step. These steps are essentially sections of the form, and users will have to supply information in the step. There's no limit as to how many steps you can add. You might use a step to capture information, sign off on something, etc. You can create steps directly from the steps list in the quick launch panel, but you can also do this via the flow designer. Once you've added your steps, you can use a simple drag-and-drop to reorder the steps, you can also reorder questions in a step by drag-and-dropping, however you cannot drag-and-drop questions between different steps. Remember to click save to submit the changes. Show/hide and enable/disable When you create a new flow, the steps are visible and enabled by default, which means users can input data into the questions in the step. You can hide an entire step to ensure it isn't included when the form is used; and you can also disable a step completely, in which case the answers to the questions can't be edited. You should never hide or disable the first step in a flow. A new form isn't created until you've either saved or submitted the first step, so if this step is hidden or disabled you'll never be able to create the form. To show/hide a step, check the box beside the relevant step (you can select multiple steps at once) and then click the show/hide icon. means show. You'll not see this beside the step as the default setting is to show all steps. means hide. If you see this beside the step (as in the image below), the step is hidden. To enable/disable a step, check the box beside the relevant step (you can select multiple steps at once) and then click the enable/disable icon. means enable. You'll not see this beside the step as the default setting is for all steps to be enabled. means disable. If you see this beside the step (as in the image below), the step has been disabled.

Using Forms

A form in FlowForma is the end user presentation of a flow. Any user can create forms based on the flows in the system, as long as they've been granted read access to the flow. Click create new form in the quick launch menu to start the process. A listing of the forms you have access to is displayed. If the form was given a group label when it was created, the label will appear in the header bar - in the example above, there's a group called Finance and a group called HR. Any form without a group label appears under a blank header bar. To select a form, either double-click on the form's name, or click on the form's name and then click continue. The form opens. The top part is the form's header where you'll see the name of the form and possibly an image or logo. Below that you'll see the steps. The active step is a white tile with black text (unless customised) whereas other steps appear in grey. The form always opens on the relevant step, allowing you to complete the questions. The questions on a form will vary in appearance and are described further down on this page. Once you've completed all required questions, you can use the buttons at the end of the step to e.g. submit. The buttons available may vary, and the names on the buttons can be customised and may hence be different for different forms. Questions in forms Below you can see what the different types of questions look like on a form. Please check the descriptions for details about the use of each question. Icon Questions with an * are required questions and must be filled in. The ! works as a tooltip and contains the information entered in the question's description. If the description is left blank, no tooltip will appear. Choice question The choice question can appear in three different ways, as the choice options can be presented either as a drop-down menu, radio buttons, or check-box menu. The example below is a drop-down list, and only one option can be selected. The same is the case for a radio button, whereas the user can select multiple options if you use a check-box. Date and time question The date and time question can be used either to display the date only or to display both the date and time. In the example below, only the date is displayed. You can either enter the date manually or click on the calendar symbol and select the date in the calendar. If you enter the date manually, most standard formats will be accepted and converted to dd/MM/yyyy. File upload question This question allows you to upload a file. The question may have been restricted to only allow certain file extensions, and the question will also determine which document library the file is uploaded to. Click upload and then click choose file to locate the file you want to upload. You can only select one file in this type of question. Once you've picked the file, click OK as the file is otherwise not uploaded. If you've previously uploaded a file, you can click replace if you want to remove the file and upload a new one. Alternatively, simply click remove if you don't want a file there at all. The latter is only possible if it's not a mandatory question. Lookup question This question is based on a predefined list. You can either type in the search box to narrow down the results, or alternatively simply scroll through the options on the list. Multiple line of text question This question type has several options and can allow either plain text or formatted text (rich text). On top of that, you'll have a restricted number of lines available for writing based on how the question was created. In the example below, the text can be formatted using a WYSIWYG editor. Number question This question type only allows you to enter numbers. It'll round up or down to the number of decimals specified when the question was built, and you'll not be able to enter any text in this question. The question may have been created as a general number, currency, or percentage. Calculated question As this suggests in the question name, the value of this question is calculated, so you'll never actually enter a number here. The number is calculated based on the expression entered when the question was built. In the example below, you can see a value, but it's greyed out because it isn't editable. Person or group question This question type is used when you need to select a user or group. You can either type the full name or part of the name in the box. Click the tab key to bring up a list of suggestions, or click enter to select. Repeating table question A repeating table can take many shapes because it's based on sub-questions. There can be any number of columns and rows, and depending on the setting you may be able to add additional rows. In the example below you can add several rows in one go. This table has a single line of text question in the "topic" column and a number question in the "effort" column. Separator question A separator question isn't actually a question and you won't be able to "answer" it. It's simply used to separate the form in different parts and may include text. Single line of text question A single line of text question is a very simple question. You can enter any type of characters, but the question will be limited to a specific number of characters based on the way the question was built. No line breaks can be added, and formatting isn't possible (bold, italics, etc). Verify digital signature question Depending on how this question has been configured, one or several signatures must be verified in this question. In the example below, you're asked to upload a document. This document must contain the verified signature(s). Once you've uploaded a document with one or multiple valid signatures, you'll see the signer, date, and status information in the form. Yes or no question A yes/no question is a very simple question similar to the choice question; however, the only two answers possible are yes and no. The question is always presented as radio buttons.

Admin Flows

A number of things within FlowForma aren't directly related to building flows or using forms: I am on leave allows you to delegate your new tasks to someone else while you're away. History and restore options make it easy to see what's been changed in a flow and revert to an old version, if required. Activity monitoring is used to keep track of whether forms have been completed on time or not. Reporting and PowerPivots allows you to create reports based on information from your forms. Scheduler list allows you to see a recent overview of emails being sent, their status, and information about who sent/received the email.

Creating Flows

Before you start creating a new flow, it's important to understand the connection between steps, questions and business logic. It's often a good idea to construct a flow based on a written model, such as a flowchart, because it helps you be clear about the steps in the process. When planning to flow, make sure you can answer the following: What are the steps, and in which order do they need to occur? What type of data do you need to capture in each step? Do you need to apply business logic (conditional logic, generation of emails or documents, etc).

Business Rules

Business rules are used to add logic to flows (either when they are started or completed), steps (either when they are started or completed), and questions (when they are changed), or sub-questions (also when they are changed). All rules are added from the flow designer's options panel as highlighted in the image below. Flow started rules are executed when you start a new flow. A flow is considered started only when the first step of the form is saved or submitted. Form loaded rules are executed when you open the form. If you only want the rule to execute when the form loads for the first time, make sure you add conditions in place. Flow completed rules are executed when all the steps of the flow are completed. Step started rules are executed at the beginning of a new step. A step is considered started when it is at least saved. Step saving rules are executed when you save the form. If the form was created but never saved, the rule will execute when you submit the step, as the submit button also saves the information Step completed rules are executed when the step is completed (submitted). A step can be submitted more than once. Question changed rules are executed when you change the value that's filled in a question. If you have a default value in the question, the rule will only execute when you change that value. The rule is executed each time you change the value of the question. In a flow, rules are executed in the following order: Form loaded Form saved Flow started rules Step started rules Question changed rules Step completed rules Flow completed Rules execution can be broken down further using in parallel or in series. Rules executed in parallel will all execute at the same time (assuming conditions are met), whereas rules executed in series will execute one after another (assuming conditions are met). By default, when the rules are executed, FlowForma checks all the rules, selects the rules that meet the conditions and then execute the rules in parallel or series, depending on the selected option. If you have rules that are changing the conditions of other rules, you have to make sure that the conditions are checked for each rule and then the rules are executed one by one. To enable this functionality, go to Flow Settings and enable Check serial rule condition before executing. For example, you have 2 rules on step completed: set the current user in a person or group question (no conditions) set step assign to (if the value in person or group question = Paige Turner) If the serial check is not enabled, the first rule will execute all the time, but the second rule will never execute as the Person or group field is empty when the conditions are checked. If you enable the serial check, the first rule executes all the time. The second rule will only execute if the condition is met. For this to work, you also have to make sure the rules are set to execute in series, otherwise the step assign to rule might execute before the value is set to the person or group field. You can apply conditions to the business rules to ensure they only execute if certain conditions are met; alternatively, a rule with no conditions will execute automatically based on where it was applied. When creating a new business rule, the first section is used to determine when the rule should execute (load, save, start, complete, or change); the second section is used for the conditions and can hence be left blank. Finally, the third section of the business rule is the action. Check each business rule for details. Once you've entered all relevant detail, click save.

Rule Conditions

Each time you want to create a business rule, you have the option to set conditions for that rule to execute. If you don't set any conditions, the rule will execute automatically. If you set conditions, then the rule will only execute when the conditions are met. The conditions can be found in the first section of the rule editor. If you want to set conditions for a rule, click edit conditions to open the conditions editor. Or you can click Clear conditions to remove all conditions. As you can see below, the editor contains 4 drop-down columns in a single row. The first 3 columns to define a condition. If you want to add more conditions to a rule by selecting the icon, and a new row appears. As you now have more than one condition, you can select And or Or from the last drop-down to specify whether all conditions need to be met or if specific ones are met. Writing conditions The first column in the editor gives you the possibility to select the name of one question from your flow. The drop-down list contains all your steps from the flow, and if you click on the step name it will expand all the questions you have created for that step. The drop-down list in the second column contains all condition types. Select the relevant option. Is blank: as this suggests that the item selected in the first column is left blank, the third column is disabled for this condition. Not blank: the item selected in the first column can't be left blank, but the condition doesn't specify what value has to be entered, so the third column is disabled for this condition. Equals: the user's entry must match what you specify here; you can select the answer of another question or insert a value into the third column. Not equals: the user's entry must be different to what you specify here; you can select the answer of another question or insert a value into the third column. Contains: the user's entry must contain this value, but it doesn't have to be limited to that; you can select the answer of another question or insert a value into the third column. Not contains: the user's entry mustn't contain this value, but can be anything else; you can select the answer of another question or insert a value into the third column. Greater than: this only applies to numeric values and the user must enter a number that's higher than this value; you can select the answer of another question or insert a value into the third column. Less than: this only applies to numeric values and the user must enter a number that's smaller than this value; you can select the answer of another question or insert a value into the third column. Matches pattern: this condition checks if the text inserted in the question matches the selected pattern, You can add a "@" And a "." for a quick and easy valid email address check, or "@flowforma.com" to ensure it's from a flowforma email address. But pattern matching is most useful when using Regular Expressions to define complex conditions so you can check if names begin with capital letters,or if it's a 16 digit number separate every 4 digits with a hyphen Does not match pattern: This works the same as Matches pattern but check if it does not match a pattern The third column contains the item that will be compared with the value selected in the first column, based on the condition input from the second column. The and/or options allow you to define if conditions are required. You can combine both of these values to create a complex set of conditions. If you have more conditions and the last column has and for all rows, it means that in order for the rule to execute, all the conditions have to be met. If you have a combination of and/or make sure the and conditions are met for each or: In the example above, the rule will execute if one of the following conditions is met: Division = HR and 1st approval is not blank Division = HR and 2nd approval is not blank Division = IT and CEO approval is blank In the example above, the rule will execute if one of the following conditions is met: Division = HR and 1st approval is not blank 2nd approval is not blank CEO approval is blank To delete a condition, click delete. This is permanent and can't be undone. However, if this is an existing condition, you can close it to prevent changes & deletions from being saved. If you want to edit a condition that is already created, click edit conditions and amend any of the fields displayed in the panel, or add additional ones if required. When all entries or amendments have been made, click OK. All conditions inserted in the rule are saved, and you're returned to the rule editor.

Parent-child how-to

Establish parent/child relationship: Click on the pencil beside child flow title; a dialog box opens where you need to add parent-child relationship and optionally add mappings to the questions between those flows. Select a question from the parent flow and map a relevant published question in the child flow. The values in these fields need to match; all forms that match this criteria will be displayed in the parent form. For example, if we want to see all forms relating to a particular employee, the name or employee number in the parent flow need to match the name or employee number in the child form.

Settings

Flow settings allow you to configure some options that will effect the individual flow, as opposed to global FlowForma Settings. To open the flow settings, first open up the relevant flows Flow Designer, from here click on the settings clog in the toolbar. The flow settings are specific to the flow and consists of General properties, Email templates, and Button labels and tooltips.

Reporting with Power BI

FlowForma as a business process solution is leveraged to be used as a preferred business process management software across a broad spectrum of domains, business verticals by Flowforma customers and partners for various requirements of the client's business processes. Hence the idea of operational reporting is envisioned as part of the organisations strategy and vision to enrich the use of Flowforma from day to day business processes that are becoming more operational in use and provide valid, deep insights of how Flowforma business processes are used and leveraged. Introduction Power BI is a suite of business analytics tools from Microsoft designed to analyse data and share insights. Power BI dashboards provide a 360-degree view for business users with their most important metrics in one place, updated in real time, and available on all of their devices. Using Power BI, the reports can be built quickly from various data sources both in cloud and on-premise. FlowForma Power BI Content Pack You can import the Power BI content pack as follows: Flowforma Power BI content pack can be imported from Flowforma website here. Click on Download Content Pack which downloads FlowForma BPM- Power BI Content Pack and extract the contents to a location of your choice. Download Power BI Desktop from https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/ After installing the Power BI Desktop, Right click and open the .pbit file from the downloaded location. This should open the default source and default complied reports pointing with Flowforma default data like the below screenshot. Note: The reports prompts to enter credentials to access the default site to refresh the source. This is because in the current site, the report is pointing to a default trial/demo site which is an on-premise trial site of Flowforma. You can choose to ignore which results in error and later change the data source in the following steps as outlined. For Office 365 O-Data sources, you can choose anonymous access.

Document Auto-generation

FlowForma document generation allows you to embed advanced document generation functionality into your flow. The generator allows you to dynamically create complete documents based on one or multiple document templates by adding data from your form fields to your templates. This way, the content of your documents will be customised for the intended recipient. The generator also gives you the possibility to merge data from different document templates. The data is merged based on the rules you define in the document template used for the generation of the document. Check out these how-to videos to see for yourself: Document generation example One example for the generation of a document could be the generation of the employment contract in a new joiner flow. Instead of using different document templates for each type of employee, you can use one document template and then add rules to that specific document template. Let's say you have sales and non-sales departments. For the sales department you have to insert targets and bonuses in the contract, but you can define a rule that hides this information from your document if the selected employee is non-sales. Below are a few types of data you can insert in the generated employment contract: Name of the employee Address of the employee Start date Salary Department Manager Salary Job description - you can dynamically insert text from a different template based on the selection made in this field; i.e if you select business analyst, the job description for the business analyst will be inserted in the document Place of work Benefits Etc.

Integrated with SharePoint

FlowForma sits on the SharePoint Platform. Integration with SharePoint provides you with the opportunity to benefit from functionality associated with SharePoint, such as: Customised departmentalised platforms where you can store workflows Access to Active Directory, so you can control security through a single login Creation of user groups A document library to store and create form email templates, documents, and lists A Sharepoint platform to store draft and completed forms

Step Settings

For each step, you can access the settings to specify additional settings and/or enable custom layout. Select the relevant step and then click the step settings cog. General Settings Step title: you can give the step a title, this is what the steps name is and what it will appear as on a form. Step code: each step needs a unique code. One is generated by default when you start creating a new step, but you can overwrite this and give it a different code, if you prefer. The step code won't appear on the form itself, but you can use it to search and filter by when adding steps. Category: you can categorise steps to make it easier to identify which steps belong to a specific flow. If you enter a category name that's in use already, the step will be added to that category. Otherwise a new category is created. If you leave it blank, the step will be un-categorised. Step description: you can enter a description of the step for further clarification. When you enter the step description, you'll see a formatting panel at the top of the screen. You can use this to control the format of the text when it's presented to the user in the form. Assign to: you can assign an individual or a group to a step. Those assigned to a step are able to complete that step, e.g. reject or approve the step. Assign to form creator: rather than specify who the step is assigned to, you can assign it to the person who initiates the form. Enable view permissions: if you check this option, View permissions will be enabled View permissions: specify the users or groups you want to grant view permission. Only users/groups that exist already can be selected. Once you start typing, suggested names will appear, then only these users/groups will be able to view the information in this step. Enable copy from: if you check this option, users will be able to copy data from the same step in a previous form, rather than have to enter the information again. Enable attachments: check this option to include an attachments section in the step, allowing users to attach documents. Enable comments: check this option if you want to allow comments to be added in the step. Enable CC list: check this option if you want to allow the user to enter recipients who will receive an automated email when the step is submitted. Advanced Settings Time to complete: in order to be able to provide reporting, FlowForma captures information about how long it takes to complete steps. By default, this is set to 1 day, but you can change that to either more or less. The smallest measure is a minute. When you place the mouse in the relevant field, only the number value appears. Type in whatever new value you want to use. Enable passback: the passback option allows a user to pass a request back to a previous step. In theory this could be any step in the flow, but if you don't want a form passed back to this specific step, simply check this box. Button display: for each step, you can decide whether or not to display the passback button, delegate button, reject button, and save button. These are buttons that normally appear on each step, but if you uncheck any of the options the relevant buttons will be hidden, and the action won't be available on that step. Override question title width: by default, a form has a two-column layout where the first column is used for the question label and the second column is used for the question answer. The width of the first column is 155px, but you can change that by entering a different value. This setting only applies to the step you're applying the new setting to. Require eSignature: you can decide by checking this option if an eSignature is required for submitting this step. Custom layout In the custom layout tab you can enable custom layout on a per-step basis. This will then allow you to modify the layout (presentation) of the step from the flow. If you want to create a custom view for the end user, you can change the header as well as the main body (i.e. the presentation of the steps). Open the flow designer for the flow yo want to customize If you want to customize the layout of one or multiple steps, you need to enable this first. Click on the relevant step. Select step settings; than go th the custom layout tab and check the option to enable custom layout. Click on the flow name and select flow settings from the options panel. Check the option to enable custom header layout, then click flow layout. Click the pen to edit either the header or the main body of the form. Click the check-mark to save, and once you've made all the required changes to the header and the main body, click finish. You can drag questions to where you want them to appear on the screen. If you want to add rows, columns, etc., simply right-click and select the relevant option. If you plan to insert an image, make sure you've uploaded the image to a SharePoint library first. Get the link for the image and use the editor in the toolbar to insert the image into the layout. You can also provide alt text (alternative text used as a textual alternative), and you can set the width and height of the image. Collaboration Panels The collaboration panel is a new section of a form that facilitates casting of votes. The panel is added automatically to any step containing a Voting question

Flowforma Settings

General - Displays options about the FlowForma version, FlowForma email sender, groups etc Features - allows you to activate and view activated features Mobile Centre - displays information related to the mobile app and its configuration. Form Archiving - allows you to enable/disable the form archiving, along with its configuration Parent-child - allows you to configure parent-child relationships between your flows. Add-ons - Displays a list of available custom rules and custom questions, these are rules & questions that are useful but not included in the core product.

Create a Flow (cont.)

If you want to work with a flow again, you can open the flow designer by simply clicking on the flow's name, it will be underlined when you hover over the name. For additional menu options, click on the three dots [ ... ] beside the relevant flow. From here your options are: View item: opens the flow designer so you can view or edit the flow (including steps, questions, and business rules). Edit item: opens the flow definition; from here you can edit the flow's title, group, administrator, and form prefix. Version history: opens the version history so you can view the versions of a flow and restore a previous version of the flow, if required. Compliance details: opens an overview dialog to determine what retention stage an item is in. From here you can generate an audit log report to check who's viewed content in the site, made changes, etc. Workflows: opens SharePoint workflows to see if there are any workflows running or completed. Alert me: opens the SharePoint alert dialog. You can set alerts for any changes, or for changes to items either created or modified by you. Shared with: allows you to see who has shared access to this item. You can change the settings and email everyone on the shared list. Delete item: allows you to delete the flow. You'll get a warning that the flow will be moved to the recycle bin. If you accept, the flow will be removed from the list and can no longer be used.

Custom Layout

In FlowForma version 5.3.0.0, the Custom Layout available in previous versions has been redesigned & reworked. It is now known as the Visual form designer . Don't worry, you will not lose your custom layout if you're upgrading from an earlier version to v5.3.0.0, you will still be able to use & edit your existing custom layout via the Visual Form Designer. The Visual form designer includes new features such as a logo uploader and adding a theme to your form using no-code as always. It also generates cleaner HTML/CSS code making the overall size of the form smaller.

User Management

In order to install FlowForma, you need to be a SharePoint administrator. You can't create users directly in FlowForma, as the rights and roles are linked to SharePoint settings. Typically, you create users in Active Directory and then import them individually into a SharePoint group. If you're a SharePoint administrator you can then set up automatic synchronisation of users to ensure the users permissions are kept up-to-date. Note: Please ensure you don't add more users than your license entitles. [Graphic Missing] 1: Only possible if you have given the FlowForma generic user read permission on the flow associated to this form. 2: Only possible if the user is assigned the form.

Its Value

Now imagine that the hard-copy paper form is gone. You've built an electronic workflow with steps for each part of the workflow, and each step contains questions. You can set questions to be compulsory if need be, and you can even apply business logic to the steps and rules to make sure the right people provide input at the right stage in the process. On top of this, you can ensure documents are created along the way, so when all steps have been completed then the work is actually done!

General Settings

PDF template: in FlowForma there is a user role called print viewer. This user only has permission to print defined PDF documents. These PDF documents are generated from the template you can select in this drop-down list. You'll be able to see all documents associated with the flow currently saved in the document library. Time to complete: you can use the build-in activity monitoring in FlowForma to check the progress of flows and steps. For each step and flow you need to set the estimated time to complete. The default is always 3 hours, but you can adjust this. In the activity monitoring, steps/flows will then display as completed on time or delayed. The format for entering the duration is days, hours, and minutes. Completed status text: by default, completed forms appear with the status "completed" in any lists. You can change this, if required. In the example below, the status text is "well done". Rejected status text: by default, rejected forms appear with the status "rejected" in any lists. You can change this, if required. In the example below, the status text is "Not approved". Passback options: when you use the pass back option, you can specify what type of pass back is allowed. The two options are request missing information or request critical information. - If you select request missing information, the user assigned to the step you're sending the form back to will only be able to add a comment (you need to make sure comments are enabled) but they will not be able to change or add any answers to question, when they submit that step, it will go straight back to the step where it was originally passed back from - if you select request critical information, you actually reopen the step you've passed back to and the user assigned to that step can change or add answers to the questions in the step, additionally when the step is submitted, also steps will then have to be resubmitted. By default, both options are enabled, so you need to uncheck these options if you need one/them disabled. Hide step numbers: by default, steps are displayed with a step name followed by the step number. You can opt to hide step numbers; this simply removes the step number, but the box stays the same in terms of size. Keep form open on save: by default, this is unchecked when you create a new flow. As a result, a form will close if you click save. If your users tend to save along the way, you may wish to check this box to keep the form open. Keep form open on submit: by default, this is checked when you create a new flow. As a result, a form will remain open when you submit. This may be convenient if the same user is responsible for multiple steps; if this is not the case, you may with to uncheck this box to close it after submission. Use the full screen width: Tick the box if you want your forms displayed in full screen mode. Check serial rule conditions before execution: by default, when rules are executed in series, all conditions are checked together and rules will execute as required, this option will tell FlowForma to check the condition one-by-one before executing the rule. This is useful if for example one rule changes a value used in another condition which may change whether the rule needs to execute or not. Enable form reopen: you can enable or disable whether forms created for this flow can be reopenned once completed. Note that form reopen is also a global FlowForma setting where you can define if reopening forms is allowed at all - then the flow specific option allows you to define what flows can or cannot be reopenned. Enable form autosave: you can configure flows to automatically save progress after a set number of minutes. Enable parallel step collapsing: this allows you to collapse a parallel group to hide the parallel steps, once the parallel group has been submitted. Host web form: Enable audit: provided you have purchased the Life Science Pack, you can enable auditing on the flow by checking this option. Email templates There are a number of actions in the system that require the use of an email template. For each category, you can pick the email template you want to use. The drop-down list contains all the templates available in the system. You can create new email templates, if required. As these settings are on a per-flow basis, you don't need to use the same email templates for each flow. The four email template categories are: reject email, diarize email, passback email, and delegate email. So if you delegate a form, the user/group who you selected to delegate the form to will receive an email based of the "Delegate Email" template. Button labels and tooltips It's possible to have up to six buttons on a form. By default, these buttons have labels, as you can see below. They are named: save, submit, delegate, passback, reject, and close. In the button labels and tooltips you have three columns. The first one is read-only and is the button's name. The second one is the text on the button. You can change this. The third one is the tooltip, which appears when you hover over the button. You can also change that. In the example below, the text on each button has been changed. Finally you have the option of not including any text on the buttons. In that case, only the icons appear, as in the example below. There are also two "labels" for the passback options, namely missing information passback and critical information passback. These two options also have a text box where you can enter new text. This is the text that'll appear if you use the passback option for a step. In the example below, the text is request missing information and request critical information. Remember to click OK to save any changes you've made. If you click cancel or click on the X in the top right corner, no changes are saved.

Historic Flow Analysis

Reports are kept in FlowForma in relation to all forms generated, whether they are complete or in progress. To access these, click on historical flow analysis. Three colours are used in the historical activity monitoring: Blue: the step or flow has been completed on time. Orange: the step or flow has not been completed on time. Grey: the step or flow has not been started yet. The report works the same was as the one for active forms, so you can modify what's displayed by clicking on the legends on the right, and you can get to the specific data by clicking on the coloured bars.

Flow Snapshot

Snapshot is a function that will automatically produce a word document containing all content from a flow definition Flow snapshot will give you graphical view of the flow structure where you can see all flow steps and parallel step The data captured in the document: From flow From steps From questions From business rules 1.Flow name 2.List of the Business rules names 1.Step category 3.Default owner 4.Step description 5.Name of the starting rules 6.List of the Business rules names 1.Question Type 2.Description 3.If Required 4.List of the Business rules names 1.Type 2.Event (Loaded, Starting, Completing or Updated) 3.If enabled 4.Conditions 5.Rule action settings (Only shows for hide/show question rules or steps rules) Note: Email and document templates associated with the flow will not be included in the snapshot document. 3. To access flow snapshot Expand the items tab in the ribbon and navigate to the actions section where flow snapshot is located. You will need to select/mark beforehand flow as you can see on the image below.

Branching

Within a step, a question is a user defined field that'll be used on a form. Questions are created by FlowForma administrators who decides what the question label will be and then specifies the question type. The question type determines what attributes are available, how the answers are collected, and how the answers are validated. Some attributes are common to many questions, such as for instance the question title or the question code, whilst other attributes are specific to the question type. Once you've started creating a new question, you select the question type from a drop-down menu, as you can see below. The question types are: calculated, choice, date and time, file upload, lookup, multiple lines of text, number, person or group, repeating table, separator, single line of text, sql lookup, verify digital signature, yes/no. There are a few additional questions that are not part of FlowForma fundamentals: voting, voting results, wet signature. You can add new questions either directly from the questions list in the quick launch menu, or by using the flow designer. If you go to the questions list, you need to click new item. If you use the flow designer, you simply click + question within the relevant step, or you can click the drop-down arrow beside + question and then select add a new question. Fill in the information that's relevant to your question.The question title and question code fields are required. Question title: the title you enter is displayed before the input box when the form is executed, and it's also used to identify the question when you select it from the list of questions. Question code: you need to give your question a code, as this is how the question will later be recognized in FlowForma. This must be unique code, and you may want to consider a naming convention for this. Question type: from the drop-down arrow, you can select the type of question you want to create.Additional fields will become available based on the question type you've selected Required: select yes to make this a required field, or select no to make it optional. Description: you can enter a description of the question for further clarification. Publish question as list field: this allows you to use this question as a column when you create/modify views, you will see the answer given to this question on the forms row for quick insights for that form, you can also filter views using this question (i.e location question contains answers of counties, then creating a view to only display forms related to a specific county). Show question title on form: checked by default, this allows you to hide the question title from the form in order to only show the question answer field on the left-hand side of the screen. This could be really useful for repeating tables. Render, but hide question on form: if a question is hidden from the flow designer, the default value and any calculation will not be applied. This checkbox allows you to render question and hide the question from the form at the same time. This can be used for hidden calculated questions, published questions or questions with a default value. Based on the question type, you may have additional fields to complete. Please see the overview of the question type attributes. Once you've added all relevant information to the question, click save. The question appears in the flow designer view. If you don't want to save the question, click cancel. You can change the order of the questions by using a simple drag-and-drop method. Remember to click save to submit the changes. Show/hide and enable/disable In the flow designer, you can see all the questions you've included in the flow. Beside each question there is a check-box. By default, all questions are visible and enabled. If a question isn't visible, it'll not be included when a form is rendered. If you disable a question then you'll not be able to edit the question answer. If a question is visible but not enabled, then you'll see the question on the form but it'll be greyed out. You have to ensure calculated fields are visible as the calculations otherwise won't be evaluated. You can disable questions even if they are related to rules. However, you need to test the business logic to ensure the rules still work as intended. To show/hide a question, check the box beside the relevant question (you can select multiple questions at once) and then click the show/hide icon. means show. You'll not see this beside the question as the default setting is to show all questions. means hide. If you see this beside the question (as in the image below), the question is hidden. To enable/disable a question, check the box beside the relevant question (you can select multiple questions at once) and then click the enable/disable icon. means enable. You'll not see this beside the question as the default setting is for all questions to be enabled. means disable. If you see this beside the question (as in the image below), the question has been disabled.

Add-ons

The Add-ons tab, this tab allows you to add custom questions and rules to the FlowForma site assets quickly and easily. The questions and rules that can be activated are as follows: Questions Auto-Number: this rule populates an incremented number based on a SharePoint. This is often used to populate a PO number or a specific number where the form ID cannot be used. Get Location: this question returns the longitude and latitude coordinates - it can return the altitude is set in the configuration - the browser will request access to your location in order for it to work. Rules Data intregration - CSV Mapping: this rule allows you to map a CSV file to a repeating table. Repeating Table - Identify unique RT Column: set on a sub-question (inside the repeating table), this will allow you to check if the value entered or selected in a row is unique inside the table. For example, if you want to check that a selected code has not been selected twice inside the table, this is the rule to use. Calculations - LR - Calculate non-working days: this rule allows you to look up a calendar list and remove weekends & bank holidays from a date calculation. Calculations - datediff: this rule calculates the total number of days between to two date questions. Repeating Table - Trigger RT question update: this rule allows you to trigger rules set on a column of a repeating table. This rule needs to be located on a standard question (i.e. not inside a repeating table) or on step completing. When this rule triggers, it will execute all rules set on the specified column for each row of your repeating table inside your form. Status for the add-on Get: This is not currently added to the site. Deployed: this rule is currently added to the site and using the latest version. Get new version: this means that the add-on has already been added to the site, but is a new version is available.

Flow Designer

The flow designer is the main tool you need when building flows. Once you've defined the flow, you can use the flow designer to build everything else, i.e.: Edit flow settings Add, edit, and remove Steps Add, edit, and remove flow Questions Add, edit, and remove business rules to the flow, steps, and questions Activate and deactivate the flow To get started, check out this short video:

Parent-child Flow Relationship

The parent-child functionality allows you to link flows together in a one-to-many parent/child relationship; you can update the child forms as well as create new forms from within the parent form. You can only have one parent flow per site, but this can have multiple child flows associated with it. Create a parent flow and at least one child flow. There is a mandatory relationship between parent and child flows (one question from the parent flow must be mapped to one published question in the child flow. Go to FlowForma settings, select the parent-child tab, and to set up the relationship. Select the parent flow from the drop-down. Enable the parent/child feature. You have an option to filter child forms; if you filter by status, this impacts how forms are displayed in the parent form. Available filtering options: Is equal to Is not equal to Contains Display all forms

Visual Form Designer

The visual form designer is a new and improved version of the custom layout. To open the visual form designer, open the flow designer, and select the visual form designer icon from the toolbar. The Visual form designer will now load. Click on the pen in the top right corner to edit the header of the form. You can add properties from the form by clicking on add form property. Click the check-mark to save once you've made all the required changes to the header. You can click the reset button if you want to revert to the original header layout. If you want to change the header's layout, you can add images, links, form properties (e.g. title, author, etc), and you can also drag questions from the main body of the form as long as you have editing enabled for the main body. If you drag a question from the form into the header, the question is not moved from the form, it simply creates a copy of the header. If you are creating a very large header with multiple lines of text, you can drag the toolbar at the top down by using the || symbol on the left. Note: remember to save all changes exactly as you would when making changes to the main body of the form's layout. You can add a logo to your form by simply clicking choose file and select your image. It will automatically upload the image to the FlowForma asset library. You can edit the size and define the height and width needed, as well as provide alternative text by selecting the logo and selecting the picture icon from the toolbar. The alternative text is visible when you hover over the image and can also be picked up by accessibility tools. To edit the custom layout of a step, click on the step you want to customise. You can add/delete columns, rows or even merge cells with the buttons on top of the visual form designer. Reset step layout changes: this will reset all recent changes and revert to the last saved version. Delete step layout: this will delete all changes and revert back to the default step layout. Add a column to the left. Add a column to the right. Add a row above. Add a row below. Delete a row. Delete a column. Merge columns to the left. Merge columns to the right. Use the marker dots on the left of the question to drag questions to where you want them to appear on the screen. You can also add labels on top of your questions or click the pen to edit the question definition. Click at the end of a question if you want to add new or existing questions to the form. You can tick the collapse box to minimise some questions in your form. Themes To apply a custom theme to your form, select a pre-defined template from the themes drop-down or apply the required colors directly on each section. At any point in time, you can revert your change by clicking the reset button. There are five different options, as follows: Step color: you can select this to change the color of the steps on the top of the form. Step background color: you can select this to change the color of the background around the steps. Step font color: you can select this to change the color of the text within each step title. Form background color: you can select this to change the color of the background around the form. Separator color: you can select this to change the color of the separator fields within the form. Each of these options has a round arrow icon to reset it to default, or a color pallet icon to open the color selector. Once you've finished all your changes, click finish.

Technical Architecture

This is a high-level overview of the technical architecture of FlowForma. The main audience for this documentation is SharePoint developers who need to understand the architecture of FlowForma, possibly with the aim to extend its functionality. FlowForma has been in development since 2013. Older versions of the software were developed based on a different architecture, so this information is relevant from FlowForma 4.0 onwards. With the changed architecture, we've given you more flexibility by allowing on-premise installation, cloud-based installation, or for use of FlowForma via O365. FlowForma server The first part of FlowForma is the FlowForma server, which is used in all instances. In simple terms, this is where the work happens to make all functionality work. There are a number of APIs associated with the FlowForma server to allow functions to happen server side and not client side. They use AJAX to call the relevant web services to use against the FlowForma API to create the relevant action. FlowForma client and O365 The FlowForma client can either be installed on-premise (on your own SharePoint server), on Azure (cloud), or you can opt to use the FlowForma app via O365. Whichever option you choose, this is where the client-side renders all content by using the functionality from the FlowForma server. This may be extended in the future to include for instance an iPad app or similar. REST In order for the FlowForma client or O365 to communicate with the FlowForma server, web service calls are made using REST (Representational State Transfer). REST is an architectural style, and an approach to communications that is often used in the development of web services. The use of REST is often preferred over the more heavyweight SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) style because REST doesn't leverage as much bandwidth, which makes it a better fit for use over the Internet. The SOAP approach requires writing or using a provided server program (to serve data) and a client program (to request data). A web service call to the FlowForma API is made using HTML5 and JS. The API then uses an AJAX call to the relevant web service to generate the request. It's a two-way street, so the result of this action is sent back to the FlowForma client.

Create a Flow

To define a new flow, you must be a FlowForma administrator. In the first part, you must enter a title for the flow. In order for you to distinguish it from other flows, you should ensure you give the flow a meaningful title, as this is what users will later see when they kick off a process (form). To create a new flow, you must have full administrative rights to amend the flow, then; Select flows from the quick launch panel. Click new item. A screen opens, allowing you to fill in the following: Title: the flow will be listed with this title in all lists. You should ensure this is a unique title, as you might otherwise have trouble telling different flows apart. Group: Flows are grouped/categorized when a user sees them in the create new form panel. You can add a flow to an existing group by entering the name of that group, or you can create a new group by entering a group name that doesn't exist already. If you leave the group blank, no group name is displayed. In the image below, there are two groups; Finance and HR. Flow administrator: you can opt to specify a flow administrator. You can either specify one user as the flow administrator per flow, or you can select a group. The Flow Administrator will be able to make changes to the flow even if they are not a FlowForma Admin, they can also view the content & delegate any step. Form prefix: Lastly, you can enter a form prefix to "categorize" forms that are related. It makes it easier to find items that are related. In the example below, "Holiday request" and "Performance review" are tagged as "HR".

Flow Designer

Using the visual flow designer, you can start a new process, add steps and their connections in a simple way by clicking-and-dragging between them. This will allow you to create/view a visual representation of the flows structure. There are two ways to access it: Select a flow Open the Items tab in the ribbon Click on the visual flow designer button Alternatively, you can click on the visual designer button from within the flow designer. Once you have the flow open, you will see the following, From here, you can do the following Add/Modify steps Add/Modify the connections between this, this creates the order in which the steps are added Modify Flow/Step settings (including Custom Layout) by hovering over the circle with the flow name for flow settings or the rectangles with step name for step settings Hide/Show and Enable/Disable steps Create Parallel groups Icon Please note that you cannot modify steps within a parallel group, you will either need to modify them from within the regular flow designer, or remove them from the parallel group, make the changes then re-add them to the parallel group. To Add a new/existing step, or create a parallel group, click the + button in the top left of the corner To add a connection between the steps, click and drag the arrow from the dot on the first step to the dot on the step you want to add the connection to To remove a connection, click on the connection line, and press the delete button To add steps to parallel group, click on the + button in the top left corner and add a parallel group, then drag step into the parallel group box (make sure that at least one corner of the step is in the parallel box To change steps order in the parallel group click on the arrows in the step to move that step up or down

Add a step to an existing flow

When you create a new step, you have to ensure all required information is completed. Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*) and must be completed before you can save the step. Click on the flow you've just created. It'll open in the flow designer The flow designer window opens, and from here you need to go to step and select add a new step. Fill in the information that's relevant to your step. The title, step code, and assign to fields are required. Click save once you've filled in the relevant information. The step appears in the flow designer view.If you don't want to save the step, click cancel. Title: the step will be listed with this title in all lists. The title you enter is displayed in the step bar when the form is executed, and is also used to identify the step when you select it from the list of steps.You should ensure this is a unique title, as you might otherwise have trouble telling different steps apart. The title also appears on the step tile. A step title can be a maximum of 256 characters, but this much won't fit on the step tile, so you'll only see the first 24 characters followed by dots. Only full words will be displayed. If you hover over the step tile, you'll see the rest of the text. Step code: each step needs a unique code. One is generated by default when you start creating a new step, but you can overwrite this and give it a different code, if you prefer. The step code won't appear on the form itself, but you can use it to search and filter by when adding steps. Category: you can categorise steps to make it easier to identify which steps belong to a specific flow. If you enter a category name that's in use already, the step will be added to that category. Otherwise a new category is created. If you leave it blank, the step will be un-categorised. Step description: you can enter a description of the step for further clarification. When you enter the step description, you'll see a formatting panel at the top of the screen. You can use this to control the format of the text when it's presented to the user in the form. Assign to: you can assign an individual or a group to a step. Those assigned to a step are able to complete that step, e.g. reject or approve the step. Assign to form creator: rather than specify who the step is assigned to, you can assign it to the person who initiates the form. Enable view permissions: if you check this option, View permissions will be enabled View permissions: specify the users or groups you want to grant view permission. Only users/groups that exist already can be selected. Once you start typing, suggested names will appear, then only these users/groups will be able to view the information in this step. Enable copy from: if you check this option, users will be able to copy data from the same step in a previous form, rather than have to enter the information again. Enable attachments: check this option to include an attachments section in the step, allowing users to attach documents. Enable comments: check this option if you want to allow comments to be added in the step. Enable CC list: check this option if you want to allow the user to enter recipients who will receive an automated email when the step is submitted. If you have more steps in a flow than what fits, you'll see arrows on either side allowing you to scroll through the steps.

Flow Activity Monitoring

You can use the activity monitoring to view data about an active form and whether it's been completed on time or not. The default time for completion of each flow is three days, but you can amend this in the advanced flow settings. In addition, you can set an estimated time for completion of each step. You need to be an administrator user to be able to view the activity monitoring and to be able to change the default settings for completion of steps and flows. View activity monitoring Activity monitoring only applies to active forms (not completed forms): Select activity monitoring from the quick launch panel. On the first screen you'll see the activity monitoring for all forms currently open. Two colours are used in the activity monitoring: Blue: the flow has been completed on time. Orange: the flow has not been completed on time. You can customise what's displayed in the report by clicking on the legends at the top to include or exclude them in the report. In the example below, only delayed forms are displayed in the graph. If you click on one of the coloured bars, you'll see a table underneath the graph, outlining the detail. Among other things you'll see when the form was expected to be completed as well as who the form is assigned to. If you click on the form ID in the table, the actual form opens. Icon

FlowForma

is a workflow tool that allows business analysts to create electronic workflows without the need for programming. You can build flows to manage processes of all types, e.g. annual leave, expenses, recruitment, appraisals, etc.