Vizlib Teamwork Guides - Workflows (Enterprise Only)

Workflows

Workflows are available to Enterprise users who have installed Vizlib Server and Collaboration V1.3.0 and above (Figure 1).  

Figure 1: Collaboration Workflows

Workflows are designed to move through a list of states to track the progress of a thread or comment. You can manage Workflow settings and permissions using the Workflows page in the Vizlib Management Console (VMC). There are also user types which have roles set within the VMC (e.g. to hide or display comments for certain users depending on the Workflow state). 

Workflow Configuration in Vizlib Management Console

To configure Workflows, select the Collaboration Settings menu and click on Workflows to open the homepage (Figure 2) which holds your workflow configuration data.  

Figure 2: Workflows Homepage

Configuration settings for each workflow can be edited from the workflow panel. You can find more information on each setting is in Table 1.

Table 1: Workflow Configuration Settings

Figure 3 demonstrates functionality of the buttons on the workflow homepage. 

• Click Add State to add a new workflow state. You can then select the Color, Icon, Default setting and Visibility you need. 

• Remove a workflow state by clicking the  button.

• Click Add Workflow to add a new workflow (see below for more details). 

Note: You must click Save Changes, then Restart to save any workflow updates. 

Figure 3: Workflow Functionality

User Roles

Clicking the User Roles button in the workflow panel will open a window containing user information for your Qlik Sense environment (Figure 4). 

Figure 4: User Roles

The window displays 4 fields for each user. 

• Name - the user name. 

• Directory - the user directory. 

• User ID - the user ID.

• User - User type (User or Approver). You can filter on user type by using the dropdown. 

Note:  Only Approver users can change the workflow state for a comment. 

Users Page

The Users page in the VMC Collaboration menu (Figure 5) is where you can make the following changes to user accounts. 

• Override the usernames taken from Qlik Sense, which lets you define the user name displayed in the Collaboration or Teamwork extension. 

• Deactivate a selected user account (if activated) by clicking Deactivate Selected.

• Activate a selected user account (if deactivated) or Activate Selected buttons. 

Note: You must click Save Changes to save any user updates. 

Figure 5: Users Page

• Clicking on Add User will open a window to add new user information (Figure 6).  The fields highlighted in red are required to add a user account. You can find more information about the fields for adding a user in Table 2. 

• Once you’ve added the user data, click Add User to save your changes.

Figure 6: Add User

Table 2: Add User Fields

User Permissions

Note: User Permissions for Workflows are managed by setting Security Rules. You can read more about security rules in our article here. 

Click on the Security Rules menu in the VMC, which displays the list of rules already configured (Figure 7). 

Figure 7: Security Rules

• Click on New Rule to open the Create Security Rule dialog. The example in Figure 8 creates a rule called Add Approver, using the variables needed to grant a workflow user approver permissions. 

Figure 8: Add Approver

• Add a Description, and make sure the rule is Active. 

• Select a ResourceType (Workflow). 

• Select a Resource ID (Simple Workflow). 

• Select an Access Level (Approver). 

• Select an Attribute Type (userID).

• Select an Operator (Equal).

• Select a Value (type in the userID or select from a list of users). 

• Click on Create Security Rule to save the configuration. 

There are additional functions in the dialog, which may be needed once the rule is created. 

• Clicking on Add Condition opens a line for adding a new condition (e.g. a new user). 

• Clicking on Actions  displays options about creating or moving a group of conditions.

• Clicking on Remove deletes the condition.

Once the rule is created it will be displayed in the list (Figure 9). 

Figure 9: Rule Created

If you re-open the User Roles screen (Figure 4) you’ll see the user permission has been updated. 

Configure Teamwork Streams with Workflow

You’ll need to configure a workflow for a Teamwork stream once it’s created. 

• Open the Collaboration section, then select the Streams and Security page.

• Click on Add Stream to add a new stream if you need to. 

• Enter the stream configuration, using the dropdowns to select the integration type (Email, Teams, Slack) and the Workflow (Figure 10). 

Hint: Click on  to display more information about the various configuration fields.

• Click on Save Changes, then click Restart to complete the process. 

Figure 10: Streams and Security

Important: Do not configure workflows for multiple streams in the same workspace. 

Using Workflows in Teamwork

When a stream is configured with a workflow, comments will become visible, with the icon and state labels displayed under the comment (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Workflow Comments

Approver users can change the workflow state of other users’ comments by hovering over the comment and selecting a state when the list appears (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Comment List

When workflow states have Visibility set to All, their comments are visible to all users in the stream (Figure 13).

Figure 13: Visible to All

Note:  When a user edits a comment it will revert back to the Default workflow state (if the workflow in Figure 1 is used the default would be Under Review).

Using workflows in Teamwork makes it possible to break down and track suggestions, helping you to manage changes that come with continuous data analysis, as well as helping you to decide to manage when to make new information available to your entire user base.